Today, the pace of change means those evolutionary shifts are happening more quickly than ever before. To date, the alternative has been a slew of costly and ultimately unmanageable modifications to your enterprise systems: small, and sometimes not so small, “tweaks” that address evolving needs, but that add up to higher ownership costs over the long term. Many of our customers tell us that it is time for a change. They want systems that evolve as their needs evolve. They want to know that they will be able to change or adapt business processes quickly. They want the ability to innovate, but they want to do it more easily, efficiently, and cost effectively. Long deLays before new features become avaiLabLe. Time to benefit. In a climate where resources are limited and time is money, waiting months, or even years, for a vendor to release the software innovation you need today makes no sense. But, for the most part, your enterprise systems still depend on a release methodology where new features and functionality are designed, developed, and then bundled into a major release and subsequent point releases. There are many ways to meet technology needs in a more timely fashion. One is to change the way that solutions are developed. In higher education, collaboration is essential to creating new knowledge. That kind of collaboration should be a key element in how we deliver solutions to you. And a more iterative and agile development process—where just the features that you need today are available to you more immediately—should be a part of any vendor’s technology portfolio. Limited abiLity to aLter or extend camPus systems. Today, your IT managers grapple with how to integrate disparate systems into your digital campus. But tomorrow
they will no longer be asking “how big can my IT grow?” but “how can my IT strategy support innovation?” And even more radically, “where will my IT live?” Our customers want a more open infrastructure, designed to scale easily and support new and emerging web services. And they want innovative ways to grapple with capacity—as the imprint of their data centers grow. inabiLity to deLiver the kind of exPeriences your education communities exPect. Really, that’s the bottom line—delivering a better experience to the community you serve. Your IT infrastructure is there to support that goal, not hinder it. Having a greater ability to extend services and support at levels expected by your “digital natives” is key. Our customers are looking for ways to flexibly and efficiently adopt modern technologies, mobile platforms, and more collaborative environments for teaching and learning. We’ve been listening and we think we have a few ideas. what’s next? At SunGard Higher Education, we have responded to these key drivers by introducing a vision and technology strategy that gives colleges, universities, and foundations unprecedented flexibility to shape how technology meets their evolving needs in a dynamic future. We call this vision the Open Digital Campus. Please watch this space for more information on our Open Digital Campus strategy and vision. And visit us at www.sungardhe.com/opendigitalcampus.
Prepared by SunGard Higher Education © 2011 SunGard. All rights reserved.