DFA IT recently passed the 18-month mark of existence, and I am pleased to report on the rapid progress we have made as an organization. As a reminder, DFA IT was created to organize IT and certain communications functions within the Division of Finance and Administration to better serve the division as well as align our technology and communications with the DFA Guiding Principles and the OSU IT strategic roadmap.
DFA IT has expanded its capacity by hiring key staff. Andy Cadotte leads our Technical Solutions and Architecture team, which creates, analyzes, and maintains the seamless technology tools that DFA’s departments rely on to get work done. Polly Harrell was hired this fall to lead our Business Architecture team, who works with our stakeholders to define business opportunities and problems and develop the processes and solutions to solve them. Together, the BA and TSA teams, along with Web and Communications, work closely with our DFA colleagues to achieve our shared priorities.
In addition, DFA IT has developed three pillars, or promises, that our stakeholders can expect when working with our team. We aim to build trusted relationships with our colleagues; as trailblazers, we create innovative and elegant solutions to problems; and we aim to be the best at the basics so that we can prioritize and optimize our work. The DFA IT website goes into more detail about our team, our strategic planning overlap across the university, and our identity pillars.
DFA IT HIGHLIGHTS
We’ve not been just defining our identity; we’ve been hard at work for DFA. The BA team, along with our partners in Project Delivery, have kicked off a project that reimagines the construction management software e-Builder, including improving the processes that our users rely on to deliver quality projects and facilities for the university. OSU Spaces, our new space management software, has had a successful beta launch and our TSA team is making improvements to its functionality. The Web and Communications team, led by Erin Martin, launched a strategic communications plan around our campus operations functions.
I’m proud to report that the DFA IT team is integral in the upcoming launch of HR Service Delivery, from assisting in communications to developing training for the users of this tool. HRSD is the leading edge of the university-wide Enterprise Service Management project, which kicks off the Administrative Modernization Project, to improve processes to better serve OSU’s mission.
WHERE WE ARE HEADED
With a fully built-out team of talented, dedicated staff, we’re ready to take on some new challenges. In the future, we’re looking to develop outreach to help stakeholders balance risk and innovation when assessing new technology. We’ll be creating and documenting workflows that are available to our customers, anytime, making our work and our systems transparent and user-friendly. And our data storage and systems will be soon better protected by integrating NIST, the rigorous framework used across industry and higher education to protect their data.
WORKING WITH US
As always, DFA IT is looking to partner to improve services and support. Direct any support requests to [email protected] and the appropriate DFA IT team member will assess and respond. This allows transparency across the board in our operations and ensures coverage if a team member is out.
Personally, I appreciate DFA’s support and partnership. I ask that you forward this message along as appropriate for your team. Please contact me if there are any questions or concerns, or if you’d like to offer any feedback about how DFA IT is performing.