PARTNERSHIP PLAN:
FRAMEWORK and STATUS REPORT
as of
December 5, 1997
Prepared by:
CSU Systemwide Internal Partnership Team Staff
Maynard Robinson
General Manager Technology Infrastructure Partnership
and
Chair, SIP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. BACKGROUND, NEEDS and OUTCOMES
II. SCOPE of ITS-TII and PARTNERSHIP
III. PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES
IV. FINANCIAL PLAN ( Being Negotiated )
V. ORGANIZATION
VI. PROCESS AND TIMELINES
APPENDIX A--Part I--CSU Telecommunications Utility Plan
INTRODUCTION
The CETI Partnership Development Team, consisting of more than 100 representatives from CSU, GTE, Fujitsu, Hughes and Microsoft, has been busy over the past 10 weeks developing implementation details of the partnership plan. As details for each component are developed they are being published "for review" by all CSU stakeholders on the ITS-Technology Infrastructure Initiative Supporting Partnership Plan website at http://ceti.calstate.edu. The documents contained in the website represent the basic components of the partnership plan and will be continuously updated as the plan develops and grows. What follows is the framework being used to capture the key results of the efforts of the five CETI task groups for each of the major components of the plan.
There are several results to report including:
The volume, breadth and depth of this activity represented in this summary reflects the magnitude, complexity and scope of this effort. While much has been accomplished to date, the work ahead will continuously challenge the CETI Partnership Development Team.
I. BACKGROUND, NEEDS and OUTCOMES
BACKGROUND
All students, faculty and staff of the 23 California State University (CSU) campuses must have access to the most appropriate and up-to-date information and technology resources available if the CSU is to be competitive in a growing knowledge-based global economy. Recognizing this fact, the CSU developed the Integrated Technology Strategy (ITS) designed to guarantee CSU’s access to this technology by the year 2000.
As depicted in the pyramid, Figure 1, the ITS is the overall CSU framework and process for meeting the challenges and exploiting the opportunities of the information age. When the CSU embarked upon the Integrated Technology Strategy, it was for the purposes of leveraging technology resources to help meet the goals of affordable, high quality access to educational resources for the people of California. Through focus groups with students, faculty and staff, it became obvious that our current technology infrastructure was inadequate and our user training and support services were not sufficient to provide that leverage. While some CSU campuses excel in one or more aspect of technology infrastructure and support, not one CSU campus provides all aspects of the need: access to intra and inter-campus networks, access to appropriate hardware and software tools, and access to baseline user training and support services.
Consequently, the Technology Infrastructure Initiative (TII), the base of the pyramid in Figure 1, became the keystone prerequisite initiative to the effective implementation of all the academic and institutional management initiatives and to achieving the goals of the ITS.
After nearly four years of planning and pursuing various traditional strategies through the State General and Capital budgets to garner the funds to develop the TII, the CSU concluded that it had to pursue external means to generate the funds and management capabilities to develop the TII. Even if State capital dollars were made available to build out the physical technology infrastructure conduits, cable and wires - and the State has made it abundantly clear that the funds simply would not be forthcoming - there would be an impact on other CSU capital needs. Also, the ongoing operating funds would still not provide students with the technology tools and quality of training and support services that faculty and staff need to compete, produce and prosper in a knowledge-based economy. Finding funds to do so from the CSU’s operating budget, at a time when the CSU faces severe shortages in other critical areas such as faculty salaries, deferred maintenance and funding enrollment growth, is not feasible. It became clear that of all the funding gaps that CSU faced, technology was the only one that would lend itself to a solution external to the State sources.
Consequently, for the past 15 months the CSU has been developing a public/private partnership as the strategy. As a result of a rigorous competitive process the California Education Technology Initiative (CETI) partnership was selected in September as the mechanism for building, financing, and managing the highest quality technology infrastructure and services, at the lowest cost, in the shortest amount of time for the ITS-TII.
TII: A baseline technology infrastructure is a prerequisite for improving student, faculty, and staff productivity. At least five components of that infrastructure are required:
CETI: Strategic partnering is a process through which two or more entities share capital and labor for a common venture in which they also share risks, profits, and losses. Partnerships are a means for moving from the vertically integrated university of the past to the networked organization of the future. They both nurture a focus on core competencies within the institution while linking them across organizations. Public-private partnerships can free time, human, and other resources in the university for more strategic purposes.
