Sourcing Maturity Self-Assessment

Abstract

There is a growing awareness among the institutions of Higher Education (HE) in the Netherlands that the use of cloud computing could help solve the problems arising from diminishing budgets. Focusing on core business while transferring (parts of) the institutional IT to the cloud could reduce costs and also increase both flexibility and quality.
Moving to the cloud, however, is not without risk. Success is not guaranteed. If an institution is not “cloud-ready”, a cloud adventure could turn into a failure and bring disadvantages. Changing to information services from the cloud is actually a sourcing decision. What institutions really need is a mature sourcing process.
SURF, the collaboration organisation of Dutch HE, is helping the institutions to make the transition to cloud services. In 2011 a “Cloud First” IT strategy was developed, which received strong support. In 2012 SURF developed a template and organized workshops to help CIOs and IT directors to formulate an institutional sourcing strategy. Commissioned by SURF, Amsterdam University published a study on the relation between the Patriot Act and Dutch and European Privacy Laws. In collaboration with CIOs and architects from the institutions a common I-strategy for Dutch HE is under development. This project will also produce common architecture principles and a generic reference architecture. And finally there is a growing interest in “cloud readiness”.