We evaluated the strategic plans of IT leaders within R1 research universities and found some interesting patterns. Across all 187 schools, the following trends unfold:
| Theme | Total | % of 187 |
|---|---|---|
| Security & Risk Management | 126 | 67% |
| Collaboration & Partnership | 112 | 60% |
| IT Governance & Strategic Alignment | 110 | 59% |
| Digital Transformation & Innovation | 109 | 58% |
| Infrastructure & Cloud Modernization | 100 | 53% |
| AI & Automation | 65 | 35% |
| Operational Efficiency / Excellence | 60 | 32% |
| Research Support & Research Computing | 49 | 26% |
| Data & Analytics / BI | 45 | 24% |
| Reliability & Resilience | 40 | 21% |
| Enterprise Systems / ERP | 40 | 21% |
| Student Success & Experience | 34 | 18% |
| Accessibility & Equity | 27 | 14% |
| Talent & Workforce Development | 12 | 6% |
| Institutional Growth / Enrollment | 5 | 3% |
Despite very different campus cultures, governance structures, and CIO tenures, a few themes surface repeatedly. The top five (security, collaboration, governance, etc) drive significant multi-year roadmaps, current-state assessments, and investment planning. In partnership with other applications and IT best practices, the Etrieve platform from Softdocs helps CIOs address each one.
In perhaps the least surprising twist ever, security tops the list as an explicit imperative, frequently stated as a named goal. Georgia Tech's IT strategy calls for technology that is human-centric, reliable, secure, and scalable.1 Texas A&M frames its Technology Services mission around delivering robust, secure, and innovative IT solutions.2 UNC Charlotte names cybersecurity across physical and virtual infrastructure as a standing priority tied directly to its "OneIT" governance model.3
When schools deploy Etrieve, they gain best-in-class document-level security and role-based access controls that address security beyond network defenses. Admins can trace the who, what, and when of a specific record's access history with a defensible audit trail — mitigating risk that firewalls alone cannot.
In recognition of IT's expanding role as both technical expert and strategic partner, many schools state a goal of getting IT, academic units, and administrative departments to operate from the same playbook. Brown's strategic plan names collaboration across and beyond Brown as an explicit priority, driven through shared services, training, and tools.4 Harvard's central IT organization, HUIT, plays a coordinating role in advancing IT strategy across the University's individual schools alongside University-wide priorities.5
Digital workflow and process automation within Etrieve spans the campus, from financial aid to registrar to HR to the provost's office. When the campus manages a shared process framework, process design is owned by the process experts within those departments. IT becomes an enabler, not a gatekeeper. Departmental independence also extends to document forms and e-signatures, governed by rules set within central administration.
Roughly a third of R1s name infrastructure or cloud modernization directly, usually framed as replacing legacy, on-premises systems that can't scale with research and enrollment growth. Washington University in St. Louis names infrastructure for data and computing as a priority tied to meeting modern educational needs.6 University at Buffalo's current IT goal statements commit to modernizing its data platforms "to provide scalable, reliable, and innovative infrastructure,"7 and UNC Charlotte's plan commits to a robust, flexible, and secure infrastructure to meet current and evolving needs.8 (In fact, UNC Charlotte specifically cited infrastructure modernization when selecting Etrieve to replace Perceptive Content.)
A cloud-native, browser-based document management and workflow automation platform removes multiple categories of legacy infrastructure entirely — no local servers, no manual patching cycles, no on-premises document repositories.
Several institutions name operational excellence or efficiency as a distinct goal, separate from security or infrastructure — the same story of doing more with flat or declining IT budgets. Penn State's current IT transformation — consolidating 63 previously separate units into a single shared-services organization — is explicitly framed by CIO David Horton as building IT for "an evolving higher education and technology landscape."9 At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Enterprise Systems team responsible for ERP and student information systems states its mission in exactly these terms: operational excellence and a streamlined user experience.10
Automating manual approval chains that currently eat staff hours is at the heart of Etrieve. Etrieve customers consistently cite significant efficiency gains — doing more work without adding budget.
The fifth theme is reliability. Core systems must remain available and recover quickly when things go wrong. Brown's plan names a robust, reliable, secure environment as a stated priority,11 and UC Santa Cruz's IT leadership has framed the division's near-term priority explicitly around providing "consistent leadership and stability" as it carries its strategic work forward.12
A cloud-hosted platform with full redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities ensures the availability of institutional records like transcripts, contracts, and financial documents.
None of these five goals are unique to research universities, and none of them are new.
Their consistency across otherwise very different institutions shows that R1 IT organizations are focused on strategies that are mission-critical: secure the data, connect the silos, modernize the stack, cut the manual work, and keep the lights on.
Is the Etrieve platform the whole answer? No. But for governing crucial records and keeping processes transparent and efficient, it delivers compounding strategic value.
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