UCSF has formed the Office of Academic and Administrative Information Systems (OAAIS - pronounced "oasis") to build and strengthen academic and administrative information systems.
OAAIS combines Information Technology Services (ITS) with two new divisions, providing a significant additional focus on academic education, research and administrative systems.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Eugene Washington, MD, and Senior Vice Chancellor Steve Barclay say the formation of this new organization is a critical step in positioning the campus to act on themes emerging from the
Strategic Planning Initiative and in leveraging investments in information technology architecture and infrastructure.
Randy Lopez and Jonathan Showstack, PhD, direct OAAIS as co-chief information officers (CIOs) and report jointly to Washington and Barclay.
OAAIS incorporates the current organizational functional areas of ITS (Administrative Computing, Enterprise Network Services, Customer Support Services, and Enterprise Information Security) and adds two new divisions, Academic Information Systems and Academic Research Systems. These new divisions will focus on continued development of research systems and services, educational systems, academic administration and compliance systems.
Research efforts will include developing a research data environment providing services to investigators, such as access to UCSF Medical Center clinical data, consultation on the collection and analysis of research data, and a data center for housing research servers.
"OAAIS will develop a new UCSF research data environment that will promote translational and collaborative research within UCSF and with scientists at other institutions," Showstack says. "This effort was featured in the application for UCSF's new Clinical and Translational Science Institute [CTSI] and will be a key activity of CTSI."
OAAIS also will implement a set of new systems to facilitate academic administrative processes. More resources are being added to enable the organization to continue progress on its various existing initiatives while undertaking new activities.
"New systems will be developed to enhance educational processes and facilitate the administration of research and education programs," Showstack says. "OAAIS's focus on both academic and administrative information systems is a bold, new approach to building infrastructure and providing new capabilities to UCSF's scientists, educators, students and administrators."
The decision to create OAAIS grew out of a yearlong strategic planning process, during which the CIO Group (the executive subgroup of the IT Governance Committee composed of the clinical, academic and administrative IT leadership at UCSF) identified a number of key principles to inform their recommendations for the future of IT services across the UCSF enterprise:
- • Align IT systems with overall UCSF
strategies
- • Maximize IT as a lever to accomplish
UCSF strategy
- • Recognize technology and information
systems as valuable and valued
- • Understand the life cycle of IT and
the commoditization decision
- • Wisely manage the regulatory and security/risk
environment
As the planning discussions progressed, it became clear that the convergence of interests and needs between academic and administrative information technology would be best served by the formation of a new, more collaborative organizational model.
OAAIS will enable thoughtful, planned efforts to build and strengthen academic and administrative information systems, and will address critical, emerging academic needs along with continued strengthening of administrative systems to improve processes and service delivery, achieve efficiencies, and tighten internal controls.
Current information systems advisory committees, including the Chancellor's IT Governance Committee, the Academic Information Systems Board, the Administrative Systems Advisory Committee, the Network Committee and the Information Security Committee, will help steer the direction and vision of OAAIS. The emerging recommendations of the Strategic Planning Board also will provide critical input that will serve to inform and guide the activities of OAAIS.
