The Lone Star College System is one of the largest community colleges in the country, with six campuses across northern Houston, some 87,000 degree-seeking students, another 15,000 in various workforce development programs, and about 5,500 faculties and staff.
A centralized IT group encompassing 189 full-time employees handle all IT requirements for the system. Since 2011, Link Alander has been leading the team as vice-chancellor/CIO, having come up through the ranks after joining the college as IT director in 2004.
Like any leader of a large IT organization, Alander faces challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified IT staff. His go-to solution is one that is expected from an institution of higher education: a heavy dose of training.
The Enterprisers Project (TEP): How has the emphasis you put on training evolved in recent years?
Alander: It’s been a progression. In 2008 we started to determine the core technology standards we wanted to have and what training was necessary for the staff to support those technologies. Having core standards in place makes it a lot easier because then you can focus training on something that maximizes the value to the organization.
And everybody on our staff is ITIL-certified at the Foundations level, if not higher. We focus heavily on IT service management, so everyone understands how to operate and be professional in the organization. Twice per year we have training sessions and certification testing for all new employees, including our part-timers – and there are more than 100 of them.
In 2011, we added the SkillSoft online learning repository, which we also offer to our part-time employees. SkillSoft helps them develop both IT and interpersonal skills, which is typically a weakness in IT; it’s critical to develop them further.
TEP: What prompted these investments and convinced you they were worthwhile?
Alander: In Houston, we have major competition when it comes to getting high-quality employees. We realized we were better off making sure we’re investing regularly in training. And the employees recognize training as an opportunity and a benefit. They tend to stay a lot longer.
At the same time, we see a benefit because the quality of work goes up. Best practices are in place. I don’t have issues when it comes to change control and unauthorized changes because everyone is fully versed in all the processes and how we operate.
TEP: Have you measured what difference the training made regarding turnover, say since 2008?
Alander: We’ve cut our turnover rate well in half. Right now I’m at about 93 percent staffed, which is pretty high for higher-ed IT. That’s usually about the highest I get because you have regular technician turnover.
TEP: Can you talk more about ITIL and how that effort has paid off regarding the quality of service you deliver?
Alander: We’re all in, is how I would put it. When I took over in 2008 on the technical side, our goal was to achieve five 9s availability on everything. We did that and had maintained a five 9s environment for our Tier 1 applications.
On the customer service side, we have customer surveys that go out with every support and incident ticket. Out of a 5-point scale, we’re at a 4.6 and have seen a progressive increase over the years.
Now we’re trying to reduce our planned downtime further. Over the last year, we’ve reduced planned downtime by 20 percent, and I think we can squeak out another 10 percent. We’ve focused on better preparation when we get into that change window, working through the scenario over and over again in a test environment.
TEP: Have you tried any informal on-the-job learning experiences such as job rotations and special projects?
Alander: Yes, there’s a lot of both. Say we’re doing a major server or network refresh. A lot of the higher level desktop people may want to get engaged, so they can learn more about how it’s all configured and operates. Typically, technical services do its heavy work – especially major network or server upgrades – in the summer when the colleges are slow. During the summer, we only have about 22,000 students. So it’s a lot easier to give up a few people so they can help out on a project.
TEP: What other benefits do you see from all the training you do?
Alander: The recognition by the organization of how professional the staff is helping in all areas of support. It’s consistently recognized. Even when something bad does happen, the communications layer and the process we use there minimizes the impact to our customers and the adverse consequences to IT. The organization sees us as a truly valued business partner. That’s really what it did for us across the board.
