Treat them like they have laptops

ABSTRACT

Upon arriving at the Yale School of Management as the new Director of IT, I encountered a variety of challenges. A series of directors had held the position in the last three years, resulting in a lack of long-term direction. Multiple systems failures had significantly eroded customer satisfaction. Short-term planning and constant fire-fighting had created a fractured and stressed IT department. And outdated services were monopolizing a majority of IT staff support resources.The Yale School of Management requires all students to own a laptop computer. I soon noted a common question from the students: "Why do I need a laptop?" Over a period of three years, this question became the focus point for creating IT strategy, organization, and delivery of services. This paper will give an overview of the resulting changes, and outline our successes and failures.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.0 General

General Terms:
Management, Performance, Reliability

Keywords:
laptops, management, network, resources, support, wireless