Information Technology Optimized Service Team (IT OST)
Penn State IT is fundamental to every University activity, providing access to education, research and collaboration for faculty, staff and students. The critical work of the OST will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of these operations, improve customer satisfaction of University stakeholders and develop clear and fulfilling career pathways for Penn State’s IT professionals.
A New Penn State IT
Every single day at Penn State, nearly 1,100 dedicated IT staff experts enable the University’s mission of teaching, research, and service. However, they are currently constrained by institutional red tape, duplicated efforts, and inconsistency throughout units.
We have launched this transformational initiative to tackle these challenges head-on. We are creating a new IT infrastructure to empower Penn State’s IT professionals, enabling them to deliver enhanced service across the entire University, and unlock strategic advantages for teaching, research, and outreach.
On July 1, 2025, the new Penn State IT began to take shape. Over the following 18 months, we’ll undertake an ambitious restructuring and stabilization process. This discovery phase will focus on optimizing our staff, processes, and technologies to build an enhanced, shared services model. The future Penn State IT will be organized around shared platform, shared mission, and unique unit portfolios.
We will continue to refine and optimize Penn State IT to support our faculty, staff, and students.
Uniting Under a New Structure
All full-time staff dedicating at least 50% of their time to IT work, and those requiring elevated system access privileges, became part of Penn State IT on July 1, 2025.
No Lay Offs Planned
Penn State IT will achieve ongoing efficiencies through attrition, critical position reviews, and service standardization.
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Introduction of IT Strategic Partners
IT Strategic Partners will sustain strong relationships with their unit, aligning IT services, solutions, and resources.
Strengthened Collaboration with Units
Units will maintain agency over their IT services through a system of participatory governance, formally documented and periodically reviewed through their Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Current and past work
Goals
In support of the University’s mission, the new Penn State IT unit, developed through the efforts of the OST, aims to:
- provide strategic alignment by maximizing the impact of the University’s investment in IT by optimizing the mix of activities to ensure continued operations and pursuit of areas of strategic importance
- unlock innovation by building efficiencies across IT to create capacity for high value, innovative initiatives that anticipate or solve critical University challenges
- increase cost efficiency to enable a sustainable approach to funding IT that contributes to University goals and enables the needed flexibility to accommodate changing and evolving needs of the University
- recruit and retain high-performing talent and teams by improving opportunities for IT staff to professionally advance within Penn State and increase Penn State IT’s appeal to job seekers
Key Partners
Taking a collaborative approach to these changes, the IT OST is incorporating our community’s perspectives, insights and experiences to develop our future state.
OST Leads:
- David Horton, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
- Chris Lucas, Deputy Chief Information Officer
Participants:
- The OST has, is, and will continue to be meeting and working with all units across University IT.
Browse Our Frequently Asked Questions
Phase 3: Implementation of Future State (In Progress, July 2025 – January 2027)
Discovery Workshops
As part of the 18-month discovery process, unit representatives are participating in collaborative workshops facilitated by Penn State IT and the unit’s IT Strategic Partner. These discovery workshops will focus on sharing comprehensive information about the unit’s projects, staff roles, service offerings, applications, vendors, and customers for discussion.
The insights gained from these sessions will inform the refinement of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which define the specific services and support Penn State IT will provide to each unit. These SLAs are designed to enable and enhance the unit’s research, teaching, and outreach through technology going forward. To maintain a focus on continuous improvement, SLAs will be reviewed and refined quarterly by unit leadership in partnership with Penn State IT.
As these collaborations continue, the outcomes will also guide recommendations for optimization, with the main focus on enterprise services and processes.
The schedule of workshops will be:
July 2025
- University Police and Public Safety – July 30
August 2025
- Financial Information Systems – August 14
September 2025
- Educational Equity – September 4
- Penn State Fayette – September 11
- Penn State Greater Allegheny – September 11
- Penn State New Kensington – September 12
- Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing – September 23
- Schreyer Honors College – September 25
The Eberly College of Science was previously scheduled for September 30 and has been re-scheduled for October 7.
October 2025
- College of Health and Human Development – October 6
- Eberly College of Science – October 7
- Penn State Mont Alto – October 16
- Penn State York – October 17
- Bellisario College of Communications – October 20
- Penn State Great Valley – October 21
- Penn State Global – October 23
Penn State Shenango and Beaver were previously scheduled for October 2, with their workshop being rescheduled for January 8. Enrollment Management and Undergraduate Education were previously scheduled for October 9, with their workshop being rescheduled for February 12, 2026.
