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CCIT name change reflects information services by OCIO staff Since his arrival on campus more than a year ago,  Frank C. Clark, Ph.D., has focused on efficiency and effectiveness across the MUSC Information Technology (IT) service areas.  To that end, he has announced an important name change in conjunction with recent reorganization of core IT services.  MUSC's Center for Computing and Information Technology (CCIT) will join two MUSC IT support groups to become part of a new organization, Information Services. OCIO-IS leaders meet to discuss the new organization details. They include (from left): John Dell, director of Finance/Administration Systems; Melissa Forinash, controller; Dr. Frank Clark, Vice President of Information Technology; Dave Northrup, director of Clinical Systems and Kurt Nendorf, director of Infrastructure Systems. Information technology resources from Ambulatory Care Systems and Heart and Vascular Systems will join with CCIT to form Information Services and officially report to the Office of the Chief Information Officer  (OCIO). OCIO will manage, coordinate and facilitate the IT service efforts across the MUSC enterprise. Routinely, the acronym OCIO-IS will be used to refer to the new organizational entity.  By changing the department's name to Information Services, Clark shifts the emphasis off of technology.  “Often we get lured into the technology trap, believing that it is the magic elixir, the cure to all of our process and management flaws,” Clark said. “We’re thinking in terms of managing information, not technology, and providing services, not just servers.  “The rapid convergence of technologies and our total reliance on automated systems require us to think in terms of serving MUSC’s overall mission. Working to effectuate business process redesign and change management requires greater focus on strategic goals and enterprisewide collaboration as we assess which IT initiatives are working and which need to be modified.” He admitted the name may take some getting used to, but said he knew “all of the staff will continue to deliver support services to MUSC in their familiar role as the central MUSC resource for electronic information management.” Overall, the OCIO has been charged with efficiently and effectively coordinating all information technology services across the MUSC enterprise; therefore, it also has an important interest in and collaborations with other MUSC IT-based groups on campus, including the IT coordinators (ITCs), the IT Lab, Library Information Services and additional departmental application support personnel.  “In the future, there may be opportunities for additional consolidation or formalization of reporting relationships with other campus information agencies,” Clark said. OCIO-IS will be a “ dynamic and evolving organization/structure that over time seeks to establish an integrated enterprisewide IT organization that clearly defines the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of all MUSC IT staff. To date, we have defined the MUSC IT governance model, established the Office of the CIO (OCIO); filled four of five OCIO directorships, and reorganized CCIT staff along directorship lines. “We are in the process of consolidating application hardware and OS support under the Infrastructure Division,” Clark said. “The OCIO will also evaluate and analyze reporting relationships of MUHA departmental IT support staff (i.e., Lab, Rx, Rad, PACS, etc.). Additionally, the OCIO will analyze the business case for IT outsourcing and clarify the relationship and role of ITC’s and other IT support staff within the MUSC IT initiative and the OCIO.”  Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.