At a time when higher education is enduring budget cuts, institutions are under more pressure than ever to make each dollar count. While cuts in staff and services are often an unpleasant part of the solution, the drive toward greater efficiency also means getting smart about purchasing. And, increasingly, universities and colleges are turning to…

Vendors sometimes get the chilly on-campus reception. While they believe in building long-term relationships to make universities more competitive, some CIOs simply aren't interested. On the flip side of the coin, many administrators feel such coolness is warranted. Indeed, anyone who has attended a higher education IT conference can detect a…

Why would schools consider partnering with a vendor to operate a pilot? Why not just wait until the final product is released? For starters, pilots provide schools with a golden opportunity to get an early look at the software, take it for a test flight, and ask for changes tailored to their operating environment and business needs. In some cases,…

The Learning Management System (LMS) market is in flux. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Campus Computing Project, Blackboard's dominance of the higher education market declined from 71 percent in 2006 to 57 percent in 2010. Often overlooked in the numbers game, though, are more fundamental--even philosophical--questions about the…

As virtualization becomes commonplace in higher education, it is clear that the traditional licensing options for software are woefully inadequate. The definitions of who is licensed to use what--and where--are blurring, as users move from physical to virtual spaces and can access software from a variety of devices. In discussing the need for new…

Whether one is on Wall Street, in Congress, or working in an IT shop on campus, negotiating a good deal is hard work. As higher education enters its purchasing season, "Campus Technology" talks to deal makers who have "been there and done that." This article presents their tips for getting the most value from vendors the next time one buys…

In this article, the authors present the 2012 Campus Technology Innovators. These IT leaders have deployed extraordinary technology solutions to meet campus challenges. The authors also recognize the vendors and products involved in making these innovative projects a success. The 10 winners are: (1) University of Arizona (Student Systems and…

Out of a total of 393 entries for the 2011 Campus Technology Innovators award, 10 winners rose to the top in six categories: (1) Leadership, Governance, and Policy; (2) Teaching and Learning; (3) Student Systems and Services; (4) Administrative Systems; (5) IT Infrastructure and Systems; and (6) Education Futurists. These innovative IT leaders…

Back in the 1990s, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems may not have been user-friendly, but what they tried to do was totally reasonable: replace stand-alone systems in various departments--such as finance, logistics, and human resources--with a single integrated software program. The idea was that although each department would still have…

With faculty balking at the price of academic journals, can other digital publishing options get traction? University libraries are no strangers to one of the most popular online alternatives, the open-access archive. These archives enable scholars to upload work--including drafts of articles that are published later in subscription journals--so…

In this era of political rancor when everything is a zero-sum game, it is refreshing to think that two parties could actually come together to create a win-win situation. That is exactly what is happening, though, as a number of universities take on the role of application service provider (ASP) for smaller schools. It is not all confetti and…

Many university officials recognize the need to upgrade their older analog video surveillance systems. In a 2010 survey by "Campus Safety" magazine, half of university respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the quality and coverage of their current video surveillance systems. Among the limitations of analog closed-circuit television…

There is no doubt that eProcurement technology has turned cumbersome paper-based processes into highly connected online systems. The most basic parameters of eProcurement range from shopping for or sourcing goods, to creating purchase requisitions and getting them approved, to placing orders with suppliers, to receiving invoices--all…

No longer do universities have to decide between off-the-shelf and custom programs, or between standalone constituent relationship management (CRM) applications and ERP-integrated solutions. Instead, today's mantra is "360"--an up-close, 360-degree view of student interactions. Whether the processes and technologies employed to achieve…

This article explores different approaches that facilitate online collaboration. The newest efforts in collaboration revolve around wikis. These websites allow visitors to add, remove, edit, and change content directly online. Another fairly affordable approach involves open source, a programming language that is, in many ways, collaborative…