Posted by Carlyn Foshee Chatfield on April 5, 2013

IT Annual Reports

Friday, April 5, 2013

discussion led by Alison Cruess, Assistant Director of IT Communications & Training, University of North Florida

Questions for the discussion were sent to the ITCOMM mailing list in the previous week.

Notes from the session

Starting with the definition of an Annual Report from Wikipedia, we went into how to measure whether or not it is worth the effort. It seems an annual report is usually a vehicle for our CIOs to promote, validate, their divisions.

What about alternatives to an Annual Report? See the University of Kansas' "Annual Report - FY2012, accelerating bold aspirations with technology" which tied into UK's strategic plan, Bold Aspirations. Princeton has a new VP and initiated some of the AR questions out to the ITCOMM list, but they also release a 5x yearly administrative report based on when Trustees meet during academic year. Case Western, in addition to AR puts out an 8.5x11 Back to School News each semester (fall, spring) focusing on projects and initiatives, used by CIOs for his road shows - to each of the 9 administrative groups/schools. University of Georgia's VPIT writes his own monthly report of activites - instead of annual report. Published the first Monday of every month.

Are your AR's contents just IT or combined with other divisions? Most felt it was about Central IT. University of Nebraska agreed, and the target is for their president of the university system.

Printing vs online? Nebraska, KU, Rice, Princeton all said they do both. Print is limited to 50 copies or so, VP and above level. Case just switched completely to an online AR web site. Have not done a printed report in two years and have not had any requests for that. We've had a big push for accessibility; track metrics on how many times accesses online. Created UV coated postcards for VPIT to send to all his colleagues, listed simple URLs - got away from QR code.

How and to whom do you market your AR? UK sends report to all dept heads and all university's top leaders, but also developed a pocket brochure and the AR slides into that pocket, the external support staff can take a copy as they go out and meet clients. Princeton includes announcement about AR in regular communications to campus and to tech liaisons in the dept as well. Case emails the link to every person in their university mailing lists, puts UV card in every mailbox, and includes in listserv announcements.

Who is ultimately responsible for putting report together and how long does it take? Case - one person, 3 months gathering info but will take greater part of summer to create, released mid-August. KU - last year (I just started in January), began in late April - shooting for July 1; we have 1 writer and 1 graphic designer working on it. Rice - start asking for input in November, written January-Feb, released March using a calendar year review rather than fiscal/academic year. NC State - get a lot of help from our 8 directors; just me and a full and half-time person - each director actually puts their own annual report together and I combine them. Problem for me is to decide what is really important for the over; start end of March, end June 30.

Content - how many articles do you publish? NC State -40-50 extremely short articles, limited to 8 double-spaced pages. Texas A&M - focus on university level initiatives for our sections - focus on what IT enables, not what IT does. Rice also focuses on university strategies, convinced directors the rest of the university doesn't care who does what, just care about the overall project. University of Rochester uses Committee lists. Case has a new strategic plan and we'll follow that for our IT AR theme. Princeton also likes that "what IT enables" and we follow that idea.

If you list teams, what do you report on them? University of Rochester - lists brief description of what committee is responsible for, chair and members. Rice does something similar.

How do you decide what information is published, do all articles relate to your mission? KU focused mission, specific campus-wide projects, and IT organization.

Financial information, how deep do you go? University of Nebraska - don't go too deep. Trying to show upper management how we utilize budget, according to services. After that, mostly about percent breakout (maintenance, administrative) - then show percentages use for "keeping the lights on," transformational, and growing (doing the same but more of it). KU - our philosophy is that the people interested in our financials get that in the budget compact we do, 3-4 months prior to AR coming out, and AR is more of a marketing tool. Rice follows same plan. Princeton does not include financial information. Texas A&M very high level view.

Content and Design - do you use themes, change every year? Use of photos, graphics, etc? Case - used a web designer last year and we have to stay within strict branding guidelines so that shapes our design. But we are allowed a little room for innovation; try to have a picture for every feature. Try to have two articles for each section. This year, we are using videos, trying to get it more interactive. Will probably use a similar design this year and will probably go back to a web designer for the project. KU - extremely lucky that a month after David started, they hired a graphic designer -first time in my career I've had a graphic designer! Brought out annual report, pocket holder and a pocket guide - different sizes - long and narrow versus standard 8.5x11 size. Rice has changed a lot; at first, our directors pretty much ran the design and content but as I grew more trustworthy "I really do know what I'm doing," they began to listen to my suggestions and our AR grew more cohesive and digestible.

Tips and Lessons Learned - 1. Proofread! 2. Cater to the audience; will anyone really read 88-90 pages of an AR? Focus on highlights and making it readable. Graphically engaging, catering to today's reader -think news feeds, mobile apps - they don't want a lot of content. 3. May have to go back to drawing board - what is the real purpose of this report? Less is more - less text, more infographics (use a design department). 4. More photography and graphics - engage immediately, particularly a single factoid, ie: Mobile use has grown 152% in last two years. Metrics! Can be used to prove what you do, student outcomes, etc.

Carlyn's shameless plug for next two Coffeeshops that are focusing on Analytics and Metrics - UGA next week on campus-wide use for engagement and planning, followed by May coffee shop on Metrics and Analytics in IT Communications.

Looking back, wish we could redo the ARs that contained too many statistics and details, but now focusing on the really big ideas.

Feedback: Is it actually getting read or is it just a piece for our CIO to share with a few upper level executives? Try tracking web site hits if yours is electronic.

