EISPG Meeting Minutes
Thursday February 18, 2010
Attendees: Brad Eden, Martin Raubal, Doug Drury, Bill McTague, Deborah Scott, Bruce Miller, Rolf Christoffersen, Arlene Allen, Tom Putnam, Lubo Bojilov, Eric Sonquist, Carol Houchens, Matthew Dunham, Steven Velasco, Maureen Evans, Jim Corkill, Saturnino Doctor.
Agenda
0.0 Review/Approve Nov 30th EISPG Minutes (attached)
1.0 Review EISPG Charter and definition of Enterprise Information System - 10 minutes
2.0 Overview of UCSB Enterprise Information Systems (IS Directors) - 30 minutes
3.0 Discussion: EISPG Communication with IT Board; What message do we want to deliver this year? - 10 minutes
Minutes:
0.0 Correction to meeting minutes: Spelling of UC President Yudof’s last name.
1.0 Discussion of Definition of Enterprise Information system led to the following definition: The UCSB transactional information systems that serve a broad campus function and are essential to the operation of the University, associated access to critical data to support decision making, and associated web self services. In addition, the Payroll system was added to the list of financial systems.
2.0 Review of chart prepared by several UCSB IS Directors concerning the function and status of Enterprise Information Systems at UCSB. This diagram indicated that virtually all UCSB systems have either technical or personnel risk, or both*. It was suggested that we differentiate these different types of risk. It was noted that in building our own systems, we are building in a risk of staff dependencies. We need to spread this risk somehow, given the budget/staffing situation. Major business systems need recurring funding to avoid collapse models. It will be important to also identify the timescale-to-failure and timescale-to-Implement because it can put in perspective the relative urgency.
3.0 EISPG Communication with the IT Board. In the November 2005 EISPG report to the IT Board, we chose to focus in on three critical systems: The Financial Systems, The Student Information System, and the Development system. (Institutional Advancement has independently invested in the upgrade of the Development system since that time.) CIO Tom Putnam presented a funding model in early 2008, which identified the funding required to replace these systems, as well as address several other critical areas of IT risk. This represented a need for approx. $50M in investment. It was suggested that the EISPG continue to focus on this same primary goal of replacing the mainframe based financial and student information systems, which will address a large majority of the UCSB enterprise information system risks.
There was insufficient time to complete this discussion, and it was agreed that we will reconvene in March for 1.5 hours to provide more time for this discussion.
* Note: The Enterprise Information System chart and associated risks was not fully vetted with all organizations that were characterized on the chart, and regrettably, the ensuing discussion included statements that were misleading about the operational readiness and/or risks associated with some systems.