The Evolving Role of Tech & Logistics Leaders in Higher Education
During and post-pandemic, there have been significant changes in the role of technology directors and facilities leaders within higher education. Digital transformation has not stopped at enterprise businesses but continued into the higher ed sector, leading directors to adjust their strategy for the future of campus life. Managing stakeholders’ needs to improve cybersecurity and training through the digital transformation process, being a higher-ed logistics director can sometimes become overwhelming. That’s why SCLogic has created a comprehensive in-building logistics software platform to guide your facility into the new wave of business intelligence. Here, our higher education software specialists discuss the evolving role of facilities leaders in the higher-ed field and how you can maximize digital tools to move your campus into the modern era.Â
Leveraging Digital Transformation for Your University
You’ve heard us talk about digital transformation endlessly, but for a good reason. Digital transformation provides the building blocks your campus needs to stay relevant and provides technologically driven opportunities for students and faculty. Digital transformation is often discussed on the enterprise side of the business, but higher education should not be overlooked. Not only do auxiliary and logistics directors need to guide their teams, but they should also establish themselves as thought leaders. Just a few small changes to your current operations can make a massive impact, and leading this change not only helps your facilities team but provide additional expansion opportunities.
Consider this; you implement in-building logistics software such as Intra to organize your mailroom and central receiving areas. Before you know it, you discover multiple inefficiencies that you previously could not identify. Your team has the analytics capabilities to fix these gaps and, ultimately, save thousands for your department, generate additional revenue by optimizing storage and reuse, and improve sustainability by organizing an asset recycling program. You not only have provided an innovative environment for your team, but you have developed a culture of innovation that will lead to significant departmental expansion.
Monitoring the Future of Cybersecurity & Compliance
Unfortunately, the risk of cyberattacks continues to grow with the ever-growing hybrid workforce and now expanded hybrid opportunities for college students. According to Chester Wisniewski in a recent article for Forbes, the average cost for resolving an attack is $2.7 million per incident, almost double what it costs to repair a private sector attack. Wisniewski goes on to say that part of the reason for such a high recovery cost is that universities fail to back up their systems. Many departments are independent of one another, using various systems and storing information in ways that they see fit. As a result, there are far more attack points for cybercriminals to choose from, making attacks costly and hard to recover.
The role of tech and logistics leaders has also shifted into preparing for potential cyberattacks and creating a proactive facilities strategy to minimize these events’ impact. First, perform an information assessment to see what valuable data is in the hands of each department, how it is stored, and how well it’s protected. Post-assessment, consider updating your current logistics software to a comprehensive solution focusing on cybersecurity and compliance, like Intra. Our Asset Logistics Workgroup allows your team to monitor asset health and lifecycles so that you can ensure all systems are updated and secure before a cyberattack occurs. With many higher education institutions using multiple point solutions, investing in an all-in-one solution like Intra establishes you as a thought leader within the industry.
Business Strategy & Workforce Shifts on Campus
As we said earlier, logistics leaders have had to adjust their job to apply a more comprehensive approach, considering how facilities management will impact the rest of the university physically and financially. A facilities director/auxiliaries’ average age is around 50 years old, and ensuring that your logistics department is trained in new technology is a must. As Gen-Z enters the workforce, they are native to technology use and expect this to be integrated into their jobs. To maximize opportunities for your university, training employees and providing optimal digital tools is a massive benefit for recruitment. Not only does this help as new employees enter the workforce, but it minimizes the learning curve for the future. As a director, it is essential that you lead by example, using the best technology in the industry to do so.
Additionally, this leads to the role of an auxiliary or logistics director in business strategy. No longer are departments remaining siloed, but the push for internal communication is growing within the higher-ed industry. This means that for the university’s success, each department is working to provide viable solutions to adjust to the changing landscape of the college campus. With tools such as Intra’s analytics dashboard, universities can monitor the exact KPIs that are relevant for their team, identifying gaps within their operation that can be optimized. From there, directors can work with other department leads to create efficient workflows for growth, saving your department and university significant funds that can go toward additional digital transformation opportunities.
Let SCLogic Set Your University Up for Success
We know that investing in a new platform can be daunting, especially for universities just starting their digital transformation process. However, with the changing landscape of the college campus and an emphasis on modern digital tools, the time to adapt is now. At SCLogic, we have worked with universities of all sizes for over twenty-five years, providing solutions catered to their unique needs. As business intelligence tools continue to expand, it’s our job to ensure you have everything you need to maximize efficiency for mailroom, asset, central receiving, and document services management. To learn more about our workgroups, email [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.