Unitec(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 31

Senior IS executive: Peter Winquist, director IT
Reports to: Executive director, organisational development
Size of IS shop: 52

PCs: 2917
Mobile PCs: 351
Terminals: 200
Hand-held devices: 80
Total screens: 3548

Industry: Educational services
PC environment: Lenovo, Apple
Server environment: IBM, Sun, Dell, Novell, Windows, Unix, Linux
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland
Website: www.unitec.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Architecture review; ERP upgrade infrastructure upgrade; systems integration.

Like other educational institutions, Auckland’s Unitec understands the need to enhance the student learning experience and provide innovative teaching and learning opportunities.

Challenges include the normal pressure on IT project budgets and regular ICT operations, coupled with the strategic need to improve corporate efficiencies, profitability and the student experience. IT director Peter Winquist says Unitec has increased funding for ICT projects for the current year, due to critical upgrades that are required to support the institution’s operational procedures and Unitec’s Sustainability Project. ICT staffing levels at Unitec also remain stable.

Winquist says the next 12 months will be an interesting and busy period for ICT projects, with business process reviews and an ongoing PeopleSoft upgrade to version 9. Unitec is also continuing to make an investment in disaster recovery and business performance systems, and mobile communications and e-business portals are further areas of ICT focus. The three largest projects in terms of investment are ERP re-implementation, upgrading of the storage area network and server refreshes including virtualisation.

ICT offers support for all IT services and systems across the Unitec campuses, and Unitec’s “Ask I.T.” help desk is a single point of contact for Unitec students and staff from all departments and schools. Ask I.T. logs, manages, co-ordinates and resolves all requests relating to Unitec information technology services.

Unitec is a light outsourcer; most ICT functions are performed in-house. Exceptions are PC maintenance and onsite warranty support, which is outsourced to Cyclone Computers, and systems and network management, which is outsourced to Theta.