IT security and service among priorities

Results of UB's Outlook 2019 survey of CIOs and other campus technology administrators

It appears that campus technology spending for 2019 will be healthy—with nearly 4 in 10 of UB’s 120 technology-administrator survey respondents reporting they’ll be working with an increase in spending. An additional 45 percent are at least expecting that spending will stay the same as it was in 2018. Respondents’ institution sizes are somewhat evenly distributed, with 1,000 to 5,000 students as the most common size.

Technology leaders Outlook on 2019
Technology leaders Outlook on 2019

Where are tech dollars going? Campus IT leaders’ top priorities for 2019 are network/data security and cloud computing/storage.

On the security front, 3 in 10 respondents say the possibility of a cyberattack is a huge concern, with about 6 in 10 saying they would grade their institution’s preparedness for dealing with such an attack as an A or B.

Campus technology leaders at more than 8 in 10 of the institutions represented say their staff will collaborate more closely and frequently with other departments in 2019. Yet just 16 percent anticipate actually adding staff. Nearly half expect to work on centralizing more technology functions.

In terms of their individual roles, 60 percent of respondents say they’ll have a greater emphasis on leveraging data to identify and solve problems. More than half anticipate a greater emphasis on the core business of serving students.

One CIO, from a midsize institution, has this to say about industry actions that would help: “The need for better integrated systems that are easy to use is hitting a tipping point. Vendors need to step up and meet our student and employee needs.”

Source: UB reader survey; all numbers have been rounded


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