New organisation of IT tasks at SDU
User-centric. Responsive. Coherent. Conscious of Competencies. Strong foundation. These are the five points of orientation for an entirely new digital organisation responsible for the IT-related tasks in the future and thus support SDU's ambitions in the digitalisation sector. The existing units - IT Service, SFEO and TEK-IT - will now been replaced by new cross-cutting units: SDU IT and SDU Digital.
In December 2018, SDU's Executive Board adopted a new digitalisation strategy to ensure that SDU will use, develop and shape digital competencies and solutions in the fields of research, education, knowledge collaboration and administration creating value for staff members, students, business partners, and society.
Based on the digitalisation strategy SDU conducted an analysis of the IT tasks at the university in the spring of 2019 to clarify how IT tasks are organised across the Central Administration, Faculties, Institutes and Centres, how decisions are made and IT tasks are managed and how SDU can organise itself in the future in order to provide the best possible support for the digitalisation strategy.
“The analysis showed that SDU's current work with digitalisation and IT has many strengths forming a good base for the future work within the digitalisation strategy's ambitions to transform SDU into a digital frontrunner,” says University Director Thomas Buchvald Vind.
Many strengths
He emphasises the high level of co-operation between employees and praises their ability to make IT work regardless of organisational boundaries. He also statues that many local IT solutions are visionary and far ahead in their field, that talented support and development employees make a positive difference, and that SDU operates professional basic IT in the form of infrastructure, networks, passwords, and computers.
The analysis concludes that the current strengths together with a revised IT-organisation which focuses on being user-centric, responsive, coherent, competence-conscious and with a strong foundation (see fact box), is expected to be a strong basis for realising SDU's digital ambitions in the future.
Multidisciplinary IT units
SDU's Executive Board has therefore decided that two new cross-cutting IT units - SDU Digital and SDU IT - will replace IT-Service in the Central Administration, SFEO at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences and TEK-IT at the Faculty of Engineering.
The two new units will be supplemented by Centres of Excellence focusing efforts on requirements for the digital solutions of the future. Centres of Excellence are ad hoc collaborations that may be initiated by the Executive Board in order to support digital innovation, development and support within a given field. Increased focus will be directed towards governance and multidisciplinary coordination in order to support decisions and multidisciplinary dialogue at the university in an improved manner.
Answer to tomorrow’s digital challenges
“New, advanced digital technology is currently changing people's working and living conditions - SDU must therefore assess whether and how new digital technology can be integrated into our solutions and tools on a constant basis. This new organisation will help support the digitalisation strategy in the best possible way,” says University Director Thomas Buchvald Vind.
New organisation in the spring
On 1 April 2020, employees in IT-service, SFEO and TEK-IT are expected to transfer to the new units. IT-support to researchers and administrative staff will be rendered out as usual by the respective units until the organisation is in place.
Fact box:
SDU Digital, including IT Development
Focal point of SDU's work with digitalisation across faculties and common areas.
Supporting the digitalisation strategy and the university's digitalisation projects, creating a connection between architecture, information security and data management (including GDPR), IT-development and IT-project management at SDU.
Reports to the University Director.
SDU IT
Centre of support and operation of SDU IT, maintaining and enhancing the strong foundation on which the digital present and future of SDU is based.
Focus on IT operational deliveries in the fields of infrastructure, application and support thus supporting user needs of the ever-changing and digitally evolving daily operation of the university.
Reports the University Director.
Five points of orientation
User-centric
The future organisation focuses on providing digital solutions and services to address the needs of researchers, university teachers, managers, employees, students, and business partners. The digital organisation is to possess an understanding and intimacy with the users in order to ensure targeted digital solutions and services.
Responsive
The digital organisation is to be responsive and agile in relation to translating technological development into usable solutions for research, education, knowledge collaboration, and administration. The digital organisation must be innovative, think big and start small, and promote the concept of ‘next and best practice’.
Coherent
The digital organisation must support value creation by cooperating across university tasks (research, education, knowledge collaboration and administration), organisations (Institutes, Faculties and Central Administration) campuses (Odense, Kolding, Esbjerg, Sønderborg, Slagelse and Copenhagen).
Conscious of Competencies
The digital organisation shall offer and develop digital competences based on digital visions, technological readiness and insight into SDU’s academic environments. The digital organisation shall put the right group of different competences together, as ‘nobody can know everything’ in the digital reality.
Strong foundation
The digital organisation must ensure a strong technological foundation based on clear and transparent principles for architecture, systems integrations, data and IT security. The digital organisation is to be characterised by a transparent and efficient model for prioritisation, decisions, and financing.