OIT Strategic Plan

About Our Strategic Plan

The Office of Information Technology’s Strategic Plan is a framework for what we want OIT to accomplish in Fiscal Year 2020. The Plan references our mission, our values, our core beliefs, and our core objectives. It identifies projects and initiatives to accomplish in our core areas.

Our campus governance partners worked with us to review and shape the Plan, and they confirmed we’re on the right track.

Like many others on campus, we’re continually asked to do more. It’s very important to have a framework we can continually reference. Our Strategic Plan provides consistency for OIT as we do our part to move the University forward.

View the OIT Strategic Plan for FY2020 (PDF)

Vision Statement

Boise State is a center for innovation, learning, and research in the state of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. The Office of Information Technology (“OIT”) drives and supports these efforts as a key strategic partner.

Mission Statement

The Office of Information Technology supports innovation and advances education and research at Boise State by providing reliable and sustainable technology solutions to our university community.

People are our passion. Technology is our obsession.

Our values:

We listen to and respect our technologists, students, staff, and faculty.
We provide operational excellence through efficient, sustainable, secure, accessible, and stable technology.
We strive for exemplary customer service across all OIT departments.
We encourage creative and critical thinking in our solutions, practices, and operations.
We are dedicated to a team environment through diverse perspectives, sharing knowledge, and building relationships.
We leverage open communication, accountability and thoughtful business processes.

Our pillars guide and ground us in providing innovative technology solutions and processes:

Keep Score: We measure our work, share those measurements, and fix what’s broken.
Free the Data: Consistent with data governance, privacy, export control, and other applicable laws, we make data accessible and usable to our staff and clientele.
Concept of One: We align our IT services to reduce duplication of effort and services. Do it once. Do it right. Use it everywhere. We use one technology, not multiple, to do the same thing.
Which leads to the Concept of Zero: Don’t do it at all. Let someone bigger do it.
Cyber Security: We strive to keep the Boise State safe, compliant, and secure.
Stop Doing Stuff: To implement new technology we may need to stop supporting old technology, especially when it is inefficient, of limited use, or past reasonable support and maintenance lifecycles.
IT Rationalization: We evaluate the proper sourcing of our technology. Looking first to the cloud, sometimes we build, buy, outsource, or partner to focus on value-added IT services
Future-Proofing our Technology: We select sustainable and compatible technology solutions.
Amazonification: Keep adding, keep improving. Amazonification is the incremental and seamless implementation of improvements to our cloud-based technologies.
Team Sport: We stand on the shoulders of others. We learn from others. We borrow from others.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) First, Not AWS Only: Embrace the Concept of One in our use of public cloud technologies.
Value the Human: The human factor is important to the use of technology.
Change is Inevitable: Technology constantly changes, and change creates opportunities.
IT Governance: Our projects and initiatives are guided by university strategies in collaboration with the Information Technology Planning Council (ITPC), Information Technology Governance Council (ITGC), colleges, and departments as appropriate.
Systems Integration: We integrate siloed systems to create operational efficiencies.
Consolidate Technical Services and Support: As identified in the 2016 Program Prioritization Study, centralization of commodity technology can improve consistency and quality of support, and increase efficiency and effectiveness. This requires leveraging current resources to grow services and/or reduce costs. Commodity technology includes desktop support, classroom tech support, server and storage support, and networking.

OIT Strategic Objectives

Boise State University will develop and maintain a robust, multi-tiered staff support environment that meets the diverse levels and specific needs of our university community, allowing community members to effectively use the university’s technology resources.
Boise State University will build and maintain a sound, advanced, secure, and productive physical IT infrastructure capable of supporting broad and effective use by students, faculty, and staff throughout the institution in Boise and beyond.
Boise State University will cultivate excellent teaching and learning using appropriate and innovative technologies and processes.
Boise State University will develop, integrate, and maintain IT resources; and acquire, develop and deploy information systems, applications, and tools enabling effective and efficient function of the university as an enterprise.
OIT will plan and implement specific organizational initiatives to improve quality and effectiveness.
Boise State University will advance research through innovative technical partnerships and sponsored program development to support a robust cyberinfrastructure.

IT Governance FY2020 Projects and Initiatives

Implement University Large Development Information Technology Projects as approved and prioritized by the IT Governance Council (ITGC) and IT Planning Committee (ITPC) as resources allow. There are currently (July 2019) 20+ active approved projects.

Selected FY2020 projects include:

Password Self Service and Multi-Factor Authentication: We need to make authentication and authorization to services easier, more secure, and modern.

HCM Cloud: Complete Oracle HCM (Human Capital Management) Cloud system implementation and deliver associated reports/dashboards to support critical operational and strategic decision-making. Implement a uniform one-stop reporting gateway to access university student, financial, and operational data.

CRM: Select a vendor and implement phase I of an enterprise CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

Canvas Pilot: Evaluate the Canvas learning management platform.

PageUp: Implement PageUp Applicant Tracking System.

InfoEd: Implement InfoEd Research Pre-award System.

Other: Information about additional Large IT Development Projects is available on our website.

OIT-Driven Major Projects and Initiatives Supporting Our Mission, Pillars, and Objectives:

University Testing Center merging with OIT Learning Technology Solutions (LTS) team: We have the opportunity to rethink and focus on the testing center and its strategic role in education at the university.

Active Directory (AD) Optimization: Optimize our source directory to only allow users that are actively interacting with the university the ability to authenticate and accurately access systems and resources based on need.

Evolve and Enhance Boise State Mobile and myBoiseState to be the mobile app and website of choice for Boise State students, faculty, and staff.

Fine Arts and Materials Science Buildings: Design, implement and support technology for the 40+ additional classrooms.

Acquire, Deploy, Support, and Utilize R3, Boise State’s Next HPC cluster: In partnership with Idaho Power and Idaho National Labs (INL), utilizing the new Collaborative Computing Center (C3) located at INL in Idaho Falls.

Continue to expand and optimize cybersecurity effectiveness through the adoption of Center for Internet Security (CIS) Critical Controls and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework while continually gauging effectiveness against industry peers.

Expand Science DMZ network to campus buildings, INL, and Internet2 as appropriate in support of expanding Boise State research.

Create an Identity and Access Management roadmap to move university user authentication and access to resources to a modern role-based model over the next three years.

Expand Software Carpentry and other computing education programs for campus-wide workforce development across majors.

Expand network redundancy and make architectural improvements to support modern educational needs, research and cloud access.

Build and implement a three-year master plan for technical infrastructure and our hybrid cloud (AWS, SAAS, and Boise State) architecture including investment and funding model. We need to prepare to vacate the at-risk Riverfront Hall data center.

Space Planning: In partnership with facility planning, develop a long term space plan that co-locates OIT staff to meet the needs of an evolving efficient technology organization.

Annual Career Progression and Salary Planning for OIT staff.