This page is intended for unit and department-level leadership across the University of Washington as well as finance/budget managers.
Looking for technical support or information regarding UW-IT’s services?
Please visit our Get Help pages.
In support of Together We Thrive, UW-IT is aligning with UW Finance, Planning and Budgeting by committing to “enhancing both operational excellence and employee experience” through the thoughtful consolidation of the institution’s IT services. UW-IT is taking a phased approach to this initiative to ensure potential outcomes meet our quality standards and align with our broader strategy. The goals of this initiative are to reduce cost, reduce risk, and reduce effort being duplicated across local and central IT, to help local IT teams more directly focus on their unit’s unique and specialized needs.
Contact UW-IT to explore any of the below opportunities, or to share your ideas and suggestions on other ways UW-IT can partner with you to help support Together We Thrive.
Sharing and Consolidating IT Services
- Units with similar IT-related needs may be able to identify (or already have identified) opportunities to reduce costs by consolidating and sharing their IT services.
- If your unit provides local IT services and support – especially if you are faced with vacancies in your IT team – you may wish to explore shifting some of that local scope to services that are centrally offered and supported.
- If you locally operate and support a business system (such as an application for financial management or human resource management), your needs may instead be met by an existing, centrally-managed enterprise system.
Increasing the Value of Your Dollar
For Software:
- Many widely-used software titles are available at a reduced cost – or free – in the UWare catalog.
- A range of services in support of students, faculty, and staff are available (often at no additional cost) in the UW-IT Service Catalog, which includes productivity platforms such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
For Hardware:
- Many reasonably-priced and often discounted options for laptops, desktops, and peripherals can be found in the catalogs and contracts maintained by UW Procurement Services.
- UW-IT-hosted servers and/or cloud-based solutions may represent both lower TCO and improved risk management.
Learn More About Together We Thrive
In January 2025, the Executive Office initiated the Together We Thrive program to put the University on a path to reduce expenses, increase revenues, and focus on operational and administrative alignment opportunities to improve the UW’s long-term financial health.
In January 2024, the Executive Office charged the Information & Technology Governance structure to define shared information technology goals, strategies, and services and prioritize resourcing and funding of shared IT services. I&T Governance has made several decisions about shared services and is actively pursuing opportunities for consolidation. To submit an idea to governance, visit this page.
APS 2.3 requires all IT acquisitions to be reviewed by the Chief Information Officer and to use the University governance process in order to avoid duplication of institutional resources, ensure high value, and mitigate risk. The Vice President for UW-IT and CIO has established the IT Sourcing process to review major IT projects to ensure good stewardship for the UW.