Many organisations, including universities, have invested heavily in the latest IT resources and then found gains in productivity elusive.  This is now widely attributed to the lack of a comprehensive reengineering programme needed to transform an organisation for the information age.  However, reengineering is a complex undertaking and top management has to commit essential resources and develop an appropriate management plan.

          In the context of a university, both the administrative and academic processes may have to be reengineered.  The other strategies recommended in this report will require existing processes to be modified or reengineered.  The IT plan must take full advantage of the reorganisation that is taking place and add new dimensions to make the reengineering programme more complete.

          The full implementation of the IT plan will take many years to realise.  The identification and implementation of short-term, high impact applications and services, such as the use of video conferencing to facilitate live lectures by overseas professors and tutorial/project discussions between staff and students of two different universities, should continue.  It is further recommended that the plan incorporate new but focused activities which may be implemented without the need to wait for the reengineering programme to be completed.

          The research management process, for instance, is one such area, since the research funding mechanism in the University has been changed recently and a comprehensive strategic research planning exercise has already been launched.  Continuing education can be another area.

          The use of suitable IT tools can facilitate distance learning, just-in-time learning and other forms of flexible, life-long learning opportunities.