The team of General Telephone, Hughes Communications, Fujitsu, and Microsoft was selected by the CSU following a competitive process of partnership development. The criteria used to select this team included:
• Cultural fit with the CSU
• Shared vision of the future of education
• Level of executive commitment
• California presence
• Operational and financial stability of team
• Quality of the team assembled by the partner
• Creativity/innovation of proposed solutions
• Match of partner capabilities to CSU needs
• Technologies represented
Five work groups of CSU and corporate representatives are developing the details of this partnership plan. These include the infrastructure buildout team; the revenue generation team; the IT professional development team; the communications team; and the organization/governance and master agreement team.
The CETI partnership model represents an unprecedented venture in higher education. It will establish a ubiquitous, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure for roughly 350,000 students and 35,000 faculty and staff. It will include not only hardware, software, and network access, but training and support as well, all "refreshed" on a continuous basis. Most important, it will provide the foundation or centerpiece on which all of the ITS academic and administrative initiatives rest for serving the students, faculty and staff of the 23 CSU institutions for decades to come.
NEEDS and OUTCOMES
At the November 11, 1997 Board of Trustees Ad Hoc Committee on Technology Utilization meeting, Presidents Rosser and Welty made explicit that the technology infrastructure initiative is, in fact, intended which is to provide the CSU with the basic infrastructure capability necessary to position itself to meet the educational challenges and opportunities of the future. The public/private partnership is the methodology for completing the Technology Infrastructure Initiative (TII). The addressed the questions of needs and outcomes as follows:
WHAT ARE THE NEEDS FACING THE CSU, IN TERMS OF ITS TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE?
WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES THAT THE CSU CAN ACHIEVE THROUGH A PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WHICH WILL BUILD THE TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE?
In addition to achieving the stated outcomes, the reason CSU is seeking a public/private partnership to address our basic technology infrastructure requirements is that every credible assessment of the future of higher education funding, including a study by the And Corporation, indicates that public higher education will receive an ever-diminishing proportion of the state’s discretionary funding. With no mandated set asides, such as exist for K-14, the CSU has looked into the future and determined that the only way that we could possibly achieve the utility infrastructure is through non-traditional funding and management arrangements. State resources will not enable us to achieve an infrastructure on an equitable basis for all CSU campuses within a timely fashion.
The CSU is interested in addressing the entirety of its telecommunications and information transport infrastructure and support services within and across its 23 campuses. The following outlines the broadest scope of the initiative currently envisioned to serve the 23 campuses and potentially the 123 community colleges sites and a growing number of K-12 county offices of education and K-12 school districts.
1. Intra-Campus Infrastructure
Technology services which include those telecommunications functions primarily used for the providing intra-campus communications service. This is defined as the inside and outside plant facilities utilized in inter and intra-building communications services. It is defined to include all activities associated with designing and "building-out" the infrastructure, as well as, provision of required hardware resources necessary for the on-going support of the intra-campus infrastructure. It is defined as the media, pathways, spaces and terminal resources required for provision of intra campus communications. The intra-campus facilities support the telecommunications needs of over 325,000 students and 36,000 faculty and staff in every urban and rural geographic area of the state.
2. Inter-Campus Infrastructure
Services which address those telecommunications systems which comprise the CSU inter-campus network. Generally these involve analog and digital facilities, satellite transmission and reception systems, connections to local distribution systems and linkages to worldwide networks. It is defined to include all activities associated with designing and "building-out" the infrastructure, as well as, providing required hardware resources necessary for the on-going support of the inter-campus infrastructure. This infrastructure already supports the 23 campuses of the CSU and implementation is underway to include 125 California Community Colleges and over 50 local school districts.
User support is defined as the technical computing and communications support services necessary for students, faculty, administration, and staff to effectively utilize the hardware, software, and network infrastructure and its capabilities in order to successfully and effectively fulfill their responsibilities and objectives.
Hardware is defined as the personal computing and communications equipment necessary for students, faculty, administration, and staff to successfully and effectively fulfill their responsibilities and objectives.
