Seven spending benchmarks are used to help university campuses evaluate IT services. By benchmarking against institutions with similar missions, IT leaders can gain insights into how to best optimize these investments.
Benchmark #1 – Budget Profile [shows how IT dollars are allocated across institutional budget classifications]
Benchmark #2 – Budget Support Level [IT dollars are normalized for institutional size]
Benchmark #3 – Budget Impact [ratio of IT budget to total institution budget]
Benchmark #4 – People Supported per IT Staff
Benchmark #5 – Computers Supported per IT Staff
Benchmark #6 – Staffing Profile Per Service Area
Benchmark #7 – Computer Availability
This article shows actual benchmark results in these areas. Compiled by David Smallen and Karen Leach at Hamilton College. Published in Educause Quarterly in November 2002. The article can be found:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0234.pdf
This report was followed up by a 32 page paper entitled “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BENCHMARKS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS” (written by Smallen and Leach) which was published by the Council of Independent Colleges in June 2004. This report contains more data and a more complete explanation of the benchmarks. The paper can be found:
http://www.cic.edu/publications/books_reports/IT_paper.pdf
