We provide computing and information services to help our customers achieve their missions. We serve the full range of university functions including teaching, research, public service, and administration.
Our most important services are those that need to be shared by multiple divisions of the university, those that need to be coordinated between multiple customers, and those that need to be ongoing to assure continued availability over the years.
Our primary customer is Texas A&M University, its students, faculty, and staff. We also support the agencies and institutions of the Texas A&M University System and other clients who contract for services, provided such services are compatible with meeting TAMU's needs.
Our staff is our most important resource. Their technical and management expertise is available to our customers both directly through consultation and contracts for services, and indirectly through their work to provide the other resources:computing systems, networks, software, and information.
We want to be our customers' first choice for their computing solutions.
We encourage active communication to develop mutual understanding. We actively listen to people and respond to them to assure we understand them. We actively inform people and solicit their feedback to assure they understand us.
We communicate with people in their own terms.
We keep our customers informed. We publicize our mission and roles so they know what to expect from us. We inform them about the services we offer and how to use them. We keep our customers up to date on our plans. At the same time, we work to maintain an understanding of our customers' missions and plans.
We communicate with our fellow employees. We understand that we are dependent upon each other to offer coherent services, so we must keep each other informed of our mutual plans and activities. This mutual dependence and communication extends between peers, between functional areas, and between management and working functions of CIS.
We value all opinions. We appreciate constructive criticism and we learn from it. We realize there are multiple ways to accomplish a task.
To facilitate communication, we make ourselves available and accessible. We publish our office locations and hours. We read our electronic mail and we respond promptly. We attend scheduled meetings and arrive on time.
Good communication requires everyone to participate. CIS employees are encouraged to be expressive and communicative. This helps eliminate wasted time and effort due to misunderstandings or poorly communicated objectives.
We are dedicated to the total success of our customers. We continuously evaluate our operations. The yardstick we use is will it help our customers.
When we deal with our customers, we ask ourselves the question, "How would we like to be treated if we were the customer?".
This simple question forces us to review our answers time and again before we give them to our customers.
We are not afraid to take a chance. We seek fresh ideas and new procedures for dealing with projects. In this rapidly changing industry we recognize the value of testing new technology and paradigms.
We are innovative and creative when searching for solutions. It is part of our training. CIS people are talented and each contributes to the total operation of the department. Team members encourage and mentor one another. CIS teams are encouraged to take calculated risks.
We are honest and forthright with each other and with our customers. Managers are expected to be honest with staff, and staff are expected to be honest with managers. Likewise, mutual honesty is expected with our customers.
CIS employees annually sign a Code of Ethics statement. This statement commits us to be responsible and ethical in performing our job.
We want to be that reliable resource that can be counted on by our customers. When we quote delivery times we aim to meet those deadlines. Saying what is easy or what we think others want to hear destroys trust and undermines the strong partnership we seek with our customers. When we develop a plan with our customers, we do everything within our capability to fulfill our end of the bargain.
We want our customers to trust us at all times. If we fail to meet our customers' expectations, we will do whatever we can to make it right.
We must lead by example. We have to truly practice what we preach.
Our customers deserve the very best in reliable, proven systems. If testing new products is essential to delivering a solution, we will be a partner with our customer in testing the solution and product. We will experiment on ourselves, not on our customers.
We are viewed as a technology organization and we have a reputation to uphold. CIS must be visionary when reviewing new innovations. We must be fertile ground for new paradigms and CIS will assume this role.
We also recognize the practical side to innovation. If it cannot be delivered or does not work, then new technology is of no benefit to our customers. Furthermore, an unreliable service is no service at all and will not be a part of CIS's offerings. In this capacity CIS is the buffer between fact and fiction.
All of us are responsible for contributing to the success of CIS and are empowered to do so.
At the heart of CIS is a competent and knowledgeable staff of dedicated professionals. This dedication is consistent at every level of the organization and within every team. We feel like this is an employee owned enterprise. Each member takes pride in the accomplishments of the department.
We are committed to providing a work environment where our employees feel valued, where each person can expect the training and tools necessary to accomplish his/her job. We share our skills and knowledge with each other.
We recognize the importance of the human contribution in our organization. We rely on empowered teams to accomplish our mission and to achieve our vision.
We desire longevity to be a result of good work being recognized and rewarded, rather than a reward for time served.
CIS is a quality organization. Quality means providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their requirements. Quality improvement is the job of each of us.
CIS is an active participant in the Continuous Improvement Process at TAMU.
We continuously evaluate our progress to ensure we are delivering quality service. We rely on team based principles and techniques to continually improve our service. Our customers are vital members of our teams.
We are a service organization. We will be there for our customers when they need us and in the way they need us. The name in our title is more than just a word. It is a commitment to provide quality service at every level. Our service offerings are what our customers want, not simply what we want to provide.
We listen to our customers and respond to their requests for services.
We are responsible for a large number of shared resources. We are obligated to exercise good judgment in managing those resources.
Because our customers entrust us with their mission critical applications, they rely on us to respect the value of their time and resources. Therefore we seek the best solution and the best implementation.
We carefully manage CIS resources, dollars and people. We do this to achieve our mission, to help our customers be successful and to help the people of CIS perform their jobs.
We are, as an organization, a single team. We are competent and qualified professionals, each with unique talents and skills, united by the common understanding that we are each responsible for accomplishing our mission. Successful teams depend on each person's contribution. Each of us In CIS is accountable individually and as part of a team for our performance. We believe exceptional work individually and as a team deserves recognition.
Our customers are also part of our team. When we work on a project, we are a partner with our customer. This relationship is strong and fosters the open and honest working conditions that ensure the success of each project.
We believe that problems are best solved with the collaborative effort of everyone involved, including employees, clients, and managers. Rather than have managers 'take care of things' in the traditional manner, we want to learn to solve problems together and to share the authority, control, responsibility, and rewards of successful problem-solving. Therefore, each person is expected and encouraged to participate in finding successful solutions.
CIS has developed the following roles based upon information gathered at its Future Search conference held in August 1995.
We provide shared, coordinated, ongoing computing and information resources and solutions, including:
We continuously assess the roles we perform to assure that they remain appropriate to our mission and pro-actively seek opportunities to adopt new roles.
We serve the academic, administrative and research roles of our customers.
We are committed to finding the best solutions for our customers. If we cannot provide the best solution we will assist in locating another source.
We identify needs and help assess standards in coordination with other University parts.
We strive for pervasive and transparent computing.
We need to be more entrepreneurial and business-like in the way we provide services. We need to generate income so that we can expand services to meet customer demands.
We need to be business driven and not only technology driven. At the same time, we have a government service role that is not business driven.
Support a program of excellence by providing each CIS employee with on-going training, adequate work environment and technology, and opportunities for personal and professional growth.
CIS is now working to implement these roles, as well as all its Values, Mission and Vision statements.