IT Services - Help Or Hindrance To National IT Development Programmes?

Factors such as the rapid development of the Web and the onset of the open source software movement have led to renewed IT development activities within higher education. However the deployment of e-learning and related networked applications is often reliant on the support of an institution's IT services department. There is a danger that development work, including development funded by national and international funding programmes, can be hindered by institutional IT services departments. However IT services may feel that developers fail to understand the security, performance and support issues which deployment of applications is likely to entail. This paper provides case studies which illustrate successful efforts at bridging this divide. The paper concludes by arguing for greater common understanding and by describing an emerging framework which can help facilitate the deployment process.