Basics

In August 2016, the IT Strategy Committee began developing an IT strategy for THM. It is intended to define the fundamental direction for the use of information technology at THM for the next 3 to 5 years.

IT strategy

Digitalization permeates almost all areas of life today and offers great opportunities. THM intends to leverage these opportunities to improve its performance in teaching, research, and administration. The necessary innovations in information technology will impact all areas of the university.

The IT strategy is part of an overall strategy for the digitalization of the university, which also includes organizational structures, the development of an IT culture, as well as processes and fundamental ways of thinking.

We will establish new technologies that will allow THM to fulfill its educational and research mission in the best possible way and to organize the necessary administrative processes economically. THM will provide the necessary infrastructure and organization and create the conditions to guarantee not only functionality and efficiency but also IT security, IT license management, and data protection.

IT mission statement

Our IT THM statement outlines our fundamental principles. We measure our IT projects and initiatives against these principles. Our mission statement is structured into the areas of technology, culture, organization, and economic efficiency. It serves not only as a framework for our strategic goals but also for our operational activities.

Technology

• We embrace new technological developments and examine their usefulness for the digitalization of THM.
• Our IT landscape is designed technically and organizationally to ensure high system availability.
• We focus on innovative core systems that meet the demand and are available worldwide if required.
• We are modernizing our infrastructure so that we have up-to-date IT structures.
• We limit ourselves to a few standards and implement integrated systems instead of isolated solutions.
• Our application systems should be user-friendly, meet requirements, and be accessible.

culture

• We are aiming for central infrastructures in order to leverage economies of scale and efficiency.
• We support all members and affiliates of the university in using digital services.
• Interactions are service-oriented, professional, and respectful.
• We provide digital services sustainably.
• Tried and tested systems are supplemented or replaced by new systems to ensure the "real-life" nature of IT use, e.g., mobile and cloud technologies.
• We are open to innovation.
• We create the infrastructure and organizational prerequisites for modern workplaces and learning environments.
• We create conditions for the further development of our employees and expect suggestions for improvement from them.
• We focus on independent work in teams.

organization

• Implemented IT governance structures support us in the development of our IT.
• We implement IT projects using modern methodologies.
• Our processes are geared towards students.
• We are prepared to question existing organizational structures, tasks or processes and to create new structures.
• We provide our productive core systems for teaching, research and administration centrally.
• We operate specialist applications in a decentralized manner.
• During the trial period, we centrally support subject-specific applications in research and teaching for small, homogeneous user groups, provided these are previously approved by the IT project committee and supported by the presidium .
• We have a user concept for both centralized and decentralized applications.
• We have an IT product catalog.

Economy:

• We are primarily improving our IT landscape using existing resources.
• We opt for solutions that can be implemented and integrated by our employees, and we rely on standard solutions.
• We check the existing capacities for utilization and adjust them if necessary.
• We are investing in IT for digitalization and future security.