SIS Steering Committee begins strategic planning
John Ford considers himself still relatively new to DEM (November 2019) and yet he continues to be impressed by the ability of his colleagues, coworkers and partners to address urgent needs of campus. This academic year has been unusually disruptive and many areas in DEM have needed to focus resources on immediate changes related to the pandemic – at the expense of other important planned projects. With things beginning to stabilize, the SIS Steering Committee has started to meet to discuss key technology priorities and strategy with partners on campus moving forward.
The committee, which is composed of DEM leadership, partners from the Bursar office and Graduate school, as well as DoIT Chief Technology officer and senior IT staff, meets monthly throughout the year.
One area being discussed is how the SIS Steering Committee (SSC), which represents the combined business interests of DEM, works alongside DoIT and other partners in major technology projects and initiatives on campus. For example, what is the role of the SSC in providing input to the OneBadger initiative, how might it suggest improvements or understand the impacts of new features or data in SIS? Additionally, how can the committee collaborate with the campus InterOp initiative and Digital Experience Vision, where several aspects, including those allowing users to designate personal pronouns and to permit the use of special characters in SIS, intersect with DEM goals around diversity, equity and inclusion?
Understanding and contributing to partners key initiatives allows us to collaborate on important projects, support business cases that are good for DEM and the university, and results in better technology decisions and use of precious campus resources. Please let John Ford (John.Ford@wisc.edu) know if you have interest in learning more about strategic planning efforts, and feel free to offer input on key areas to consider.