Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 44

Senior IS executive: Mark Marshall, director, ICT
Reports to: Darren Mitchell, CFO
Size of IS shop: 34

PCs: 2092
Mobile PCs: 200
Terminals: 125
Hand-held devices: 78
Total screens: 2495

Industry: Educational services
PC environment: HP, Windows XP
Server environment: HP, IBM, SUSE Linux, Windows
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Madras Street, Christchurch
Website: www.cpit.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.

This will be a busy year for the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) ICT team, with increased operational and staffing budgets to support an increase in student numbers and projects of more than 10 percent. Key to the expansion and development of ICT across the tertiary institution will be three major projects: integration of information systems; a rollout of desktop virtualisation; and a Novell software review. These projects, and all those engaged by the IS department, will be used to achieve CPIT’s business objectives by supporting the key institutional information, teaching and learning engagement strategies, says Mark Marshall, director, ICT. “These documents clearly set out organisational needs and expectations for the delivery of ICT services,” he says. Key to this will be ratification of a three-year IT operational plan, currently in draft form.

Marshall expects the Public Records Act to have a significant effect on CPIT thinking in 2010, as audits commence and the requirements become clearer. The direct impact on the ICT department is currently not quantified.

VoIP and wireless implementation projects initiated last year have been completed successfully and will support ongoing investments and development in unified communications. Work will continue expanding delivery using Websphere ESB and business intelligence tools. New to the landscape will be investigation and possible adoption of cloud computing technologies, as CPIT looks for efficiencies, especially in delivering desktop services.