Worcester State University

Founded in 1874 as a teacher-training school, Worcester State University (WSU) has grown to become a traditional liberal arts and sciences university with over 6,000 students. As part of a concerted effort to support increased technology needs, Vantage was asked to conduct a series of assessments and create a roadmap to best position WSU information technology services for the future.

Vantage worked with a core team to create and publish a transparent, accessible listing of applications and services for users. We analyzed data to understand support levels for academic, administrative, and student services, and to identify future opportunities for service portfolio management. Vantage conducted open forums to engage with campus members and solicit feedback on WSU’s technology direction and support needs. Campus input was instrumental in creating an IT governance model with advisory committees designed for active participation.

Vantage used current and historical WSU budget data to create a long- range capital planning model that includes technology components, lifecycles, and refresh budgets for critical ITS Infrastructure. Vantage worked with the core project team to transform ITS budget data for submission to the EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey (CDS) and create a set of organizational assessment metrics. We also conducted a financial and staffing study that included peer assessment data, team organization, and service support levels to provide recommendations for organizational, staffing, and key financial investments.

Finally, Vantage met with campus and IT leadership to facilitate the development of a roadmap for Worcester State’s information security program. We worked with the leadership team to identify the unique risks and challenges that should be identified in the college’s information security strategy. We also worked with the IT leadership team to evaluate current services and operations, policy, compliance, and awareness activities to determine risk areas and outline desired outcomes for the information security program.

Our deliverables included all service, support, and financial data collection and modeling analysis, IT governance frameworks, workshop facilitation materials, and information security program roadmap activities designed to reduce institutional risk. A key feature of this project was working closely with campus leadership executive sponsors providing WSU with executive briefings detailing assessment results and our recommendations.