The Top 10 IT issues for 2018

1. Information security: Developing a risk-based security strategy that keeps pace with security threats and challenges.

2. Student success: Managing the system implementations and integrations that support multiple student success initiatives.

3. Institution-wide IT strategy: Repositioning or reinforcing the role of IT leadership as an integral strategic partner of institutional leadership in achieving institutions missions.

4. Data-enabled institutional culture: Using BI and analytics to inform the broad conversation and answer big questions.

5. Student-centered institution: Understanding and advancing technology’s role in defining the student experience on campus (from applicants to alumni).

6. Higher education affordability: Balancing and rightsizing IT priorities and budget to support IT-enabled institutional efficiencies and innovations in the context if institutional funding realities.

7. IT staffing and organizational models: Ensuring adequate staffing capacity and staff retention in the face of retirements, new sourcing models, growing external competition, rising salaries, and the demands of technology initiatives on both IT and non-IT staff.

8. (tie) Data management and governance: Implementing effective institutional data governance practices.

9. (tie) Digital integrations: Ensuring system interoperability, scalability, and extensibility, as well as data integrity, standards, and governance, across multiple applications and platforms.

10. Change leadership: Helping institutional constituents (including the IT staff) adapt to the increasing pace of technology change.