November 2025
- Smeal College of Business – November 6
- Penn State Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton – November 13
The Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research was originally scheduled for November 6. This workshop will now be held on January 9, 2026.
December 2025
- University Libraries – December 4
Penn State DuBois was previously scheduled for December 4 and has been re-scheduled for February 6, 2026. The Fox Graduate School was previously scheduled for December 11 and has been re-scheduled for January 22, 2026.
January 2026
- Penn State Shenango and Beaver – January 8
- University Press – January 8
- The Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research – January 9
- College of Arts and Architecture – January 14
- College of Education – January 22
- Fox Graduate School – January 22
- Auxiliary and Business Services – January 29
Strategic Communications was previously scheduled for January 15 and has been re-scheduled for April 9.
February 2026
- Office of the Physical Plant – February 5
- Penn State DuBois – February 6
- Enrollment Management and Undergraduate Education – February 12
- Intercollegiate Athletics – February 19
- College of Engineering – February 26
March 2026
- Procurement – March 5
- College of Earth and Mineral Sciences – March 19
- Development and Alumni Relations – March 26
April 2026
- College of Liberal Arts – April 2
- Strategic Communications – April 9
- Penn State Brandywine – April 16
- Penn State Abington – April 17
- Penn State Berks – April 23
- College of Agricultural Sciences – April 30
May 2026
- Penn State Harrisburg – May 14
- College of Information Sciences and Technology – May 21
- Penn State Schuylkill – May 28
- Penn State Lehigh Valley – May 29
June 2026
- Penn State Behrend – June 9
- Dickinson Law – June 11
- Penn State Altoona – June 18
Launch of Phase 3
The IT OST began Phase 3 during the summer of 2024, considering the PwC recommendations and synthesizing this work into a viable and promising future state.
Aligned with the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program for Commonwealth Campuses, personnel and salaries for IT staff at these locations transitioned into Penn State IT on July 1, 2024. Other units, including Student Affairs IT, Operational Excellence and Human Resources IT, University Libraries Media Tech, and Financial Information Systems were early adopters and completed their moves into Penn State IT before summer 2025. On July 1, 2025, 350 staff from academic and administrative units moved into Penn State IT as a significant step toward unifying technology resources and enhancing service delivery.
As key partners in their efforts, PwC helped facilitate the workshops and University IT employees proposed nearly 200 optimization activities. Meanwhile, the OST identified 40 additional opportunities, including pathways to better support hardware and software inventory management, governance and event management software.
The IT OST’s third engagement with PwC began in January 2025 to make progress on seven IT OST initiatives. This effort built on the application inventory work completed by IT units in summer 2024 and the two previous PwC engagements.
The workstreams completed their projects in June 2025 by developing implementation recommendations and were shared with OST leadership. Collaboration and forward progress on these recommendations will continue into the fall of 2025.
The teams consisted of:
Conduct Application Rationalization Assessment
- Shuchi Nalepa – Co-Lead
- Mark Campbell - Co-Lead
- Eric White - Co-Lead
- Josh Gleim – Business Analyst
- Abbey Espigh – Business Analyst
- Lee Bishop – Business Analyst
- Daniel Craig – Data Analyst
- Jeff Minelli – Data Analyst
- JJ Murphy – Support Analyst
- Claudia Naciff – Project Manager
Implement IT Governance Framework
- Chris Lucas – Co-Lead
- Anthony Anderson - Co-Lead
- Rob Malinich - Co-Lead
- Haig Douglas - Dashboard Developer
- Yvonne Wurm - Dashboard Developer
- David Stucky - Data Analyst
- Shireesha Ravi - Data Analyst
- Caley Glasgow - Business Analyst
- Terry Branstetter – Support Analyst
- Danelle Del Corso - Project Manager
This workstream may include an Advisory Committee that will be named at a later date.
