The Office of Budget & Planning is providing guidance to business officers in University Business Officer meetings. Please connect with your College/Division Business Officer, who will have the latest information.

IT centralization aims to reduce University costs through increased efficiency and reducing duplication of efforts. Centralization will:

• Provide a more consistent experience university-wide.
• Streamline decision-making.
• Enhance knowledge-sharing among teams.
• Mitigate institutional risks.
• Optimize procurement practices.

One of the goals of IT centralization is to optimize investments and procurement practices to reduce costs and maximize resources. UITS will work to establish a centralized procurement process for IT software and hardware to ensure colleges and divisions have the technology they need to achieve desired outcomes. More information about a centralized process will be available to campus in the coming months. 

If support for the initiative only involves current enterprise services, UITS will provide the necessary support.      

If the initiative requires specialized services, a cost model will be developed for your department to pay for the support. 

While reporting lines will change on March 4, the role and responsibilities of staff previously embedded in colleges/divisions will not change at this time to ensure continuity of work and services. 

In the weeks and months ahead, UITS will develop a centralized IT model to balance authority between colleges/divisions and central administration while improving outcomes through efficiencies and cost reduction.  

To facilitate the transition and minimize disruption, we have established a phased approach that will continue through June 30, 2025. UITS will conduct comprehensive analyses of current operations, including a review of our practices, processes, procedures, resources and systems. Throughout this process, we will continue to review job duties and role assignments, focusing on improving workload and reducing duplication of efforts. Additional structural changes may occur within colleges/divisions and in the central divisions over time. 

We are committed to ensuring service continuity for our students and colleagues across campus during the IT centralization process. 

If you now reside in department 9528 as part of the IT Centralization, please send your requests for FMLA and other leaves to Division of HR team embedded at UITS via UITS-HR@arizona.edu. HR will work through the request and ensure that all necessary parties are informed of final determination.

Units have until March 22 to submit a request to remap a position(s). Units will need to work with Senior HR Partners for updated position description form to upload with submission. 

Learn More on the IT Discovery and Organizational Design page

If your current supervisor is in the IT job function: You will continue to have your time sheet and time off/leave approved by your current IT supervisor.  

If your current supervisor is not in the IT job function: Your time sheet will be approved by your new supervisor—Darcy Van Patten, Susan Legg, or Michael Medina in UITS—unless time sheet approval arrangements have been made within the department you support. Please continue to communicate with your previous supervisor and your new supervisor for priorities and time off/leave requests.

If you currently supervise student workers: You will continue to supervise them and approve their time sheets, although the department numbers for student workers within IT teams will not change.

This is likely a result of your home department code change to 9528. If access was provided based on department number via Grouper, please contact the department administrator who manages the application you have lost access to. The department administrator can contact Identity & Access Management for more information.

Staff within the IT job function whose positions are funded 50% or more by sponsored project accounts will not have their reporting lines or home department changed to UITS on March 4. These staff members will remain under the management of their current department and/or Principal Investigator at this time.

An analysis of IT staff funded by sponsored projects and associated contracts will be conducted in partnership with UITS, affected researchers and Research, Innovation and Impact. The analysis, set to be completed by June 1, 2024, will determine staff members within the IT job function who cannot be transferred to UITS management long-term due to contractual obligations.

Supervisors may submit a request for consideration to the Division of Human Resources. Requests submitted will be reviewed during phase two of the IT Centralization process. In phase two, UITS, the Division of HR and the requesting unit will take a holistic look at the impacted individual(s) to better understand the business need, the work the individual is performing, and impact to the University career architecture. More information about the process will be available in the coming weeks.

Your current arrangements, such as equipment, work location and schedule and existing accommodations will not change at this time.

UITS leadership began conducting outreach on Feb. 14, 2024, to employees serving in IT roles and their direct supervisors if they will have a new reporting line to UITS, and college and division leadership. Affected employees were invited to attend Open Forums with UITS leaders on Feb. 20 and will be contacted by their new UITS supervisor prior to the March 4 reporting change.

Your job duties and responsibilities will not change at this time. You will continue to have the same responsibilities for your college or division.

Your college or division will continue to set your daily priorities. UITS will provide guidelines for technical priorities such as moving certain applications or infrastructure to centrally managed services. Supervisors and employees should continue to have regular conversations about job duties and responsibilities to ensure alignment of work priorities.