Software is defined as the personal computing and communications software necessary for students, faculty, administration, and staff to successfully and effectively fulfill their responsibilities and objectives.
4 - Unified Messaging System
This facet of the baseline infrastructure has been split out form the software because of its critical importance to the achievement of a seamless communications capability among students, faculty and staff of all 23 campuses.
The prerequisites of the common messaging system include:
5. Administration, Operations and Management
Administration, Operations, and Management (AOM) are the methods, processes, resources, and metrics necessary to manage and operate the technology infrastructure to allow its ubiquity of service, quality of performance and efficiency of operation in support of the ITS vision of "anytime, anywhere access".
6. Exclusions
Specifically excluded from the scope are the planning, design, building, operation, maintenance, enhancement, and financing of:
SCOPE OF THE PARTNERSHIP
The scope of the partnership encompasses the entirety of the TII within which individual campuses will receive the initial baseline infrastructure build-out at no net cost. This includes baseline intra-building networking capabilities for vertical, horizontal, and inter-building connectivity to the CSU standards. Also, as part of the scope, campuses will be provided access to the network, access to hardware and software, training for each user, and a baseline of support services.
Since the partnership must be self sustaining, its scope includes revenue generating programs including: recapturing existing CSU expenditures for current infrastructure services, provision of technology commodity goods & services, telecommunications operations, and education & training programs.
Figure 2 depicts the partnership components.
Figure 2
PART I--CSU TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITY PLAN
The TII forms the foundation on which the entire ITS depends. Accordingly, the TII has the highest priority in terms of time and attention, and is the most urgent from the standpoint of partnership development and funding support. TII is comprised of two parts which must be implemented in an integrated fashion to achieve a fully operational baseline infrastructure. Briefly, the two parts include:
CSU Telecommunication Utility: This part moves both the CSU intra-campus infrastructure and inter-campus network toward a defined baseline capacity for voice, video and data and the ongoing operational support. This includes extensive enhancements to the existing intra-campus network, including offices and classrooms; the inter-campus backbone network that is critical to cross-system collaboration; and implementation of the classroom hardware and software needed to support technology-mediated instruction.
APPENDIX A provides a description of this plan and its current status.
PART II--CSU USER SERVICES PLAN
CSU User Services: This part focuses on the user components of the CSU technology infrastructure needed to help individuals operate the ever-increasing levels of technology to which they have access. This includes providing each faculty and staff member desktop hardware and software capabilities and all students access to the same and then also providing them an integrated, systemwide/campuswide help desk support function and high quality training at the basic skills level.
The development of the partnership plan is focused on the details of Part I-- CSU Telecommunications Utility Plan. While work is going on to develop Part II-- CSU User Services Plan, it is not expected to be ready for comprehensive review and approval until late spring. Part II of the partnership plan involves an extensive amount of consulting with individual campuses.
CETI REVENUE GENERATION PROGRAMS - OVERVIEW
III. PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES
Preamble
Intensive efforts have been underway for almost five years on the part of CSU constituencies to identify the technology resources needed by students, faculty, and staff to meet the academic mission of the system and to identify the means to secure those resources. Commissions representing the broadest range of campus constituencies, as well as countless focus groups, have helped to shape the CSU’s Integrated Technology Strategy, a comprehensive set of initiatives to advance access to and use of technology vital to the mission of the CSU.
The advancement of the integrated technology strategy, and particularly a badly needed technology infrastructure, is dependent upon resources that are not available to the CSU through traditional means. At a cost of $300 million for the initial buildout of a telecommunication infrastructure, as well as a funding gap for related technology estimated at $100 million per year, state support and capital budgets are insufficient to meet the CSU’s initial and ongoing funding needs as well as meet other pressing priorities, such as enrollment growth, lags in faculty salaries, deferred plant maintenance, and significant gaps in instructional equipment. After considerable though unsuccessful efforts made to secure funding for technology from traditional sources, the CSU engaged in the Technology Infrastructure Initiative to form a partnership with carefully selected corporations to gain the needed resources.
