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Information Technology Strategic Plan

Related Links Background Communications Current State Future State Gap Analysis Annual Achievement Report Academic Plan Leadership Agenda

Contents  IT Strategic Plan (pdf)  Overview  Message from the CIO  Executive Summary  Ohio State's Information Technology Vision  What Ohio State Needs: Critical Success Factors  Strategic Initiative: Research Administration   and Infrastructure  Implementation  Conclusion  Appendix A: Project Participants  Appendix B: The Planning Process  Appendix C: Current State Analysis Details  Appendix D: Current State and Academic Plan  Appendix E: Technology Days Details  Appendix F: Focus Group Discussion Details  Appendix G: Future State Emerging Themes  Appendix H: Gap Analysis Details  Appendix I: Strategic Initiatives Details  Appendix J: Strategic Initiatives Funding

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Research Administration and Infrastructure  Strategic Initiative

 Summary
 Full Description
 Benefits
 Proposed Leadership
 Metrics
 Estimated Investments/Potential Funding
 Recent Actions
 List of Strategic Initiatives

Summary
The administrative aspect of research projects is time consuming and expensive, involving excessive paperwork to meet the laws, and regulations governing sponsored research. Automated administrative processes can free principal investigators to devote more time to conducting research. The university should actively pursue cost-effective measures on its PeopleSoft Human Resources, Financials, and Grants systems that minimize this burden. It can also seek funding to connect to an access point of the National Lambda Rail, which it has joined. The NLR, an optical fiber network consortium, enables collaborations among U.S. scientists and researchers. The NLR permits one of its networks to be “crashed” at will by network researchers, and also facilitates “private” networks among sites. OSU is currently subscribed to the ultrahigh bandwidth networks of Internet2, which do not permit experimentation deleterious to the network, nor “private” logical circuits among connected entities. The university can provide additional support for researchers by establishing an enterprise research storage area network (SAN, a system of hardware, software, and network components that provide data storage for servers throughout campus) to improve file-sharing capability. The development of a universitywide research storage strategy will make the sharing of data and files easier as well as secure.

Full Description

Part 1 - Encourage Ohio State University administration to ensure that all administrative and financial systems upgrade and implementation goals include the need for such systems to minimize the administrative burden on research faculty and foster an environment that is in compliance with pertinent laws, rules, and regulations that govern sponsored research.

Part 2 - Establish a universitywide data storage strategy for research use.

The university can increase support for research by alleviating the administrative burden on principal investigators and by establishing a universitywide data storage strategy.

It is a well-known fact that the administrative burden of research projects is time consuming and expensive. Principal investigators often spend a relatively large percentage of their time processing paperwork in order to meet pertinent laws, rules, and regulations that govern sponsored research. Software, such as the PeopleSoft Human Resources, Financials, and Grants systems currently being implemented, has the potential to reduce the administrative burden on faculty researchers. The university should actively pursue goals that cost-effectively minimize this burden, while ensuring compliance, on all systems projects that potentially impact principal investigators. Automated administrative processes can free principal investigators to devote more of their time to conducting research. Current examples of possible system enhancements include: (1) automating the university’s purchasing system to function like “rules software,” so that online requestors are immediately informed of unallowable purchases or insufficient funds on a particular grant or contract; and (2) enabling the reconciliation of research appointments before payments are made, which involves including the encumbrance end date in the Human Resource system to create accurate payroll commitments on sponsored projects.

Ohio State can also seek funding to connect to an access point of the National Lambda Rail, which it has joined through its CIC membership. The NLR, an optical fiber network consortium representing higher education, Cisco, and Level3 networks, enables collaborations among U.S. scientists and researchers. The NLR permits one of its virtual national networks to be “crashed” at will by network researchers, and also facilitates “private” networks among sites. OSU is currently subscribed to the ultrahigh bandwidth networks of Internet2, which do not permit experimentation deleterious to the network, nor “private” logical circuits among connected entities. The university can provide additional support for researchers by establishing an enterprise research storage area network (SAN) to improve file-sharing capability. The development of a universitywide research storage strategy will make the sharing of data and files easier as well as secure, but it must also take into account the negative impacts on bandwidth and positive impacts on Total cost of Operation (TCO) and business continuity.

The benefits of more automated administrative processes and better file sharing capability include easier startup and continuing costs for project administration for research faculty, improved central research administration and improved security of research data.

Benefits

• Easier startup and continuing costs for project administration for research faculty
• Use of current enterprise SAN technology (a system of hardware, software and network components that provide data storage for servers throughout campus)
• improved central research administration
• Improved security of research data

Proposed Leadership

• Office of Academic Affairs
• - Chief Information Officer
• Office of Research
• Colleges/Regionals
• Departments

Metrics

• Research faculty satisfaction with project administration

Estimated Investments/Potential Funding

• Participants' time and support to develop strategy, guidelines and plan
• $1,500,000 to develop and create a collaborative research storage area network

Recent Actions

• Ohio State joined the National Lambda Rail (NLR), a national optical fiber network that enables collaboration among U.S. scientists and researchers
• Digital Union opened March 2004
• Ohio Supercomputer Center is funding a project to develop large capacity storage capability for researchers
• In August 2004, the Research Foundation replaced its legacy systems with the Grants Administration system as part of the integrated PeopleSoft Financials suite. The new Grants system handles increased volumes of sponsored research, reduces the amount of manual data entry, provides a flexible and reliable infrastructure, and improves links between the enterprise financial modules
• Requested for FY05: $1,247,000 in annual funding and $200,000 in cash to operate the new PeopleSoft Research Integrated Financials and Grants System

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