Penn State's Office of Computer and Information Systems (C&IS) has recently undergone a transformation that will make a variety of information technology service enhancements available to students, faculty, and staff across the University.

The organization, which has provided the University with its leading edge computing and communication infrastructure and a broad range of information technology tools and services over the past 18 years, was renamed Information Technology Services (ITS) in April this year. According to J. Gary Augustson, vice provost for information technology, the transition to ITS involved structural changes and a shift in focus that is making the overall organization more accessible to students, faculty, and staff-as well as more effective at supporting the University's information technology needs.

"Each day, the staff members in each of our units work diligently to ensure that students, faculty, and staff have the information technology resources they need to carry out their tasks," he stated. "We believe the transformation of our organization will better position the University to provide enhanced support for the teaching, learning, research, outreach, and administrative activities of our community-now and in the future."

Augustson explained that the reorganization involved the creation of several new service areas and a realignment in the functions of the six units of C&IS: the Center for Academic Computing, the Office of Telecommunications, the Office of Administrative Systems, Library Computing Services, Computer and Network Security, and the Center for Education Technology Services. This spring, he added, these original units were renamed to better reflect the services they offer.

Other changes, such as the implementation of new Web sites for each of the restructured ITS units, are expected to be completed sometime before the fall.

One of the most visible changes in the restructuring effort has been the creation of a brand new unit, Consulting and Support Services, which combines the helpdesks, individual support functions, and departmental consulting services from throughout the organization-providing "one-stop" support services for all of the Penn State community.

"Our goal is to place a strong emphasis on providing consulting and other support services to individual faculty, students and staff," commented Jeff Kuhns, the recently appointed senior director of the new unit. "We believe that making all of our support resources readily accessible through one location will help ITS become an even better service organization."

A profound change in the technology requirements for researchers has provided additional impetus for ITS to have greater focus on rapidly evolving technologies, according to Kevin Morooney, senior director of Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET)-a unit that is replacing, as well as adding to, many of the functions of the former Center for Academic Computing (CAC).

"The pace of technological change, combined with rising expectations from the academic community, puts a lot of pressure on an IT organization to be able to make accurate decisions quickly about new solutions," he stated. "One of our challenges is staying in touch with the needs of the entire University when we consider technological solutions to both new and old problems. To meet these needs, we're currently building a group that can focus on coordinating and driving the ITS investigations into new and evolving technologies. Our goal is to be timely in the development and deployment of new services and solutions."

Another key focus of the reorganization involved combining all training services from each of the units of the organization under the newly named Teaching and Learning with Technology unit, formerly known as the Center for Education Technology Services. This new group, using a more unified approach, now supports the full range of information technology training needs at the University, including the student and business systems (ISIS and IBIS), faculty workshops on ways to integrate technology and teaching, office productivity, telephony, and security.

"As the tools of information technology become more advanced and more powerful, IT becomes a more important part of all our lives," observed Augustson. "In this kind of rapidly evolving environment, it is critical that we not only keep up with the changes, but that we also anticipate them and plan for their seamless integration into our community. I am convinced that the new organizational structure of Information Technology Services will help us achieve that objective."

For more information, please see: http://its.psu.edu