Reengineering Technology at Ohio State University

Name: Sandy Li

Institution: The Ohio State University

E-mail Address: sandyli@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

Format: Paper presentation

Presentation Content:

On July 1, 1995, Ohio State merged it's academic and administrative computing and technology offices to form University Technology Services (UTS). Additionally, a new interim director was named who was not currently affiliated with either the academic or the administrative office.

The goal of this merger was not to merely merge two offices, but rather to reengineer technology services at Ohio State. Both previous offices operated with a hierarchical structure however, UTS would be a much flatter organization.

UTS is currently comprised of 8 working groups which include:

• Wide Area Services
• Central Computing, Information, & Databases
• Applications & Development
• Emerging Technologies
• Fiscal
• Human Resources
• UTS Office
• ARM's Transition

Each working group is comprised of project teams. Traditional middle management positions have been replaced by project team leaders. UTS has 268 FTEs and approximately 250 students. Each staff member has a "home" working group, but may serve on project teams from one or more working groups.

Working in teams has been a major change for some employees, but so far the response has been positive. In the full paper, I will explain how salary distribution went from a group of managers individually deciding raises to UTS having an organizational philosophy that managers from across the organization participated in developing.

During the past year that UTS has been working on it's new organization, the University has been involved in many changes as well, particularly in the area of Human Resources. Some of these changes that are effecting UTS, include broadbanding, performance management, alternative reward structures, and 100% merit based pay systems. Due to the number of changes within Human Resources at Ohio State, is one of the reasons why UTS split the traditional area of fiscal and human resources into two separate working groups.

The remainder of the paper will discuss how the formation of a strong human resource group within UTS can provide assistance and leadership in the reengineering efforts currently taking place.