The purpose of the Technology Infrastructure Initiative is to ensure that all CSU students, faculty, and staff throughout the California State University have access to the broadest range of information resources and related technology. Fundamental to these important resources is the creation of a seamless high speed telecommunications network, acquisition of current desk top devices and provisions for maintaining currency, and support to students, faculty in the uses of technology. These resources will help advance four important technology goals of the CSU: personal productivity, excellence in teaching and learning, the quality of the student experience, and administrative productivity.
As stated from the outset of the initiative, fundamental to the CSU position is to:
In the formulation of this important partnership, high priority is placed on the CSU controlling its own destiny and maintaining the highest levels of accountability to internal and external constituencies through the:
The 10 principles listed below serve to guide agreements to be reached for the CSU as part of the partnership formation.
Principles and Outcomes to be Achieved
Each of the 10 principles is accompanied by specific expectations regarding how they will be made operational. Next to each expectation is the current status of agreement between the CSU and the corporate partners. The status of each will be revised as resolution occurs. (Key: concurrence = agreement has been achieved, open = issue under discussion, concurrence plan required indicates agreement in principle pending the identification of appropriate mechanisms, and details to be completed indicates work in progress.)
A. Collective bargaining agreements will be honored. (concurrence)
B. Management responsibility for CSU information technology staff will reside with the CSU. (concurrence)
C. The partnership will provide professional development programs for information technology CSU staff. (concurrence, plan required)
2. The initial buildout of the CSU’s information technology infrastructure (media, pathways, spaces, terminal equipment* with required software) will be accomplished at no net cost to the CSU and with current level of technology.
(*does not include desktop, application servers, peripherals.)
B. The CSU will achieve and maintain a high level of technology inter-operability through standards for technology included within the scope of the Technology Infrastructure Initiative. (concurrence)
C. Corporate partners will acquire funding for initial infrastructure buildout. (concurrence)
D. CSU will not be responsible for the debt associated with the initial baseline infrastructure buildout. (concurrence)
E. The baseline will be built out for all campuses within three years of the start of implementation of the buildout. (concurrence)
F. CSU will retain the ownership of the physical plant infrastructure and will make access available to the partners under the terms of the agreement. (concurrence)
G. CSU and its campuses will be granted an extended warranty on all infrastructure build out for the duration of partnership, applying to the network, unified messaging, directory service, fire walls, physical plant (cable, pathways, terminal equipment and 4CNet). (open)
H. Unified messaging system, directory, security, e-mail component shall
I. The refresh of the infrastructure’s technology is a vital priority and will be provided by and paid for from partnership operating income. (concurrence, details to be completed)
3. The partnership organization will be responsive to campus and systemwide needs and priorities.
B. Provide standardized desk top training at the basic skills level. (concurrence)
C. Provide unified messaging and directory systems to ensure consistent and efficient communications across campuses. (open)
D. Provide security system that will protect access to campus IT resources. (concurrence)
E. Augment services to provide 24 X 7 help and service desk functions for all campuses. (concurrence, plan required)
F. Agreements will be reached between the CSU and the partnership to operate the infrastructure. (concurrence, plan required)
4. The partnership will allow flexibility for the campuses to acquire technologies which are out of scope, albeit at campus cost.
A. There will be no exclusivity for technology goods and services which are defined as out of the technology infrastructure initiative scope. (concurrence)
B. The partnership will be eligible to compete for business which is out of scope. (concurrence)
5. CSU will have a majority role** in the governance structure.
A. A CSU auxiliary will be formed by the chancellor to administer the master services agreement and related agreements for the CSU. (concurrence)
B. A for profit limited liability company will be formed to conduct the commercial business of the partnership and on which the CSU, outside directors, and corporate partners will serve as members of the board. (concurrence)
(** Three organizational entities will guide the telecommunications infrastructure initiative, assure that CSU policies and service level requirements are met, and that the partnership will be successful from a commercial perspective. First, a CSU advisory commission comprised of campus representatives and CSU constituencies will be formed to advise and recommend policies and strategies that guide systemwide efforts regarding technology infrastructure build out and operations, priorities for the CSU in the partnership, and assess outcomes of partner performance. Second, a CSU auxiliary will be established as the legal means for the CSU to share in equity ownership of a limited liability company. Directors of the auxiliary will be drawn from the advisory commission. The commission in combination with the auxiliary will advance the technology initiative and provide the CSU with control to advance and safeguard CSU interests. Finally, a limited liability company will serve as the entity for the formation of the shared equity ownership for the CSU and the commercial partners. The CSU auxiliary will have board representation on the LLC board. )
