Campus involvement is key to NextGen Michigan’s success.
NextGen Michigan is a strategic program to create continuous update of IT systems, programs, and application for the entire university, deploying robust project management practices for major IT related projects. The LMS transition pilot (evaluating Canvas) is a great example of the project management process at work.
NextGen Michigan provides a central project management office and process for all technology related initiatives with personnel trained in professional project management practices. General fund reductions have made it imperative for U-M to identify ways to invest in the delivery of new and improved IT services to “spend less and get more.” In order to retain its status as a top tier university, U-M needs to be smart, selective and disciplined about reducing costs.
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- NextGen Michigan is a campus-wide IT rationalization effort
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- Shared governance principles are at the heart of NextGen Michigan.
The goal of NextGen Michigan is to establish the University of Michigan as leaders, the best in providing a campus IT environment that dramatically advances the university’s academic, teaching, research and clinical programs. The program focus on IT Rationalization to improve IT service delivery, reduce cost and repair the university’s fractured infrastructure, setting the foundation for the next generation of IT at the University of Michigan.
Examples include:
- Virtualizing servers across campus to reduce infrastructure footprint, staff effort, and energy cost
- Creating more consistent support systems for end user computing, through efforts such as MiWorkspace
- Improving data storage offerings while reducing costs
- Selecting the next generation Learning Management System
