Enterprise Information Technology Services Press Release
The University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia

OCIO > EITS > Press Releases

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

WRITER: Bert DeSimone,706-338-9849, bert@uga.edu
CONTACT: Shannon Marable, 706-542-9689, spruitt@uga.edu

International award recognizes EITS for enhancing services while reducing costs

ATHENS, Ga.— Teamwork between the University of Georgia administration and EITS has garnered an impressive international award for EITS and the University of Georgia. It was recently announced that UGA has received the 2008 SHARE Award for Excellence in Technology. UGA received the award for enhancing customer service while reducing costs associated with applications hosted on the University's IBM mainframe.

| Video | Chris Fleming (front), IT associate director, Shannon Marable (holding award), IT manager, and Jeff Garmon, database administrator principal. All from EITS.

SHARE, an organization of IT professionals who utilize enterprise-wide IBM technology, recognized the university for its efforts to improve performance and productivity, while reducing software costs and increasing customer satisfaction. The overall impact for the university was savings of more than one million dollars since December 2005 with business processes being delivered in record times.

"This is a great honor for our team," said Chris Fleming, an IT associate director with EITS. "Communication was a key factor in making this such a success. Everyone was on the same page and working toward the same goals. This is truly a team award."

"In researching for the next-generation mainframe," said Shannon Marable, an IT manager for EITS, "we discovered that running a 64-bit operation system on an IBM zSeries mainframe would enable us to take advantage of the sub-capacity pricing metric for select IBM software. Given the tight budget times, the potential for cost savings was very attractive. We discussed the potential cost savings with UGA administration and they agreed to fund the initiative. The combination of upgrading to the 64-bit machine, along with sub-capacity pricing, led to both a substantial increase in performance and a dramatic decrease in monthly costs."

Marable went on to explain, in less-technical terminology, that UGA was able to upgrade the current mainframe to a faster, state-of-the art computer while saving software costs by paying for actual use of software on a monthly basis (sub-capacity pricing).

"And the savings continue," said Marable, "averaging around $20,000 a month." The EITS team responsible for the quality improvement project evaluated current business processes and defined business rules that aligned EITS and UGA initiatives. In addition to the cost savings, there was an overall improvement to a number of processes, including student, financial, and administrative.

"The results achieved by the University of Georgia show how creativity and a thought-out approach for process improvement can save on costs and ultimately increase customer satisfaction," remarked Martin Timmerman, SHARE president. "It is impressive to hear the many successes the organization has achieved through its hard work."

According to information available on the SHARE Web site, the SHARE Award for Excellence in Technology has been given annually since 2001 to a SHARE member company that has demonstrated exceptional use of technology that leverages IBM products or services along with knowledge and professional connections developed through SHARE. Previous winners of the SHARE Award for Excellence in Technology include The Province of Quebec (2007), U.S. Social Security Administration (2006), MIB, Inc. (2005), Nationwide Insurance (2004), Caterpillar, Inc. (2003), Travelers Insurance (2002), and ISPW BenchMark Technologies Ltd. (2001).

"This is great recognition for the University of Georgia and it validates the economic value of the mainframe," said Michael Bliss, director of System z Technical Support at IBM. "At the end of the day, we're proud to be able to cite how System z [brand name for IBM mainframe computers] is making a difference in the everyday academic pursuits of university students, faculty, and staff."

"I'm extremely proud of all the EITS staff," said Jeff Garmon, a database administrator principal with EITS. "They are truly unsung heroes and played a huge role in achieving the results we've seen. However, the end results represent more than EITS efforts and I'm just as proud of the collaboration and support we've had with other campus units. I'm excited about continued opportunities and future initiatives to build on this success."

For more information on SHARE and the 2008 SHARE Award for Excellence in Technology, see:

About the Office of the CIO and EITS
The Office of the Chief Information Officer and Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) are committed to the mission of UGA as a land-and-sea-grant institution where academics come first and the research extensive university community encourages research efforts at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To that end, under the direction of the University´s Chief Information Officer, EITS endeavors to provide a robust, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure, maintain essential production services, and offer world-class support.