6. The corporate partners will promote and utilize the CSU’s education and training programs and services.
B. CSU campuses will be reimbursed for access to CSU programs and services.
(concurrence)
7. All parties will honor the intellectual property rights of the creators of that property.
B. Authority for content of academic programs will be vested in the respective campuses of the CSU and will continue to follow current practices with respect to academic programs and governance structures. The CSU will not negotiate away any academic freedoms or control of curriculum content. (concurrence)
C. Ownership interests of all intellectual property related to activities of the auxiliary or the limited liability company will be determined in advance. (concurrence)
8. Partnership revenue generating programs which are CSU related must be approved by the CSU.
A. Revenue programs will be diversified and represent the mission and core competencies of each partner, emphasizing: commercial applications of the infrastructure (e.g., telephone operations, Internet service provider, home delivery), commodity sales, CSU technology expenditures in non-personnel categories, appropriate education and training programs. (concurrence)
B. Sustainable revenue sources will be created for all partners. (concurrence)
C. Revenue programs will strengthen the existing revenue streams of the campuses and each partner. (concurrence)
D. Incentives and rewards will be provided to campuses to participate in partnership programs. (concurrence, plan required)
9. The partnership governance structure will provide a means for the CSU to review and validate partnership price/performance for in-scope services and products.
B. Flexibility will be emphasized to modify agreements as necessary to meet requirements for changing technology, performance, and price using agreed upon benchmarks. (concurrence)
10. The partnership’s success will be judged by:
A. Ability to maintain and sustain the currency of the technological infrastructure. (concurrence)
B. Responsiveness in meeting campus and systemwide needs and priorities. (concurrence)
C. Contribution to personal productivity. (concurrence)
D. Creation of new tools and opportunities for faculty, staff and students. (concurrence)
E. Contribution to new modes of learning and delivery of education. (concurrence)
F. Creation of new revenues to advance the CSU mission. (concurrence)
G. Ability to maintain and sustain the financial health of the LLC. (concurrence)
V. FINANCIAL
PART I PROJECTED COSTS
CETI Anticipated Expenditures- Overview
CETI anticipates generating expenditures from five major sources. They include:
Costs associated with the build-out and service of the CSU Baseline Technology Infrastructure:
The following are brief descriptions of these expenditures. Each description provides an overview of the expenditure category and an estimate of the ten year gross expenditure anticipated for each.
Baseline Infrastructure Costs 10 Year Gross Expenditures $ 610M
Baseline Technology Infrastructure Costs include the actual costs that will be incurred by CETI for the build-out and refresh of the media, pathways, and spaces associated with the inter and intracampus baseline infrastructure. Cost categories included in this expenditure source include principle and interest payments on the debt financing, lease expense for selected electronic components, depreciation and costs of operating the infrastructure.
Costs of Goods Sold 10 Year Gross Expenditures $4323M
Cost of Goods Sold includes the costs of provisioning products and services to the customers of CETI. Wholesale costs of technology products and services, telecommunications products and services, K-12/CCC related product and services costs, and the costs of provisioning the CSU with in-scope baseline technology products and services are included in this expenditure source.
New Product Development 10 Year Gross Expenditures $ 40M
CETI has included a modest annual amount for development of new products and services that it might provide to the CSU and the CETI customer base. These expenditures are intended to keep the CETI product line refreshed and contemporary and to provide research and development monies for the introduction of new items to the product line.
General and Administrative 10 Year Gross Expenditures $ 167M
CETI will be a lean operation from the perspective of overhead expenditures. This category includes utility and insurance costs, office expenses, and maintenance costs. G&A comprise a very respectable 3% of gross revenues.
Income Taxes 10 Year Gross Expenditures $ 180M
A flat rate of 40% was used in the calculation of CETI income tax liability.
PART II REVENUES
Revenue data will be provided after Executive Council meeting.
