Saturday, June 21, 2008

I have changed

Editorial: I have changed regarding IT services at SJSU

I used to be a strong supporter of centralization of information technology (IT) services, especially e-mail, at SJSU.

But, I have changed.

It used to be, when I sat in meetings with other academics and IT professionals at our university, when I heard them figuratively kick and scream at the idea of centralization, it used to be I thought they were wasting the taxpayers money needlessly.

But, I have changed.

I have changed since I went to our central IT group with a need that would require a little flexibility on their part, that would need a little bit of willingness to work with the customers, that would enable us to better serve our customers and was told, no. Their cookie cutter response was to say, essentially, it is their way or the highway, the customer be damned and that was the moment that I changed. Their proposal would hugely inconvenience and confuse the students, faculty and staff that are our customers. In my opinion, that is not acceptable...

So, I have changed.

I want to personally apologize to all of my colleagues whom I have encouraged to abandon their department and college level IT services. I was wrong. I see that now. I have changed. They are absolutely right to want to stay free and independent. They are absolutely right to want to be able to provide creative solutions and personalized customer support that works for their customers. They are absolutely right to try to stay out of SJSU's centralized IT as much and as long as they can. Now, I am on their side. From what I see, SJSU's centralized IT is broken.

Note: I am writing this editorial at home, on my own computer, on my own time. I am writing this as a blogger journalist and a taxpayer even though I work in a lead capacity at the San Jose´ State University Help Desk and teach in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Please feel free to post comments and/or responses to this blog post.

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