Establish a Cost-Based Financial Taxonomy
- Ben Battaglia - Co-Lead
- Fred Haberberger - Co-Lead
- Yu Tai Chung – Co-Lead
- Jerry Krawczyk - Support Analyst
- Mark Beers - Support Analyst
- Matt Sarchet – Financial Analyst
- Matt Deadmon - Business Analyst/Project Manager
- Wolf Hey – Support Analyst
Adopt a Balanced Scorecard Framework
- Dave Gindhart - Co-Lead
- Mike Stedelin – Co-Lead
- Lindsay Wood - Co-Lead
- Laura Sabolchick - Change Management Support/Analyst
- James Parker - Business/Support Analyst
- Gage Wagner – Support Analyst
- Mike Morris - Business Analyst
- Andrea Harrington - Business Analyst
- Matt Gourley - Project Manager
Establish an Enterprise Architecture/Engineering Function
- Mike Stedelin - Co-Lead
- Mark Campbell - Co-Lead
- Gary Barb - Co-Lead
- Gretchen Paules - Support Analyst
- Robert Snyder - Support Analyst
- Ricky Wert - Support Analyst
- Andrew Arvin – Project Manager
Standardize Solution Design and Delivery
- Shuchi Nalepa – Co-Lead
- Dan Coughlin – Co-Lead
- Matt Dunmire – Co-Lead
- Phil Wigfield – Solution Architect
- Rich Cropp – Technical Architect
- Rebecca Shakespeare – Technical Architect
- Paul Edwards - Solution Architect (panel participant)
- Michael Cooper – Solution Architect (panel participant)
- David Horan – Solution Architect (panel participant)
- Dan Raffetto – Solution Architect (panel participant)
- Dennis Shafnisky – Solution Architect (panel participant)
- Ellen Thorne – Solution Architect (panel participant)
- Matt Harter – Business Analyst
- Brendan Bagley – Project Manager
- Dominic Pugliese – Project Manager
Establish Change Management Strategy
- Kari Williamson – Co-Lead
- Lloyd Painter – Co-Lead
- Ed Zuech – Co-Lead
- Mark Belkowski – Support Analyst
- Patty Rees – Support Analyst
- Jason Schrag – Support Analyst
- Megan Van Orden – Business Analyst
- Stephen Sherwin – Support Analyst
- Ashley Stark – Change Management Consultant
- Anita Woodman – Project Manager
Phase 2: Developing Future State Recommendations (Completed, 2024)
In the spring of 2024, the IT OST workstream engaged third-party consultant PwC to analyze the current state report, identify and collect any missing data and engage with key University stakeholders.
Building on the current state report, the OST and PwC took an interactive approach to help develop future state recommendations. They surveyed more than 220 IT leaders, held nine open sessions in which 150 IT staff members participated, and interviewed more than 30 students, faculty and staff stakeholders.
In preparation for the next steps and the creation of the 2026 budget, salaries for IT staff in the OST-purview units were transitioned to Penn State IT’s central budget for fiscal year 2026. This change did not apply to the Applied Research Laboratory or Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Consultant Recommendations
IT representatives and other University stakeholders worked in collaboration with the consulting firm PwC to develop 17 recommendations that are helping to guide the future state of Penn State IT. The recommendations were developed in 2024 during workshops, using the current state report and additional information gathering, led by PwC.
17 Recommendations for the Future State of IT
- Implementing of governance framework
- Establishing a cost-based financial taxonomy for IT
- Adopting lean portfolio management
- Defining University-wide data strategy and governance
- Adopting a balanced scorecard framework
- Defining IT’s operating model
- Conducting workforce assessment/planning
- Activating organizational changes and restructuring
- Developing interaction models for IT processes
- Maturing service desk operations
- Establishing an enterprise architecture function
- Forming communities of practice
- Standardizing contract management
- Conducting application rationalization assessment
- Streamlining identity and access management processes
- Standardizing solution design and delivery
- Establishing change management strategy
Phase 1: Information Gathering on Current State (Completed, 2023)
In 2022, Penn State identified IT as one of the first shared services to utilize an OST. In the summer and fall of 2023, OST team leads and staff members engaged 64 units across all campuses to create a current state report that inventoried existing IT systems, personnel and contracts. The report detailing this work, which can be accessed below, was delivered to University leadership and shared with IT personnel and the Academic Leadership Council in December 2023.
As part of this process, the OST hosted several drop-in listening sessions with IT staff to collect their feedback and gather considerations and hosted a town hall for IT staff. In addition, progress and findings were presented to the University IT Executive Advisory Council, Academic Leadership Council and Faculty Senate.
The Applied Research Laboratory and the Pennsylvania College of Technology were not included in this assessment.
Current State Report (2023)
This report is the culmination of the OST’s Phase 1 work. It provides an overview of Penn State IT and its staffing, services, customer satisfaction, contracts, and spending.