UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Information Technology Optimized Service Team (IT OST) is continuing its work to provide a more efficient, capable and responsive experience for the University’s students, faculty and staff.
To help realize this new vision, more than 60 of Penn State IT professionals from across the commonwealth are dedicating their time and expertise to help guide seven initiatives.
"Transforming IT at Penn State is not a project; it's a set of interdependent opportunities and challenges to work on," said David Horton, vice president for information technology and chief information officer. "I'm grateful for our colleagues across University IT who volunteered to focus on seven of those areas in this engagement with PwC. Their next-level collaboration will build the strong foundation we need for a successful transformation."
IT senior leadership and IT directors are contributing to advancing these seven focus areas:
- Conduct Application Rationalization Assessment
- Implement IT Governance Framework
- Establish a Cost-Based Financial Taxonomy
- Adopt a Balanced Scorecard Framework
- Establish an Enterprise Architecture/Engineering Function
- Standardize Solution Design
- Establish Change Management Strategy
Their work will continue through the summer and build on the application inventory work IT units completed in 2024 and through two prior PwC engagements.
Matt Dunmire is the information systems and services director for the College of Health and Human Development. He’s one of three co-leads guiding the Standardize Solution Design and Delivery Workstream.
Of the seven workstreams, the one Dunmire co-leads is the biggest, with 15 total volunteers.
Staffed with solution architects, technical architects and business analysts from across the University, this workstream is examining service delivery methods, such as establishing foundational practices for consistent and efficient solution design across the organization and identifying standards and industry best practices that will help inform and shape how Penn State handles these aspects in the future.
“Now that that relationship is built, that’s going to empower progress into the future,” Dunmire said. “Probably in perpetuity. Because without these relationships, it’s much harder to go forward. We’re going to have to work on a lot more things together in the future than we have in the past if we’re going to move forward and mature as an organization and be one as an organization.”
Dunmire described the volunteers as passionate about improving the IT experience for Penn State students, faculty and staff. “I think there is that genuine excitement around it and people are more willing to get involved, roll up your sleeves and dig in if it’s something you’re passionate about,” Dunmire said.
Lindsay Wood co-leads the workstream tasked with adopting a balanced scorecard framework, which is a resource that IT will use to guide decision making. It will also help IT leaders examine the health of the organization and find opportunities to grow it.
‘We’re making sure that we’re focusing on our customers,” Wood said. “And what they need and if they’re satisfied with our services. We’re focusing on our financials and whether we’re being good stewards of the University's resources, our internal operations and whether we are operating as efficiently as we possibly can, and on employee learning and growth and that we’re giving ourselves opportunities to innovate.”
Wood, who serves as the IT director at Penn State Abington, previously oversaw instructional design services and online learning at the campus. With a graduate degree in performance improvement and human resources development, Wood is well-suited to analyze and advise. She agreed with Dunmire’s assessment that the all-volunteer workstreams have already hit their stride, are identifying gaps and are excited to continue their work finding solutions to fill them.
“We really needed to help each other,” Wood said. “I think that was part of it. That was a big motivator. So many of us come with these backgrounds either in corporate or academia or outside of Penn State and really want to see Penn State have a robust, healthy, mature IT organization that serves faculty, staff and students and really enables teaching and research.”
The full list of staff volunteers can be found on the Office of Enterprise Change and Transformation website.