Universal College of Learning(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 77

Senior IS executive: Steve Sorsby, director of information systems and technology
Reports to: Chief financial and information officer
Size of IS shop: 7

PCs: 1250
Mobile PCs: 110
Terminals: 70
Hand-held devices: 12
Total screens: 1442

Industry: Educational services
PC environment: HP; Apple; Windows Vista, XP
Server environment: HP, EMC, Windows 2009, Sun
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, Filemaker Pro
Address: 122 Queen Street, Palmerston North
Website: www.ucol.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Desktop virtualisation; SharePoint document management server replication; data warehousing.

The IS department at the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) supports campuses in Whanganui, Masterton, Palmerston North and Gisborne. Key projects in 2010 will include introducing desktop virtualisation across the four campuses, as well as further development of the data warehouse and SharePoint document management system. Steve Sorsby, director of information systems and technology for the college, sees these projects, and IT in general, supporting business objectives “by providing timely and accurate information to administration, and relevant and responsive systems to academics and students”. An extended Learning Hub was launched at the UCOL Palmerston North campus in February this year, which is equipped with 70 computers, two active boards, large screen LCD TVs and wireless internet access.

Last year Sorsby predicted that the Public Records Act (PRA) would effect the ICT operations for UCOL. “Electronic data records management and managing the exponential growth of unstructured data have become issues for the organisation, and the PRA is having the effect of focusing the minds of people outside of IT on the problem that vast amounts of digital data is causing,” he clarifies this year.

Additional ICT projects significant to the college this year will involve server replication and data warehousing. A new CRM system was implemented in 2009, while investments in mobility will continue from last year. “By ensuring high levels of reliability and maintaining systems at the leading edge of technology, UCOL IT will continue to encourage staff and students to make the best use of the technologies available in their research, management and study,” Sorsby says.