IT Outsourcing at the University of Alberta

Published:
Briefs, Case Studies, Papers, Reports
Author(s) and Contributors:
Author(s): Ellen Hassett Matt Newsome Emillia Kancheva Peter Cunningham Sara Wells
Source(s) and Collection(s):
Sources(s): EDUCAUSE Research Collection(s): Research Case Studies
ParentTopics:
Enterprise Information Systems Collaborations and Partnerships

Abstract

The University of Alberta is a major Canadian research university with a history of developing customized information systems in COBOL since the early 1970s. In 1999 and 2000, this university completed the implementation of PeopleSoft HR, Finance, and Student Administration software suites. To reduce costs and ensure the retention of skilled IT workers, the University developed in June 2000, a trilateral alliance with itself, Payment Systems Corporation (PSC), and IBM Global Services, and Turnkey Management Systems. The alliance is responsible for data center operations, connectivity from the data center to the campus, application support of the PeopleSoft applications, database and UNIX administration, including security, application change management, and telephone based registration. This ECAR study chronicles this process, the labor issues associated with IT outsourcing, the current status, financial performance, and future plans associated with this initiative.

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