Information Services saves on technology

By Adam Schoof

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Denise Stephens has had a part in saving the University hundreds of thousands of dollars, but she said her goal was to save millions.

Even in “lean” times, Stephens, vice provost for information services, has overseen savings for the University as well as created new services for students.

Stephens said the savings were made by purchasing technology in bulk rather than each department in the University buying its own software packages.

The biggest savings came from a new contract made in early July with technology carrier Oracle, whose software manages Blackboard, the Kyou portal, online advising and other administrative functions.

The University expects to save several hundred thousand dollars over the next three years with this change, Stephens said.

Bill Myers, director of information services, said if the deal hadn’t been made, different departments would have maintained multiple licenses of the same software, with separate hardware for each.

Stephens said another deal made in May with Dell, which is the largest supplier of desktop computers for the University, would save more than $300,000 annually using the same tactics of buying in bulk.

A new cable television deal with Apogee made in early July will save 50 percent, or $200,000, more than the University’s previous carrier, and will offer more channel selections, Stephens said. The new cable carrier will be in about 95 percent of residential halls.

Stephens said the money saved would be reinvested in the technology services the University would offer.

A new service called Hawk Drive, made possible with the savings, will be available to students around September and is already available for faculty, Stephens said. Hawk Drive offers one gigabyte of storage for sharing large files and provides an environment where people can collaborate in discussion groups.

“So much of our work is collaborative now,” Stephens said.

Stephens said she thought the service would be useful for students who have cluttered e-mail inboxes.

Some students, however, didn’t see the benefit of reinvesting saved money back into technology services. Lanie Smith, Salina sophomore, said she probably wouldn’t use the Hawk Drive service. She said she thought that the money saved in the deal should have been spent on more GTAs.

— — Edited by Steph Schneider

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