Establishing a mission and vision for ITaP
To: Executive Vice Presidents, Chancellors, Vice Presidents, Vice Chancellors, Vice Provosts, Deans, Directors, and Heads of Schools, Divisions, Departments and Offices
From: Ian Hyatt, chief information officer and vice president for Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP)
Date: December 10, 2021
Re: Establishing a mission and vision for ITaP
Since arriving June 1, my first order of business as Purdue University’s new chief information officer and vice president for Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) has been creating the mission and vision for managing and leading ITaP and IT operations across the Purdue system.
Having formal mission and vision statements provides clarity for personnel across all lines of the business on down. It also helps others understand what it is we’re really doing and what we’re aspiring to do. We are a big organization with a significant mission for the entire Purdue community.
The University’s systemwide IT operations consist of a substantial annual budget and over 1,100 employees, including 500 employees within ITaP.
Given the size and complexity of ITaP, creating these clear mission and vision statements was the top priority of my first six months in this role:
* Mission: ITaP provides the technology infrastructure, services, solutions and information security that support teaching and learning, enhance research, and enable faculty and staff to achieve their objectives while providing a positive student experience.
* Vision: To empower our students, faculty and staff with the technology to make giant leaps to advance knowledge, impact our state and make a better world.
The mission and vision statements build on three key pillars that have been established since my arrival for ITaP – people, processes and technology. And it was no coincidence that they are listed in this particular order:
* People: For leading ITaP in developing the skills and talents of our workforce.
* Processes: For refining and improving processes toward operational excellence.
* Technology: For deploying the right technologies to solve the right problems at the right time.
At the end of the day, the people of ITaP are the key to everything that we do to be efficient, effective. We have great processes in place to ensure that we’re being successful and as efficient as we can be. The technologies follow on as a result. But you don’t have anything without the right people who are properly prepared to live out our organization’s mission and vision.
Over the course of this first year, our plan is to elevate ITaP’s profile, highlighting, promoting and celebrating the successes of our diverse staff in their commitment to campuswide customer service.
ITaP’s vision and mission will be shared in further detail in a Purdue Today story on 12/10/2021. I encourage you to share this information with faculty and staff in your area.