Introduction

Umutara Polytechnic embarked on an ambitious project, with the support of external partners, to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in all its functions as one of the critical elements of its strategic plan. Within the context of this plan, the vision of ICT is “To serve as a community focused university that will help transform a predominantly poor agrarian economy into a medium income country using the state-of-the-art information and knowledge based tools.”

In recognition of the global scarcity of ICT expertise, and to contain escalating costs that would result from multiple hiring of such expertise, DICTS was set up as a central service unit to provide expert services and guidance to all academic and administrative units of the University.

Functions
Policy support advocacy,Secretariat and administrative arm of the Council ICT Committee
Day to day ICT Policy and Master Plan interpretation for users
Offering ICT awareness workshops to user units to facilitate understanding of the benefits of integrating ICT into all Polytechnic function within the context of the ICT Policy and Master Plan.
Recommending policy and policy objective adjustments to the ICT Steering Committee.

ICT Master Plan Implementation
Project formulation and sourcing of funds within the context of the ICT Master Plan
Liaison with external development partners and ICT consultants
Project planning and management support to the Project Committees set up for the various projects under the ICT Master Plan
Offering ICT planning, design, procurement, installation and maintenance guidance and support to all user units. This applies to both software and hardware.Umutara Polytechncic ICT Policy Master plan phase2 (2008-2010).

Management, Control and Maintenance of ICT Resources
Ownership, management, control and maintenance of the Polytechnic's common ICT resources. These include the backbone and all backbone points of presence as well as the Network Operations Centre (NOC) which incorporates email and Internet/intranet services.
Management, control and maintenance of ICT resources owned by the units responsible for the main systems and databases. This includes centrally located servers (for databases and software) for the Academic Records Information System, the Library Information System, the Finance Information System and the Human Resource Information system.
Development, implementation and monitoring of access policy, security policy, and service level agreements.
Web page design, posting and maintenance.