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Making Connections: Themes from ISC's statement of direction

By Linda May and Randall Couch

As part of Penn's current five-year planning effort, the Office of Information Systems and Computing has recently released its long-term statement of direction. The plan moves Penn toward a future in which the University is greater than the sum of its parts. It is about making connections--connections to each other, connections to information, and connections among systems. The plan places ISC's vision of information technology serving people in the context of key trends in the field. It establishes objectives in six areas:

1. Computing for research and instruction
2. Integration of administrative data and systems
3. Accurate, accessible administrative data
4. Network infrastructure and services
5. Computing support
6. Cost reduction

• The network is Penn's nervous system. Tomorrow's academic and administrative systems will depend crucially on a ubiquitous network that is faster and more reliable than today's. All members of the Penn community, including students, will need access to PennNet at home, at work, and on the road.

• ISC will play a more active brokering role in academic computing, working to bring together people with common interests and coordinate activities that cross boundaries of School and discipline.

• The continued viability of Penn's decentralized structure depends on administrative systems that share data and interoperate well. Distributed, open systems and a common base of University data are fundamental to achieving this.

• Penn is the first university to combine business process reengineering with an information technology architecture based on principles, models, and standards. Penn's next generation of business systems will rise on these foundations.

• ISC will develop a wider range of methods to learn clients' needs and evaluate quality.

• ISC will concentrate its activities in areas where it can best add value: integration, access, technical expertise, and economies of scale.

• ISC will expend effort where leverage is greatest, striking partnerships and using contract resources where efficient. Systems and services will be designed to require less support; more effective support will be moved closer to the user.