| | June 20159CIOReviewThe focus must always be on revenue generation, new markets, new business models and personalizing student experiences to boost retention and recruitment efforts. A "digital minded" higher education CIO, must rely on their team(s) to manage operational efficiencies that keep the basics running, while they work diligently on building the institution's digital capabilities to serve, retain and recruit. As I reflect on how my role as CIO has changed in recent years, I know that I am definitely less connected to the back end system operations. In my daily routines, I find myself rotating through the following roles--risk mitigator, collaborator, strategist, story-teller and communicator, transformation specialist, negotiator, relationship builder, cost optimizer and secure access provider. As I am sure is the case with many of my colleagues, when you demonstrate over time that you understand the needs of your institution and involve yourself in difficult problem solving exercises, you might also be tapped for involvement in "special projects" or asked to lead strategic initiatives. In May 2015, I was asked by my president to take on the role of Chairing the newly constituted Admissions Coordinating Council with primary responsibilities for the daily operations of Recruiting, Admissions and Financial Aid. On some campuses that concept might be perceived as heresy--after all what IT leader knows anything about the intricacies of enrollment management--and I am sure the same sentiment was echoed by many on my own campus. I should also mention that in the midst of managing what was a truly transformative process for me personally, my institution was already embroiled in rolling out a new ERP system, implementing marketing automation capabilities, and custom developing salesforce CRM solutions to improve recruitment and admissions operations. The task of prioritizing resources to handle the competing priorities became even more difficult in the midst of multiple budget exercises to reduce operational expenses. Overnight, my focus was less about the adoption of self-service tools, learning management systems, video distribution systems, and cloud storage options--all necessary and needed but none as directly involved with the university front line sales operations for revenue generation. While the functions were different--I quickly confirmed that many of the same operating rules applied. The things that we do naturally and innately as IT leaders--process improvements, data modeling, incident and problem management, risk management, cost optimization and process and relationship management, were very easily applied to the recruitment and admissions operations for our university. Fast forward 19 months and we now have a series of streamlined processes made possible by automation and a team of people on the university's front lines operating with-dare I say it-a true sales mindset. The process was not without its challenges but we achieved more than what we set out to achieve and the work continues. As we started the rebuilding process for recruiting and admissions, it was clear that we needed to collapse a few legacy units for savings while improving efficiencies
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