Strategy

The UIT strategy defines the foundational capabilities that we want to ensure we can provide and that the community can depend on. It also explains what investments we are making to establish new capabilities to further York’s University Academic Plan (UAP). Lastly, it defines the communities we want to enable by investing in these foundational and emerging capabilities.

01.

Ensure a Solid Core

Ensuring a solid core identifies the key areas that UIT will be focusing on to ensure that we provide available, reliable and secure digital infrastructure and services to York’s community.

Service Availability & Responsiveness

We're committed to making UIT services available and responsive.

We strengthen our service performance by closely monitoring, tracking, and collecting data, which we share with our community through the IT Service Status and Service dashboards. We're using this data to enhance our services and meet commitments that our community can depend on. Alongside targeted improvements, UIT will also collaborate with IT partners to develop IT service harmonization across the institution, simplifying how the community engages with and receives support.

Modern Digital Infrastructure

York’s digital infrastructure is the backbone of its operations.

UIT is investing in this infrastructure to keep it resilient, scalable, and secure. Our efforts include modernizing legacy systems, enhancing core and distributed networks, upgrading computing and storage solutions, and migrating to cloud technologies, all while ensuring our risk mitigation and recovery plans are current.

Cybersecurity Program

In today's world, cybersecurity is essential for protecting York's information from evolving threats while ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of our data.

To achieve this, UIT is investing in several key areas aligned with NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) guidelines:

Enhanced Risk Assessment: We're improving our risk assessment process and developing a comprehensive asset inventory to identify vulnerabilities and threats.
Advanced Protections: We're implementing advanced endpoint protection, enhancing identity access management, and using Data Loss Prevention solutions to safeguard our assets and sensitive information from potential breaches.
SOC Modernization: We're modernizing our Security Operations Center (SOC) and integrating automated vulnerability management tool to improve our threat detection capabilities and stay ahead of emerging cyber threats.
Incident Response Planning: We're developing and rigorously testing an incident response plan to ensure our organization is prepared for all cyber incidents.

Strong Team

UIT's greatest strength lies in its people and their collaboration for the benefit of the institution.

We’re dedicated to building strong teams through continuous training, relationship-building activities that foster trust and camaraderie, and recognizing our team members' hard work and achievements. A motivated and skilled workforce is essential to our ongoing success.

02.

Establish New Digital Capabilities

Ensuring a solid core identifies the key areas that UIT will be focusing on to ensure that we provide available, reliable and secure digital infrastructure and services to York’s community.

Gen AI Platform

We are investing in several Generative AI (Gen AI) services to harness its full potential.

These tools will help automate mundane tasks, provide sophisticated insights, and enhance the experiences of both staff and students. Key investments include:

Budgeting & Forecasting

UIT is partnering with York’s Budget and Modeling (BAM) department to establish a new budget and forecasting solution aimed at reducing manual work by automating budgeting and forecasting processes and data management.

This platform will enhance York's capacity for complex financial scenario planning—enabling informed decision-making that aligns with our strategic objectives.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Our IAM program will ensure that the right individuals can access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons.

We'll protect York's privileged accounts using technologies like CyberArk and modernize our legacy Passport York infrastructure with ForgeRock and SailPoint IAM solutions.

Data & Analytics

Data is one of York's greatest assets, and we're dedicated to helping the university leverage its value.

Our investments in data and analytics will focus on enhancing our analytics and government reporting infrastructure, supporting data-driven decision-making, improving operational efficiency, and reducing technical debt.

Admissions

Recognizing the importance of its Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM), UIT and OUR are partnering to deliver a new Admissions platform.

This platform will:

Improve communication with prospective students
Streamline and automate workflows across various teams
Automate conversion activities
Increase the visibility of interactions and associated impacts.

Centralizing data and automating key steps ensures faster decision-making and enhances communication throughout the application journey—ultimately providing a seamless experience for both applicants and admissions staff.

03.

Enable Community

Enabling Community is all about leveraging York’s foundational digital core and newly developed platforms. We aim to empower faculty and staff to innovate and create value for York's greater community. These are the key communities we will focus on empowering to drive positive change over the next two years.

Research

We look to enable and advance York's research agenda through services that include access to Gen AI services, storage and data management supports, electronic curriculum vitae (Discover York Academics), cybersecurity consulting, advanced data analytics, and collaborative tools that enable our researchers.

Teaching & Learning

Our teaching and learning initiatives are designed to enhance the educational experience through innovative technology.

This involves integrating modern digital tools in the classroom, supporting online and hybrid (HyFlex) learning models, and ensuring that faculty and students can access the resources they need when they need them.

University Operations

Harness York’s data assets, UIT wants to enable efficiency, accelerate personal productivity, increase team collaboration and enable meaningful insights and better decision-making throughout the institution.

Our commitment extends beyond merely provisioning technology; we will work with our members to increase their access, understanding and ability to create value for their constituents.

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Engage

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Performance

Focus on measurable outcomes by monitoring performance and setting service-level agreements (SLAs) in SCAMP. SLAs are formal commitments with clear expectations for response times, resolution, and service quality—helping us set and meet user expectations.

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Decision Rights

Establish clear service ownership to eliminate confusion, ensure accountability, and empower teams to make swift, effective decisions.

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Financials

Optimize resources to tackle structural deficits and tech debt—prioritizing sustainable solutions to keep systems efficient, scalable, and aligned with our goals. Every dollar strengthens our foundation and drives us toward long-term success

Enable

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Organizational Structure

Strengthen our operations by rebalancing resources and focusing talent where it's needed most. This reorganization helps us tackle current challenges, prepare for what's ahead, and stay agile and resilient while unlocking our current team's full potential.

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Sourcing & Alliances

Leverage partnerships and external alliances to bolster our capabilities. Establishing a culture of collaboration, accountability, and empowerment strengthens relationships internally and externally, driving impactful results.

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Talent

Build and retain a strong, skilled team by addressing recruitment gaps and creating growth opportunities. Focusing on talent ensures UIT remains at the forefront of innovation and service excellence.

Deliver

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Ways of Working

Our unified 'hamburger' structure streamlines service management, making the catalogue simple to browse and engage with. It enables customers to easily request and access services,

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Tools

Upgrade and align our technology to match the new service catalogue. By integrating the hamburger framework, we enable efficient workflows and provide staff with the resources they need to excel.

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Places

Address structural deficits to reduce tech debt and create spaces—both physical and digital—where innovation thrives. Future-proofing our foundation ensures we stay agile and adaptable to change.

Initiatives

Learn what we’re working on and how it benefits everyone at York.

Artificial Intelligence

Cybersecurity

Network Modernization

SSRP