New guide offers a model for information technology planning that is tailored to the needs of HBCUs

WASHINGTON
Historically Black institutions seeking guidance on how to develop an up-to-date information technology plan for their campuses may have a solution in a new guide published by the Executive Leadership Foundation (ELF).

The Technology Transfer Project Strategic Planning Model report is a 30-page guidebook and software package that offers a strategic planning model for HBCUs that are developing a strategic plan for information technology infrastructure on their campuses. The report, the first of its kind, was produced pro bono by the highly regarded Booz, Allen & Hamilton consulting company. The report and software is estimated to have cost $450,000 to produce, according to ELF officials.

"Our goal is to deploy this model to as many HBCUs as possible," says Ramon Harris, director of ELF's Technology Transfer Project.

The report has four principle sections: technology usage model, baseline survey and needs assessment, cost model and funding strategy, and technology strategic plan. The technology usage model section directs school officials on evaluating how their institutions use information technology. The baseline survey and needs assessment section provides guidance to officials on assessing how their institutions perform compared to "Best Practice" institutions. The cost model and funding strategy helps officials assess costs for making campus information-technology infrastructure investments. And the technology strategic plan section provides a template for an institution to develop an overall plan for its campus.

Introduction and deployment of the information technology model marks a high profile initiative for ELF's Technology Transfer Project. Launched in 1996, the TTP has promoted information "technology awareness among faculty, students, and administrators" at HBCUs. The project has targeted six HBCUs as partner institutions.

Partner institutions receive assistance from ELF and corporations in four areas: strategic planning, faculty development, computer hardware and software, and summer internships for students. ELF allocated $600,000 to support the TTP during the 1997-98 academic year.

Conceived in 1996, the strategic planning model was completed this past summer and introduced in September. Since October, Harris and ELF staffers have visited Morehouse, Spelman, and Bethune-Cookman colleges to present the technology model formally to campus officials. Harris says the model was developed with the cooperation of seventeen HBCUs, which are presently getting formal introduction to it during an initial round of campus visits by ELF staffers.

Six traditionally White institutions participated in the report's development, serving as "Best Practice" schools from which the Booz, Allen & Hamilton team drew formulas and strategies of successful technology usage. The six "Best Practice" schools, which include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland, were schools that had rankings in the Yahoo! Best Wired Colleges annual survey (see Black Issues August 20, 1998, pg. 44).

ELF officials want the report and software presented to all of the nation's HBCUs. They say the strategic planning model has the flexibility to be used at any higher education institution, but it contains materials that focus on the specific needs of historically Black institutions. A key section of the report shows schools where they can go to find funding sources for technology investments.

Harris says the report can help an institution develop a strategic plan for information technology for the first time, as well as guide a school through the pitfalls of updating an existing one.

"My guess is that most HBCUs have a strategic plan for technology," Harris says, explaining that ELF determined that many HBCUs have a need for updating technology plans.

Margaret Massey, vice-president for technology and chief information officer of Bethune-Cookman College, says the release of ELF's strategic planning model coincides with her institution's current effort to develop a campuswide technology plan.

"What we're going to do is follow their exact format," she says. Bethune-Cookman recently consolidated the administration of its administrative computing resources, academic computing branch, computer networking resources and telecommunication facilities into one department.

Massey describes the ELF report and software package as "excellent" because it allows users like her to plug information that is specific to their campus directly into charts and templates of the strategic planning model.

"All the work has been done," she says. "The software makes it very easy to fill in the blanks."

Gerald Adolph, vice president of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, says his company has considerable experience in advising Fortune 500 corporations on how to utilize information technology. Interest in working with HBCUs through ELF's Technology Transfer Project grew partially out of Adolph's involvement with the TTP steering committee, according to Adolph. He says the chairman and CEO of the company supported the strategic planning model initiative because the executive had already worked with HBCUs through serving as a board member of The College Fund/UNCF.

Adolph says it's critical that HBCUs develop a strategic understanding of how their institutions benefit from having computers and the infrastructure to support their use.

"If you know what you want, you can find a way to pay for it," he says.

Harris says that by March 1999, the seventeen "baseline schools" will have gotten formal presentations on the strategic planning model and software. He anticipates that by the end of June 1999, an additional twenty-two HBCUs will have the report and software presented to them.

ELF is the affiliate and charitable arm of the Washington, D.C.-based Executive Leadership Council, a national organization whose members include senior-level African American executives at Fortune 500 companies.

To obtain information about the strategic planning model and the accompanying software, contact the Executive Leadership Foundation at (202) 298-8226. The mailing address is 1010 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 520, Washington, D.C. 20007. The organization's Web address is <www.elcinfo.com>.