Waikato Institute of Technology (MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking:51

Senior IS executive: Ramon Scurrah, director, information technology services
Reports to: Director, support services
Size of IS shop: 30

PCs: 2061
Mobile PCs: 166
Terminals: 129
Hand-held devices: 25
Total screens: 2381

Industry: Educational services
PC environment: Lenovo; HP; Mac; Windows Vista, XP; Mac
Server environment: HP; Windows 2003, 2008; Mac; Linux
DBMS: SQL, MySQL
Address: Tristram Street, Hamilton
Website: www.wintec.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Public Website rebrand, redesign and infrastructure refresh; identity lifecycle management using MS ILM v2; staff intranet redesign; incorporating a private Staff Portal using MOSS 2007; electronic records management system (incorporating PRA compliance) on a MOSS 2007 platform; VoIP P.O.C using MS OCS (Mediation Server).

Diversification and boosting its international student base is high on the agenda for the Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) in 2009.

The director of IT services, Ramon Scurrah, says Wintec is in the midst of a major campus transformation programme, with a number of new buildings and refurbishments.

ICT project budgets have tightened for Wintec as a result of the current economic environment, with a decrease of more than 10 per cent for the current year. However, IT staffing levels remain stable.

Wintec’s three largest ICT projects for 2009 are the rebuilding of its public website — a process Scurrah describes as a “complete overhaul” that will include a more secure platform. Other internet initiatives include a redesign and rebuild of the staff portal using Microsoft’s SharePoint technology and employing SharePoint for efficiencies and best practices in records management and in preparation for the pending Public Records Act.

The institute will also invest in business intelligence tools for KPI dash-boarding in 2009, along with messaging technologies towards furthering its unified communications platform. On the mobile communications front, Scurrah says one Wintec teaching department is trialing video capture and delivery of teaching material to Apple iTouch devices provided to the students as part of the pilot.