My Role
The role of the Deputy Director: Information Strategy is responsible for the provision of IT software applications and integration services that support student study, and the business functions of the University. This encompasses specifically the functions of learning and teaching, student administration, and corporate Information systems.
My role requires me to:
- Work closely with the business leaders of the University to assess, advise and implement appropriate and efficient IT software solutions to support business functions.
- Lead the Information Strategy Managers and team members in prioritisation of their work activities and proficiency of their skills to meet the requirements of the business.
- Work closely with the Library and ISTS Executive team to cohesively deliver solutions that are both comprehensive and efficient, and that maximises the people and technology resources available.
- Participate in, and often lead project governance groups to procure, develop and implement IT software solutions and technology.
- Maintain a culture within the Information Strategy teams that fosters customer service, innovation and agility.
- Maintain supplier relationships to ensure the university capitalises on its current investments and is cognisant of technology and product roadmaps.
- Manage an annual operational budget of $5M and an Information Systems annual budget of $3.5M.
Team Responsibilities
- Work closely with business counterparts to support the day to day operational IT activities.
- Undertake 2nd and 3rd tier support for incident management or enhancement requests for existing systems. .
- Plan and manage the implementation of IT software or technology upgrade projects.
- Design and develop software applications where the market cannot provide an appropriate IT solution.
- Assist the business in developing their requirements of an IT solution and provide advice on appropriate technology solutions.
Current Activities
The Information Strategy teams are delivering on the ISTS Unit Plan that is aligned with the University’s Information Services Enterprise Support Plan and includes:
- Deliver on the requirements of the Digital Learning strategy that has objectives to:
- increase access to learning material for past, present and future students,
- Increase the opportunities for students to undertake work integrated learning via the implementation of a new cloud hosted placement system
- Further progress the scope of learning analytics that provides academics with key insights into student performance and success.
- Enhance the student mobile app to provide students with direct interaction with their learnonline course site.
- Continue the Business Process Innovation program to transition many manual paper based processes to a fully online experience with the Appian technology.
- Implement the cloud based Admissions system StudyLink.
- Transition the university’s sharepoint implementation to the Office 365 Sharepoint Online cloud service.
Qualifications and Professional associations
- Bachelor of Applied Science (Mathematics and Computing), University of South Australia, 1992
- Master of Business Administration, University of South Australia (in-progress)
