Round 4
Dec 2000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Office of the Provost
Compact Plan
Part Two: Initiatives
B. Initiatives Supporting Unit Goals
11. Expand Service Definition to Include UNC System and State of North Carolina
What will be achieved, how, and why it is important to the university
ITD proposes to expand its service to the UNC system schools and expand its statewide leadership role by providing exemplary commodity information technology services. NC State is without dispute the UNC-system's premier science and technology institution. In information technologies, we have a wealth of expertise and the ability to run many world-class commodity services. Other UNC System schools have not.
For example:
· Offer broad range of ISP (web hosting, etc.) services to other UNC systems schools
· Provide research and development services, on a cost recovery basis, to NC OITS in the information technology area.
As part of the initial stages of this initiative, we are expanding Search Engine Services:
· Offering sister institutions a searchable collection of their entire website(s). The search engine technology currently run by NC State supports the creation of searchable collections of non-NC State materials. Currently, UNC-G makes use of this service.
· Regular review and (if necessary) redesign of the user interface to accommodate new technology features and changing trends in user behavior.
Description of impact or outcomes for students, faculty, staff, external clients or others
· Our sister institutions will have access to a high-end search engine technology at a very reasonable cost. The institutions will not incur capital acquisition or personnel costs.
· Verity's search engine is a very powerful tool with an increasing number of features; however, the web services staff is ill-suited to making decisions regarding how/if these new features should be implemented.
Resources needed
In general, this initiative is primarily policy issue, and no additional funding is requested, Search Engine Services. Since this is a cost-recovery initiative, resource requirements are the release of personnel time. These costs are accounted for in the charge to the subscribing institutions. However, redesign of the web interfaces for NC State and the sister institutions should be ongoing to take advantage of new interface design ideals and product features:
· Faculty time during one semester: $3,500
· 100 hours of NC State webmaster time.
Deliverables
· Advance this Initiative as resources and opportunities become available (ongoing)