PART II Projected Cost CSU - In Development
PART II Projected Revenue - In Development
PART II Proforma - In Development
V. ORGANIZATION
GOVERNANCE/ADVISORY STRUCTURE
An internal advisory commission - the Commission of Technology Infrastructure and Partnerships (CTIP), a CSU non-profit auxiliary, and a for-profit limited liability company (LLC) will be formed.
Commission of Technology Infrastructure and Partnerships (CTIP). The Commission of Technology Infrastructure and Partnerships (CTIP) will formed to replace the Commission on Technology Infrastructure and the Systemwide Internal Partnership team. The purpose of this commission is to advise and recommend policies and strategies to the Chancellor and the Executive Council, through the Technology Steering Committee (TSC). The scope of CTIP’s responsibilities is to focus on recommending policies and strategies involving the development, maintenance and currency of a comprehensive and cohesive technology infrastructure within and among all 23 campuses of the CSU, as identified in the Integrated Technology Strategy. To develop and sustain its technology infrastructure the CSU intends to engage in a wide range of partnerships. In addition to the CETI partnership, the CTIP will also be recommending policies and strategies for other partnerships.
CSU Auxiliary. A CSU auxiliary will be established as a nonprofit California corporation. The purpose of this auxiliary is to provide and refresh technology infrastructure and associated services to the campuses of the CSU. Its relationship with the CSU, expressed in statute and regulation, will be reflected also in a lease and operating agreement and in more detailed services agreements between the CSU and the auxiliary. As an auxiliary, it will be operationally integral yet legally separate from the University. A vast majority of its board members will be appointed by the CSU from a wide range of constituencies and it will contract with the CSU for technology infrastructure and services. The employment of an auxiliary organization is a familiar means of providing campus services; for example, bookstore auxiliary organizations provide bookstore services and university union auxiliaries provide union services to the campuses of the CSU. Here a systemwide auxiliary organization outlined by Title 5, California Code of Regulations, Section 42665 will be created to provide technology services directly to CSU campuses.
CETI Limited Liability Company (LLC). The CETI Limited Liability Company (LLC) will be formed. It will be comprised of the four corporate partners (GTE, Fujitsu, Hughes and Microsoft) and the CSU auxiliary. The membership interest of the CSU auxiliary in the LLC will be such as to enable the implementation and appropriate periodic refreshing of the technology infrastructure and the ongoing support for this technology infrastructure and associated user training and support services for the CSU. The membership interest in the LLC of the corporate partners will be to realize a reasonable return on investment.
The LLC will be controlled by the CSU Auxiliary and the four corporate partners jointly taking responsibility for profit-making activity. The LLC will be engaged in profit-making activity external to CSU campuses. Commercial activity on the CSU campuses will be conducted through the CSU auxiliary organization under CSU control. An operating agreement will set forth how the LLC will function.
Service/Performance agreements between the auxiliary and the LLC will detail the infrastructure buildout and associated support services to be provided to the CSU, which will be a third-party beneficiary to the agreement.
Figure WW depicts the relationships among these three entities, the CSU as a corporation, and the 23 universities which comprise the CSU system.
OPERATIONAL ORGANIZATION ( Preliminary---In Development and Negotiation)
Management Structure. Establishing an Operations and Support Services capability for the CSU’s Technology Infrastructure Initiative must have an evolutionary, as well as revolutionary approach in order to meet the CETI business concept of exceptional customer satisfaction. This support services structure must provide a continuous "we’re here to provide solutions" approach to serving students, faculty and staff throughout the CSU in which 23 distinct and unique campuses function.
It is the intention of CETI to insure that the management structure will provide support services to maintain the technology infrastructure and assist the users in a manner that delivers a complete operations solution for all CSU campuses to utilize. It is understood that some students, faculty and staff will have a "if it’s not broke… don’t fix it" concept and the critical element in these situations is to establish a presence and understanding on each campus that whatever services are required, a management point of contact (POC) will be available.
After initial assessment of the CSU user needs, the Operations and Support Services organization will be structured to deliver the breadth of services required by the CSU community. This includes Help Desk, regionalized hardware and software services, inter-campus and campuswide network and infrastructure operations and support (including voice and video), planning and implementation services, training, engineering services, and technical support.
