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THREE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

THAT HIGHER EDUCATION

LEADERS SHOULD BE AWARE

OF IN THE YEARS AHEAD

SASAN POUREETEZADI

Higher education leaders and Chief Information Ofcers been ofered at commodity levels (Mesa Community College,
(CIOs) are ofen focused on strategic initiatives and day-to-day 2011). Knowing that Google alone had over a million servers -
operational tasks, but an ever-increasing portion of their eforts with multiple data centers distributed across the planet - brings
are focused on where they should be investing their limited this point home even further (Google Data Centers, 2014).
resources next. A substantial percentage of that insight involves Companies like Google have provided email and document
doing research and keeping current on the latest in higher services free of charge to higher education, and while some
education information technology trends, but it also involves IT organizations may continue to provide and manage these
knowing and understanding your core business and being able to services internally, that trend is changing.
discern the multitude of value propositions that exist. Take into account Educause Core Data Service fndings from
A challenging task to say the least, but one that ofers substantial 2013 to 2014, for the services of email, customer relationship
rewards to those who keep their eye on the ball and position management (CRM), and learning management systems (LMS).
themselves and their institutions to reap the benefts of foresight, Vendor-hosted student email increased from 36% in 2013 to
planning, and the willingness to take some level of risk. 55% in 2014. CRM moved from 29% in 2013 to 36% in 2014; and
Tis article outlines three key technology trends of which higher LMS moved up from 29% to 31% during the same time period
education leaders should be aware in the coming years. (Educause 2014, 2015). Other services such as ERP, network
communications, and web services followed suit, with more
1: The diversifcation of information technology services services moving to cloud-based service providers.
In the not so distant past, higher education information Tis fundamental shif to cloud-based solutions will further
technology (IT) departments were the sole purveyors of all that change the culture of IT departments and how they interact
is technology, commonly including the management of large- and provide services to their internal and external customers.
scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, network Instead of focusing on the “bits and bytes”, customer service
communications, email, learning management systems (LMS), will become the primary agenda for many IT departments.
and the sofware used across the enterprise. During the last Tough there will still be some IT departments that resist this
decade that model has changed dramatically, and many services trend, many will continue to move past the culture of being a
that once defned an IT organization’s value are now being purveyor, and embrace the concept of becoming brokers of IT
ofered by commercial service providers at economic scales with services. Accomplishing this goal will require IT departments
which higher education IT departments cannot compete. and campus leaders to further develop and retrain existing staf
and hire new types of IT professionals that know how to develop
Sofware-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provided for higher vendor relationships, manage projects, negotiate deals, and build
education by companies like Google, Microsof, and Amazon buy-in from constituents (Linthicum, 2014).
have become much like an electrical or water utility, and have

14 LEADERSHIP Vol. 21.1 Spring/Summer 2015

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