AUB - Policies and Procedures - CNS Mission and Vision Statement

IT Customer Success Mission and Vision Statement

The mission and vision statements for the Computing and Networking Service Unit (CNS) support the mission and vision of the American University of Beirut.

IT Customer Success Mission
The mission of IT Customer Success is to provide value to its customers through leadership in the development and delivery of innovative computing and information technology solutions to support the teaching, learning, research, patient care and administration goals of the university.

IT Customer Success Vision
IT Customer Success is an information and communication technology (ICT) service provider that is recognized for the technical skills of its team, for the optimal application of available resources and for the ability to partner with customers to create and deliver high-quality ICT services in concert with the mission of the university. These services are delivered through an ICT infrastructure that is comprehensive, up-to-date, responsive, reliable, available, and intuitive.

IT Customer Success Goals
IT Customer Success is dedicated to providing technology services to the university in support of its academic and research missions. As knowledge and technology continue to become strategic tools in teaching, research, patient care and administration of the university, it is important that knowledge development and technology implementation and support be effective, timely, and cost-efficient.

Through its strategic planning process, IT Customer Success has adopted the following goals:

Knowledge Management - IT Customer Success is to develop as a learning organization and streamline processes through investing in Knowledge Management and training.
Networking Infrastructure - IT Customer Success is to implement a high-speed, reliable networking infrastructure that meets or exceeds the current and future requirements for teaching, research, patient care and university administration.
Application Infrastructure - IT Customer Success is to establish a systems infrastructure in support of providing highly available and secure applications, web sites, and data repositories.
Administration - IT Customer Success is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative tasks and information retrieval at the university through implementation of technology and improved business processes.
Customer Service - IT Customer Success is to work in partnership with Academic Computing, CNS Medical Center and departmental support units across campus and the medical center to create a campus-wide support infrastructure for ICT that will deliver competitive support and services to faculty, staff, and students.

Definition of the components of IT Customer Success Mission and Vision Statement:

"The American University of Beirut", "University" or "AUB"
The American University of Beirut is defined as all the organizational units including all academic and non-academic units, Medical Center, AREC and New York office.

"IT Customer Success" or "CUST"
IT Customer Success is defined as all the organizational units including PC Support, IT Help Desk, IT Field Support, Multimedia Productions, Training, AUBnet and Internet Services, Public Student Labs, and Consulting Services.

"Provide value"
IT Customer Success must provide value to its customers by enabling them to apply complex and rapidly evolving computing technologies more effectively and economically.

"Clients" and "Customers"
Clients of IT Customer Success include faculties, academic departments, research centers, service and administrative units, medical center, students, instructors, researchers, administrators and staff of the American University of Beirut. IT Customer Success will only provide services to other users if the requests are in direct support of AUB official activities (such requests should be endorsed by a dean or a director).

"Leadership"
IT Customer Success must be proactive and provide leadership in anticipating trends, in advising senior management and users on the strategic use of information technology.

"Innovative"
IT Customer Success must provide inventive and creative solutions to capitalize on the AUB's information technology investments and push the exploitation of those resources to the maximum.

"Support the teaching, learning, research, patient care and administration goals of AUB"
AUB's mission is to facilitate learning and excel in teaching, research and medical care. To best fulfill its mission AUB relies on a wide range of administrative, auxiliary and public services. CNS's primary mandate is to support all these mission-critical activities.

"Service Provider"
IT Customer Success must provide services with an entrepreneurial spirit. CNS clients can request the service level they see adequate to their operation and accordingly sign with CNS a service level agreement.

"Recognized for technical skills of its team"
IT Customer Success must ensure adequate depth and breadth of staff skills and expertise to accommodate the diverse needs of its clients and support their endeavors to achieve excellence.

"Optimal application of available resources"
IT Customer Success must apply resources in a way that achieves the highest possible return on investment and the lowest total cost of ownership. The services offered must be valued by the clients and charged on a cost-recovery basis.

"Ability to partner with customers to create and deliver high-quality ICT services"
Hardware, software and computing expertise today are distributed widely over the campus and we believe that freedom should be left to the customers/departments to come up with their own computing solution. CNS role is to provide added value to the spreading and diverse computing resources and expertise on campus and CNS should ensure that these solutions are interoperable.

"ICT infrastructure that is comprehensive, up-to-date, responsive, reliable, available and intuitive"
IT Customer Success has to provide a state of the art information and communication technology infrastructure to maintain and improve productivity in research and the quality of instruction, and to facilitate the University's administration.

"AUB's Mission Statement" Approved by the Board of Trustees November 18, 2005
The American University of Beirut (AUB) is an institution of higher learning founded to provide excellence in education, to participate in the advancement of knowledge through research, and to serve the peoples of the Middle East and beyond. Chartered in New York State in 1863, the university bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. The university believes deeply in and encourages freedom of thought and expression and seeks to foster tolerance and respect for diversity and dialogue. Graduates will be individuals committed to creative and critical thinking, life-long learning, personal integrity and civic responsibility, and leadership.