by Elizabeth Ferrarini

What has been the number one organization to work for in IT for the past two years? It's the University of Miami, according to an annual ranking done by Computerworld. Dr. M. Lewis Temares, the University's CIO and Dean of the College of Engineering, deserves the credit for shaping an outstanding work environment. CIO magazine named him a CIO 100 Award winner in 2003.

As the first official CIO among the nation's 4,000 colleges and university, Dr. Temares oversees the university's $35 million IT budget for the following areas: computing, telecommunications, university planning, institutional research, and testing center. His academic role consists of managing a $12 million budget in the University of Miami’s sixth largest academic unit.

Recently, EnterpriseLeadership.org spoke with Dr. Temares about everything from quality practices to employee retention. Here's what he had to say.

EL: Several years ago, you completed a $31 million telecom project on  plan and below budget. How did you accomplish this?

LT: We used a scope diagram to organize what our personnel resources were going to do. Our methodology consisted of Arthur Andersen's Method One. We tried to get everyone involved from the start. We told everyone, including business analysts, beforehand what they had to do to complete the project on time.

EL: Do you use Six Sigma or any other best practices for  IT?

LT: We use quality practices such as Six Sigma and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) throughout our organization. In fact, our Center for Excellence in Information Technology Center program trains executives in these areas. We offer an entire suite of training for IT professionals who plan to move into the CIO role.

EL: Are you seeing a lot of demand for ITIL training?

LT: We don't know about the rest of the country, but demand for IT training and certification has certainly hit Southern Florida hard. We're seeing more and more companies sending people to get certified in ITIL. In fact, our proposals to train IT personnel for companies often include ITIL.

Our Six Sigma faculty includes Howard Gitlow who was a disciple of Dr. Deming who developed quality standards such as Six Sigma. Gitlow has written extensively on the subject.

EL: I read that you never make yourself the prime sponsor of a  project. Why not?

LT: The IT organization supports the business process. If the people in the business units don't need any technology, then we're wasting our time forcing change down their throat. Instead we need to introduce technology to people and explain how they can use it, and then get them to buy in and support projects. Thus, the project sponsor is always the end user.

EL: Do you have a governance board?

LT: We've an IT advisory council for the entire university. Every school and every department has a representative on the council. The dean of the Marine School, who has a background in computing, heads up the Council. It also consists of a variety of subgroups that guide IT policy and procedures. For example, the student advisory subgroup suggested we sign contracts with Napster and Microsoft. The latter contract provides us with campus wide support for all Microsoft products. This subgroup also advised us on specifics which needed to be written into these contracts.

EL: Since you've been with the school, the turnover in IT has gone from 50 percent to an average stay of 12 years. What's your secret for retaining employees?

LT: People stay because of the friendly work atmosphere and the rewarding work environment. I try to make working here both challenging and exciting. I allow my staff to try new things. We're willing to work with employees and provide them whatever training they need.

Following the dot.com bust, we hired a lot of good IT people to handle the expansion of our facilities. Unfortunately, we don't have as many openings now as we would like. We've an open hiring policy where we look both inside and outside for the best candidates.

The University also has the good fortune to have a president who is very visionary and can make decisions rapidly. She has a wonderful way of dealing with people.

EL: Are you working on any cost savings or cost avoidance projects  right now?

LT: We do continuous improvement projects on both the end user and IT sides regularly. These projects have two goals -- saving money and doing things better. Currently, we're looking at how we can use data warehousing and document management to help the business units save money. We're also consolidating our servers to reduce our telecommunications costs.

We've an on-going wireless project all over the campus. For example, the new student housing units will have a hardwired network, which we'll add secure wireless connectivity to. This technique provides students with the convenience of wireless from any place on campus at any time.

EL: Customer service is really important to you. How have you  improved it since you've been on the job?

LT: We're constantly doing surveys. Every time we do a telecom repair or an installation, we drop off a sheet and ask the user to tell us how we did. We analyze all of the findings and report on the results. Based on recommendations, we try to make things better.

We also have a 'listen to the customer' initiative where we go to each department and ask how we're doing. We complete a form that shows them how they can save money. We helped some departments realize they were spending extra for phones they didn't need. This effort helped us to save about $230,000 a year in telecommunications costs.

EL: What can a CIO in the private sector learn from you?

LT: Talk to the internal and external customers. They need to know what you're doing, what you're capable of doing, and how you're truly willing to help. Market what you do. Be nimble, quick, and visible.

EL: How did the Center for Excellence in IT come about?

LT: It came about because of some of our other initiatives to provide IT services to the private sector. For example, I just finished a grant proposal for a biosciences business virtual incubator. It would provide our resources, such as our network, to start-up biosciences businesses, enabling them to do research. As for the IT Leadership Center, we're going to have to train people in these companies to use our resources. They typically can't afford what they need for IT support. The grant will cover all of these costs.

EL: Are you considering any new or disruptive technologies for the  next three years?

LT: We're always looking at new things. We need to keep on top of how we're going to maintain a high speed network and the related services to maintain it. For example, we're changing our voice mail system because the vendor is no longer supporting it. We're changing to an integrated message system that will allow access to voice mail, e-mail, and fax in one place.

EL: Are you doing anything with open source software, such as  Linux?

LT: We do have some Linux. We're watching how well the University of Indiana uses open source software for some business applications, such as finance.

EL: Any comments about Nicholas Carr's book, IT Doesn't  Matter?

LT: He's right when he says IT is so ubiquitous and not a key differentiator unto itself. I agree with this conclusion. Anyone can buy Cisco equipment. The differentiator will always be how people deploy that technology. How do you negotiate to get the right type and amount of equipment on time and on budget? What makes Fedex, UPS, and DHL work is how they use the technology to provide good customer service.

Today a CIO needs to know about the technology, but doesn't have to be a hands-on expert in every aspect of it. To this end, a CIO needs to be able to bring people together to make the technology work.

EL: How you do divide your time between being a CIO and being head of  the engineering department?

LT: I spend half of my time in each place. I can only do so much in an 18-hour day. I try to give everyone my attention. I hire good people and empower them to do their job. I'm available to handle the big picture and any emergency situations.

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Elizabeth Ferrarini is a free-lance writer and IT consultant  from Boston, Massachusetts. She can be reached at elizabethferrarini@yahoo.com.