University Business - February 2010 - (Page 37)

Collaboration tools allow administrators to work together even if they can’t get together. Many higher education institutions are repurposing web conferencing technology originally put in place for synchronous distance learning classes. lution from TeamDynamixHE. Without the resources for a dedicated project management office, other solutions were too complex for BYU-Idaho’s needs, Bills explains. The new system is being used to ensure the efforts of the IT department are in line with strategic needs on campus. In addition to having manpower hours set aside for routine tasks, larger projects are easily visible for approval by the president’s council. One such project being tracked is rewriting the admissions component of the new Jenzabar SIS to better match the school’s needs. “People see IT is busy,” says Bills. “They used to wonder what happened to their project. Now they can see it’s in the queue.” Better distribution of IT services and project visibility were the driving factors behind Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) switching from a homegrown solution to the TeamDynamixHE offering. “Our system was lacking in terms of collaborating and providing information in a timely fashion,” says Clay Fulton, technical couniversitybusiness.com ordinator in Carnegie Mellon’s Planning and Project Management Office. Fulton believes that managers needed a better way to track open tasks and communicate project status to their teams. The department has been able to eliminate regular “coordinator for the day meetings” during which all the managers would present their open projects and receive feedback. Now comments and concerns are provided through the project management system. “The face-to-face meetings used to take a lot of resources to plan and hold,” Fulton remembers. A chat function is also available, although in-person meetings or web conferences for remote locations are still the preferred method of real-time communication. As Bills points out, “We use what’s familiar. Under pressure, it’s really easy to make a phone call.” Neither institution is making heavy use of the document storage capabilities. As Fulton explains, CMU opted for the hosted solution, which takes security out of their hands. “We’ve provided our team with guidelines about not posting restricted data in the tool,” he says. Other users find the ability to keep all aspects of a project, from open tasks to documents, in one location a valuable way to manage varying work schedules. “As I began the project to overhaul our college’s home and news sites, I needed a solution to manage parallel work plans,” says Jay Collier, web communications manager at Bates College (Maine). Ease of use, unlimited users, and collaborative editing were among his top features. “I wanted people to be able to see their small section and not the whole project,” he says. He was also in the awkward position of having a project too small for a full blown project management tool but too large for a to-do list. After doing some research, he shared a Google Doc Spreadsheet with an e-mail listserv and used the feedback to select project management software ActiveCollab. “Access and permissions are important,” Collier says, since people might have different roles for each project they work on. The ability to slowly introduce users to all the available features is also helpful so they don’t get overwhelmed. The system links to the campus e-mail client, so team members receive notices of open tasks and have the option of responding via e-mail or through the system. Either way, the conversation thread is attached to the project. Collier also finds the wiki page feature useful for drafting documents, since he can control each user’s ability to view or edit a document based on their role in each project. “I’ve seen an increase in productivity,” he says. It was easier to coordinate student workers over the summer. “Since they were February 2010 | 37 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - February 2010

University Business - February 2010
Contents
Editor’s Note
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Internet Technology
Independent Outlook
Universities Go to School
Leveraging Technology to Increase Enrollment, Capacity, and Revenues
Meet Me Online
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
What’s New
End Note

University Business - February 2010