Over the next 18-24 months, Administrative & Residential Information Technology (ARIT) and Information Technology Services (ITS) will be integrated into a unified organization, combining the resources of these two units and leveraging their capabilities to provide enhanced services and support to the Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services division and the broader UCSB campus community.
Benefits
- Leverage campus IT resources to implement major systems (e.g., Financial Management Modernization, Common Data Platform, UCSB Access Card) and continue to support required capabilities for Administrative Services departments.
- Build upon existing partnerships in networking, cybersecurity, and data delivery.
- Consolidate costs for site licenses, hardware, and software, where possible.
- Enhance campus’ ability to recruit, support, and retain high-quality IT employees and address single points of failure for critical operations.
- Increase system resilience while reducing complexity.
Timeline
Initiative Kickoff (August 2023)
Begin planning for the integration of ARIT and ITS and identify stakeholders.
Develop & Approve Integration Statement of Intent Agreement (Signed Nov 2023)
The Statement of Intent to Integrate was signed by the integration's Executive Sponsors in November 2023, and all Administrative Services divisional staff were informed of the intent to integrate in December 2023.
Data Collection & Analysis (September 2023 - March 2024)
Evaluation of division-wide needs and service expectations. Develop proposals for governance, operations, space, staffing, and finances based on collected data.
Develop Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) & Integration Implementation Plan (April - June 2024)
The core implementation team and project sponsors will work to develop the content of the MOU by reviewing the proposals that were approved during the data collection and analysis stage.
MOU Acceptance (June 2024)
Both ARIT and ITS will proceed with the integration implementation plan once all executive sponsors have signed the MOU.
Integrate Staff & Rationalize Services (July 2024 - ongoing)
Develop an ongoing continuous improvement cycle for the integrated organization.
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Administrative & Residential IT (ARIT) will join Information Technology Services (ITS) to form an integrated technology group that develops and supports critical, campus-wide services. These units have been working collaboratively on many projects and are now formalizing this partnership.
UCSB must continue to improve IT efficiency by scaling for value. While the specifics of the work are different, ITS and ARIT are both fundamentally administrative IT units with parallel infrastructure, administration, and support groups. Integrating these units will improve outputs by eliminating redundancy of effort and focusing resources on services that provide value to the University. Various campus IT projects on the horizon will require a collaborative approach and the strengths of our combined talent.
The integration is led by staff from Information Technology Services, Administrative & Residential IT, and the broader Administrative Services division. View the detailed integration governance and full list of participants here.
The people are not changing. ARIT and ITS are made up of capable professionals dedicated to advancing UC Santa Barbara’s teaching, learning, research and public service. This change allows these units to work together more closely and draw from more talent in pursuit of those goals. The commitment to quality service for campus is not changing.
Some upcoming projects are too large for ARIT or ITS to complete on their own, recruiting talented IT professionals in Santa Barbara has become harder in recent years, and the competition for funding new IT positions is stiff. Without making some structural changes to IT, UCSB will face growing challenges in supporting existing service offerings and little likelihood of improving upon them to meet growing needs and expectations in higher education technology.
All affected staff and impacted users will receive updates communicated through email and can visit this project page for more information at any time.
Administrative Services divisional leadership serves on the project governance to ensure that departmental needs are documented and addressed. In addition, the integration leads continues to meet with critical divisional stakeholders to discuss and understand departmental context.