Lastly, look at some examples.

• • Case Western: www.case.edu/its/annualreport/

  • North Carolina State: http://oit.ncsu.edu/sites/default/files/2012oitannualreport.pdf

  • Notre Dame: http://oit.nd.edu/about-oit/oit-annual-report

  • Princeton (old style, revamping in 2013): http://www.princeton.edu/oit/about/oit-annual-report/Reports/AR_11-12.pdf

  • Rice (opens interactive PDF, not web page): http://vpit.rice.edu/IT_2012.aspx

  • Texas A&M: http://it.tamu.edu/annualreport

  • University of Albany (end of 3 year report): http://www.albany.edu/its/images/Strategic_Plan_for_IT_2009-12.pdf

  • Universityof Georgia (master plan): http://www.scribd.com/doc/102483582/University-of-Georgia-Long-term-IT-Master-Plan

  • University of Kansas: http://goo.gl/EUPuW University of Nebraska: http://csn.nebraska.edu/publications-reports.html

  • University of Rochester: http://rochester.edu/it/cio/ITAnnualReport.html

Chat Notes

• • Carlyn - Rice: If you do an Annual Report, why?

  • Carlyn - Rice: At Rice, it's about money and positioning ourselves with executives (my two cents only)

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): At CWRU, we publish an Annual Report as part of our efforts to prove our value to the university and to give our CIO a way to show us off to his colleagues :)

  • Rhonda - N.C. State: Rhonda - At NC State, the chancellor requests an Annual Report from all of his executive officers.

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: Lawrence Kansas - 72 and sunny today! :-)

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: I've only been here for about 14 months. Our CIO has only been here about 10 months. We did an annual report last year for the first time ever here. We did it more as a marketing piece to tell the story of our focus and vision.

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: Sorry, I put CIO has been here 10 months. That should have been 20 months. He preceded me by about 6 months.

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): We don't!

  • Carlyn - Rice: I keep my job - that is how I measure its success!

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): exactly, carlyn

  • Linda (Princeton): Princeton submitts administrative reports to the Trustees of the University five times a year:

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: You can see our Annual Report at http://goo.gl/EUPuW

  • Linda (Princeton): http://www.princeton.edu/oit/about/oit-administrative-report/

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: Our VPIT writes his own monthly reports of our activities. Otherwise, we don't have an annual report in the traditional sense. http://eits.uga.edu/about/reports

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): http://case.edu/its/news/B2S_2013_News_Spring_Active.pdf

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: Content is basically just IT, though we tie that to KU's Strategic Plan

  • Rhonda - N.C. State: http://oit.ncsu.edu/sites/default/files/2012oitannualreport.pdf

  • Sara: University of Rochester: http://rochester.edu/it/cio/ITAnnualReport.html

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: Does anyone do an annual report for an audience beyond top administrators, trustees? Who gets your annual report?

  • Sara: @UofR - we share with IT colleagues around the University (central, in the schools, medical center, etc.)

  • Kimberly - Univ of NE: http://csn.nebraska.edu/publications-reports.html

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: Some of your annual reports look great, but are they web accessible?

  • Sara: @UofR - For the past 2 years, we've done a related highlights video in addition to posting the PDF online

  • Sara: the videos have generally been well received

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: Does anyone have metrics if people are actually reading their annual reports? If so, what kind of success to you have?

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): www.case.edu/its/annualreport/

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): here's the graphic we sent out in the email last year: http://case.edu/its/email/annualreport.html

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): same thing happens to us, Carlyn!

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): good idea

  • Linda (Princeton): Thanks for sharing Kristin. Nice graphic for email.

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): thanks - we were lucky to have a great photographer work for us

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): as many as possible

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): http://case.edu/its/annualreport/financial.html

  • Linda (Princeton): Just posting Princeton's sample. A traditional approach we are looking to move away from: http://www.princeton.edu/oit/about/oit-annual-report/Reports/AR_11-12.pdf

  • Michelle Texas A&M: http://it.tamu.edu/annualreport

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): Ooohh A&M that's nice!

  • Michelle Texas A&M: thanks Kristen! we used responsive web design to allow access on mobile devices

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: Are you required to do an annual report by top university administrators? Just your CIO? Or, is it done just as a marketing piece and not a required function?

  • Kimberly - Univ of NE: Requested by our CIO

  • Michelle Texas A&M: we are strongly encouraged by our CIO

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): Its an expectation from our CIO

  • Kerri-Univ. of Georgia: With all of your hard work, time and effort, is an annual report worth it?

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): Kerri, I'm afraid to think about that!

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): I should say that in the past it might not have "paid for itself" the way we had hoped, but as we get better at using the annual report to hype IT throughout the year, it's starting to pay off more

  • Michelle Texas A&M: we do try to reuse content between the annual repo

  • Michelle Texas A&M: ...rt and other pieces

  • David - Univ. of Kansas: You can see our Annual Report at http://goo.gl/EUPuW

  • Sara: Here's University of Rochester's again: http://rochester.edu/it/cio/ITAnnualReport.html

  • Sara: Includes a PDF of the print publication and the highlights video

  • Janice Gildawie: Will you be posting the slides?

  • Carlyn - Rice: yes!

  • Alison Cruess - Univ. of North Fla: yes, slides will be posted

  • Sara: This was really helpful - thanks everybody.

  • Carlyn - Rice: Fabulous job, Alison and everyone!

  • Kristen Kolenz (Case Western Reserve): Thanks everyone! Invaluable info.