Educational IT and Collaboration

One of IT’s primary collaborators is the Facilities department, as technology is most effectively deployed in an integrated manner with building installations. Clarity around the roles of IT and Facilities on a given project is important to achieve in the course of project planning. Two strategies predominate in enabling this collaboration. The first, as is often the case, is the fostering of strong relationships among Facilities and IT staff, not only at the senior level but also among all staff who may collaborate ad hoc on aspects of various projects. The second is a sustained consideration of how organizational systems for IT and Facilities might be integrated with the aim of reducing operational drag on an entrepreneurial community. For example, I worked with the departments of Facilities, Dining Services, and Head of School to deploy an event management system that integrated requests into one approval flow that feeds information back to constituents at key junctures, allowing them to track the progress of their planning and rely on support without disjointed communications.