University Business - May 2009 - (Page 35)

The Computers Across the Curriculum program at George Fox U (Ore.) provides an Apple laptop to undergraduate students. Plans to convert the institution to using Apple computers are underway. A member of Lenovo’s ThinkPad University program for a decade, Northern Michigan University deploys Lenovo’s ThinkPad notebooks to students, faculty, and staff. To help to merge applications and improve IT system flexibility, officials at the University of Colorado four-campus system, such as the University of Colorado at Boulder, are in process of implementing solutions by Oracle. Casey A. Cass. ware meant his team “could swap parts and provide faster service to faculty, staff, and students.” Lloyd has another responsibility on his task list. The institution will start using Blackboard this fall for the university’s distance education program, which reaches students in 33 countries and provides courses to students in the active military. Streamlining has helped the university’s communities stay in check technically when IT staff are not able to be on premises at the branch campuses. “Most of them don’t have technical support people on site,” says Lloyd, since the IT department for Saint Leo is based at the main campus. “They’re relying on us to supply them with what they need to keep it going.” Technology standardization—the practice of choosing to standardize the brand and/or type of equipment—results in returns for administrators, not just in terms of financial costs and more manageable vendor contracts but also in operational efficiency. universitybusiness.com The Arguments for Standardization How does one determine tech standardization is not simply a sales push for a certain vendor line? Vendors are responding more to what their clients in higher education want, finds Todd Heckman, a managing director for SMART Business Advisory and Consulting who handles higher education for the firm. In return, these clients know or have a sense for what they are looking for to suit their college or university. “I think institutions see the values in going that route [in terms of ] the challenges of, does that value match up with the necessities of getting there,” says Heckman. Reasons in favor of standardization are multiple, says Carol Stillman, Cisco’s business development manager of U.S. public sector for higher education. “The total cost of ownership is lowered, support is easier, and deploying new applications can be done quicker.” Tony Hernandez, also a SMART managing director and higher ed practice lead, cites pluses such as IT staff only having to know May 2009 | 35 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2009

University Business - May 2009
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Money Matters
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Setting the Standard
Manageable Risk
Five Steps to a Powerful Social Networking Strategy
Higher Ed in the Recession
Community Colleges
What's New
End Note

University Business - May 2009