Support Services Profile. In order to produce the required work, CETI recommends the implementation of a single point of contact support center.
Benefits of this approach include:
Network Operations Profile. The Network Operations and Control Centers (NOCC) will be structured to provide the management and performance needed to support and monitor the 4CNet, the Intra-Campus CAN, and the network components and integrity within each of the buildings supported by the network. It is recommended that there be two NOCs to provide support capabilities during any disaster or crisis situation. This will offer the CSU infrastructure the highest level of survivability and support. Both NOCCs will have the infrastructure and capability to provide all required monitoring, diagnostics, and technical support for the CSU networking and physical infrastructure.
Training Profile. Training scope and charter will include support to students, faculty and staff, per the baseline agreements established in the Master Service Agreement. In addition to these responsibilities, technical training support will be provided to the entire technical operations support staff. This statement of work establishes these two specific and individual training requirements and establishes the organization that will be required to support both of these missions.
Implementation and Planning Profile. The CSU will have an ongoing requirement to install, deinstall, upgrade, integrate, and relocate desktop hardware, network equipment, operating systems, and software applications. As required and tasked by CSU, CETI will plan and implement these changes for currently installed systems and new equipment required to meet CSU objectives.
Quality Profile - ISO 9000 Registration. The decision has been made that the CETI organization will be registered or certified as an ISO 9000 organization. ISO is the International Organization for Standardization and its objective is to promote the development of standards, testing, and certification in order to encourage the trade of goods and services.
Benefits from being an ISO 9000 certified organization include:
As stated earlier this plan is very tentative and is being developed by a team of CSU and corporate partner personnel. The near term objective is to have a support organization ready to support the Telecommunications Utility portion of this plan.
VI. PROCESS AND TIMELINE
Development of the CSU Integrated Technology Strategy
(December 1993 through September 1997)
In late 1993 the presidents of the California State University campuses decided that it was important to leverage information technology resources to advance the mission and programs of the system. They formed four task forces, each staffed by experts from the campuses and the Chancellor’s office, to study in depth four major challenges related to meeting the system’s technology needs: 1) intra-campus infrastructure requirements; 2) inter-campus networking needs and; 3) applications which could effectively and efficiently serve multiple campuses; and 4) funding alternatives and priorities to implement these plans successfully.
As a result of the work of these task forces, the CSU Executive Council created a comprehensive systemwide planning and advisory system comprised of three systemwide commissions led by campus presidents. A team of faculty and staff from the campuses was established to work with the newly hired executive director and outside consultants to begin the strategic planning process later called the Integrated Technology Strategy (ITS). As part of the planning, campuses were asked to prepare detailed telecommunications infrastructure master plans identifying available assets and campus needs.
The ITS executive director and the consultants, with the assistance of the CSU team, convened focus group meetings and workshops with stakeholders (faculty, students, staff, alumni, legislative staff and potential partners) throughout the state in May and June of 1995. The focus group input was augmented by mail surveys of faculty, staff and students on selected campuses, and by an institutional survey of technology resources and expenditures on every campus. This input from the focus groups and the surveys was subjected to a "filtering" process designed to identify potential initiatives and projects of high priority to CSU stakeholders. The result of this lengthy and intensive planning process was the Integrated Technology Strategy, a comprehensive plan for leveraging technology resources to meet the needs of the CSU.
Focus on the Infrastructure: The Partnership Option
A major consequence of the ITS discussions with students, faculty, staff and campus administrators was the recognition that before the strategic outcomes associated with Integrated Technology Strategy could be met, all CSU campuses must have at least a "baseline" level of access to hardware, software and the network, and to the training and technical support to make effective use of these resources. To achieve the kinds of improvements in learning and teaching, the quality of the student experience, administrative productivity and quality, and personal productivity possible through the use of current information technology, the California State University must have a robust technology infrastructure; i.e., high speed, high capacity intra- and inter-campus networking capability, access to essential hardware and software for faculty desktops and general computing labs, training programs and ongoing professional and technical support at any time from anywhere.
