The College of Marin has been a vital source of education, culture and opportunity to the people of Marin County, California since 1926. To meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff it was imperative that the Information Technology department complete key initiatives that had been planned and promised, but never delivered.
Situation
The college had fallen behind in its commitment to provide a solid technology foundation for student learning and staff work environments. This was occurring at the same time the demand for advanced infrastructure and application projects was increasing. The college needed IT leadership to jump-start and drive key initiatives, address IT performance and efficiency issues, and provide a solid structure for project delivery into the future.
Critical Issues
There were concerns across the college about IT’s ability to deliver major initiatives and even provide solid day-to-day support. Many IT projects had been planned for months, or even years, yet there had been no progress in getting them done. There were issues within the IT department, where many staff had little direction and inefficiencies abounded. Project management processes were essentially nonexistent. The college needed IT leadership.
Solution
VIE provided an interim IT Leader for seven months and provided consulting services to help recruit a new, permanent CIO.
Results
The VIE leader initiated and drove five of the biggest outstanding IT initiatives, completing some of them and moving the others close to the finish line. The leader provided direction and structure within the IT organization, to increase performance and efficiencies, and also substantially improved the project management practices. VIE provided support for recruiting a new CIO for the college.