One-UF IT Governance
This document addresses the governance of Information Technology at the University of Florida (including the distributed services organizations (DSOs) and Auxiliaries) and at UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville.
Responsibility and Authority
The University of Florida CIO is responsible for, and has the authority to direct, the architecture, security and provision of IT services at UF.
The UF Health CIO is responsible for, and has the authority to direct, the architecture, security and provision of IT services at UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville. The UF Health CIO will have a dual report to the UF CIO and SVP for Health Affairs for activities related to UF Health, with other reporting lines to the CEOs of UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville.
Where the IT interests of UF and UF Health intersect or overlap, the UF CIO and UF Health CIO will address issues through mutual cooperation in the spirit of One-UF with the UF CIO having the final decision regarding UF Information Technology matters.
Organizational Structure of Information Technology at UF
To provide efficient and effective services, UF IT will have a central component and distributed components.
The central component reports directly to the UF CIO and will be concerned largely with UF-wide IT issues.
The distributed components service the colleges and other major UF units. In general, each unit will have a Director/Manager of IT, who reports to the dean/director of the unit. That dean/director will determine the special IT needs and priorities within the unit, communicate those to the Director/Manager of IT, and hold the Director/Manager of IT accountable for managing IT services within the unit.
However, the Director/Manager of IT is charged with managing IT services within the unit consistent with the UF-wide policies determined by the UF CIO. In that respect, the Director/Manager of IT is responsible to the CIO and reports to the CIO in terms of how unit needs are being met consistent with UF-wide policies.
Sub-units within a major unit, such as departments and institutes, may also have IT staff assigned to them at the discretion of the dean/director. The director/Manager of the sub-unit will determine the special IT needs and priorities within the sub-unit, communicate those to the IT staff, and hold the staff accountable for managing IT services within the sub-unit. That IT staff will also manage IT services within the unit consistent with UF-wide policies determined by the UF CIO, be responsible to the CIO and report to the CIO how unit needs are being met consistent with UF wide-policies.
Interaction with Information Technology at UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville
UF Health Shands Hospital, UF Health Jacksonville, and associated clinics are supported by an IT organization under the direction of the UF Health CIO. The UF Health IT organization focuses on IT for clinical operations, although the UF CIO must be consulted whenever UF Health IT impacts on UF IT architecture, security, or services. Reciprocally, the UF CIO will consult with the UF Health CIO on matters that impinge on clinical operations.
Since services and data must move across the UF/UF Health boundary to execute the missions of both organizations, it is critical that the UF CIO and UF Health CIO work cooperatively to facilitate that movement to enable the productive collaboration between members of both organizations. This includes building, operating, and maintaining infrastructure and business processes to enable efficient sharing of data across the boundary within all legal, regulatory, contractual, and budgetary constraints. The academic operation of UF and the clinical operation of UF Health can be optimally supported by data network environments that are separated by a clean boundary with a firewall, but the intense collaboration between the members of the two organizations require efficient ways to manage potentially large and frequent data transfer across that boundary.
November 2018