Based on the advice of the Commission on Telecommunications Infrastructure, the presidents considered several possible solutions to funding the build out of the technology infrastructure. Based on the information provided by the technology infrastructure master plans submitted by each campus, and after in-depth analysis of alternative financing strategies, the presidents in October, 1996, agreed to form a Systemwide Internal Partnership (SIP) to pursue a partnership with the private sector as the means of financing the development of at least "baseline" level technology capacity on all campuses of the system within a reasonable period of time.
The competitive process of identifying potential partners that began in the fall of 1996 culminated in September, 1997, with the selection of four corporations–GTE, Fujitsu, Hughes Electronics and Microsoft–with which to begin negotiations aimed at establishing a partnership. The starting point for negotiations was a draft business plan to create with the CSU the California Education Technology Initiative (CETI).
Table 1 highlights key events in the ITS planning timeline.
Shaping and Implementing the Partnership
(September 1997 through February 2001)
Immediately following announcement of the selection of CETI as the potential partnership team, work began to shape a plan that would meet the technology infrastructure needs identified by students, faculty and staff. SIP delegates, other campus volunteers and corporate representatives formed five task groups to do the detailed work necessary to develop a partnership plan. This work is still in progress. Each of the teams has a CSU and an industry partner chair. The tasks assigned to each task group are summarized below.
The Infrastructure Buildout Team is addressing the technical and operational issues related to hardware, software, networking, training, and support. Meetings have been scheduled with teams of information resource and physical planning staffs from each campus to discuss in detail issues related to implementation of the intra-campus infrastructure.
The Revenue Generation Team is examining the marketing feasibility of a range of products and services and has scheduled regional meetings with campus staff who have appropriate expertise and responsibilities.
The IT Professional Development Team is working with campus information resources managers to identify the training and development needs of their IT staffs.
The Communications Team focuses on information sharing with external and internal groups. Visits to every campus by a CSU and an industry representative have been scheduled to provide an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to discussion issues of concern.
The Organization/Governance and Master Agreement Team is addressing legal, structural, financial and strategic issues surrounding the partnership agreement.
The Partnership Plan
Based on the work of these task groups a partnership plan has been drafted which defines the purpose, organization and scope of the partnership, the principles by which it is bounded, the terms and conditions each partner must meet, and the financial plan on which it founded. The central components of the partnership plan include:
Key dates related to the partnership plan are:
Beginning Campuses, academic senates, CSSA and CSEA review and
December 10 provide feedback on components of the draft partnership plan
January 6 Joint committee of the California State Legislature holds hearings on the partnership plan
January 14 Campuses and CSU constituency groups complete review
January 15-16 SIP makes final revisions to plan based on feedback from campuses and constituency groups
January 17 Final plan and related documents are made public
January 26 Executive Council reviews plan and makes recommendation to the chancellor
January 27 Chancellor presents plan to Board of Trustees and announces the partnership decision
January 31 The Master Services Agreement between the CSU and the CETI partners is signed
Preparations for Implementation and Initial Intra-campus Buildout
Every CSU campus is geographically, topologically, architecturally (in terms of telecommunications networks) and programmatically (in terms of academic calendars and priorities) unique. The gaps between the current technology infrastructure and the "baseline" capabilities identified in the ITS differ greatly from campus to campus. Campuses also differ with regard to the mix of computer platforms in use. Because of these disparities, a uniform approach to building out the technology infrastructure on all campuses is not practical. To ensure that the infrastructure build out is coordinated with campus priorities and schedules, each campus will work with a partnership team to create campus-specific "riders" to the master services agreement.
Actual construction of intra-campus infrastructure improvements will begin in the spring and continue for three years.
In addition to finalizing implementation plans for each campus, work on several key components of the partnership remains to be completed: agreements between the CSU and the industry partners for IT professional development and for management of 4Cnet (the inter-campus network connecting all CSU and Community College campuses); establishment of the new CSU advisory commission and the two new business entities (non-profit auxiliary and for-profit LLC); a agreement on a detailed revenue generation plan.
A deadline of June 30, 1998, has been set for concluding all partnership agreements essential to fully implementing the master services agreement.
Implementation of the Partnership Plan
Starting July, 1998, the partnership should be in full operation.
Table 2 highlights key events in the partnership consultation and agreement timeline.
