Ohio University paid $357,775 to a consulting firm for a report on its information technology services, but many of the report's conclusions were reached nine years ago by another consulting firm hired to do the same thing.
The university hired Gartner Consulting of Stamford, Conn., last year after five servers containing hundreds of thousands of personal records and social security numbers were hacked.
Its report on the university's IT services, dated February 12 and released by the university on April 16, contains conclusions similar to an IT consulting report by Real Logic completed in 1998.
A comparison of Real Logic's Technology Assessment report obtained through a records request and the full Gartner report, which was obtained from a source close to the university, suggests the IT problems the university faced nearly a decade ago are still present today.
Ironically, both Gartner and Real Logic mention that previous reports did little to change IT at the university.
Although Gartner conducted extensive interviews at the university, its report is dominated by comparisons that use proprietary benchmarking data to evaluate the university's IT services. Real Logic conducted similar interviews and focused almost exclusively on the university. Both tactics yielded several nearly identical recommendations.
Real Logic found that adequate strategic technology planning has not been done. In its executive summary, Gartner recommended that the IT services lock into a long-term (three to five year) plan for directional guidance.
Both warned that IT is understaffed and underpaid. In 1998, Real Logic noted that the university's core technology organizations are left in the position where they cannot afford to pay the salaries demanded by highly competent and specialized technical staffs or they do not have the staffing budget to hire enough of them.
This spring, Gartner's benchmarking data revealed the university employs 42 percent less staff than its university peers, with the largest gap in data networks, where the university employs nine people; 72 percent less than its peers, which average 32.1 people.
University personnel costs are lower than average, driven in part by lower cost per full time equivalencies'total full-time jobs'according to Gartner.
Concerns about different IT groups providing the same services and the costs of doing so also surface in both reports. Another effect of having multiple IT organizations, the proliferation of different software and hardware packages, makes it more difficult to troubleshoot for users or make sure all systems are up-to-date, both reports find.
Both reports advise adopting service level agreements, which would define, almost contractually, what services can be expected from IT to each of the university's other units.
Only a handful of people have access to the Gartner report, making a comparison of its findings to previous IT recommendations difficult.
Members of the university's newly-created IT advisory council who do not already have access to the full report will not get it, said Chief Information Officer Brice Bible, adding that most of the redacted information is benchmarking data analyzed in freely available sections of the report.
Although an executive summary of Gartner's report was made available, the report had significant portions of benchmarking data and analysis drawn from data blacked out to protect the company's trade secrets.
Gartner told the university what information it considered proprietary and the university's Office of Legal Affairs approved the redaction.
It's fairly common when you're dealing with IT matters
said John Burns, director of Legal Affairs, of redaction to protect trade secrets. He added that about half the consultants with which the university contracts provide trade secret information to the university as part of their recommendations.
Because the definition of a trade secret is fairly broad, what might constitute a trade secret can be nebulous.
I'll agree you might be able to debate what they consider a trade secret Burns said of redacted information in the Gartner report.
The Gartner report does contain new recommendations, discussing IT decision-making models and chargebacks, which is the idea that IT should recover service costs by billing users. It also backs its recommendations with detailed breakdowns of service areas, while Real Logic's report presents little data to support its
Bible, who based much of his initial analysis of the university's IT needs on the Gartner report, said that he has begun taking Gartner's recommendations and putting them into action.
The Gartner Report was a great benchmark a great stake in the ground
Bible said. Now it's time to move forward.
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Dave Hendricks
