Organization

Application Services
The Application Services department is responsible for the ongoing improvement, renewal and change of the application landscape at VU Amsterdam. The department’s employees work closely and flexibly with colleagues from other departments to achieve visible results. The ultimate goal is to deliver highly effective and thoroughly tested functionalities. Application Services consists of the following teams: Integration, Identity & Access Management, Portal Development, Enterprise Resource Planning, Business Intelligence, Topdesk and Telephony. They optimize their agility, with scrum teams delivering tried-and-tested, high-performance software in continuous feedback loops.

Business Services
The Business Services department is the IT organization’s portal to its internal clients at VU Amsterdam. Business Services operates at the tactical interface between supply and demand, safeguarding the professional relationship with its clients. In consultation with the client and together with the IT organization, Business Services takes full accountability for ensuring that the projects and jobs required are carried out to a high standard. The teams working to make this happen are Relationship Management, Functional Management & Business Consultancy, Architecture, Project Management and Product Management & Innovation. These teams seek to unburden the customer by managing IT activities geared towards introducing new services or optimizing existing ones. They advise the client, analyse the requests and requirements that lead to new services, and report on the progress of the resulting projects.

Customer Services
The Customer Services department is the operational link in IT services and the first point of entry for students, lecturers, researchers and staff at VU Amsterdam. Customer Services offers optimal resources and advice to the users of IT products and services and ensures business continuity through reliable management of the application landscape. The department is home to the IT Service Desk, the Student Services Desks, workplace support, operational management and customized research support, making it the component of the IT organization with the highest profile. Customer Services enables the university’s staff and students to work and learn by facilitating optimal use of IT resources through five expertise centres: Customer Support, Education & Care, Operations, IT & Portals and Research IT.

Infrastructure Services
Infrastructure Services is responsible for the continuity of the IT organization and provides the link between technical services on campus and in the cloud. In other words, IS employs the technical specialists who keep the university up and running 24/7. An important aspect of achieving this goal is making sure that VU Amsterdam continues to operate smoothly, predictably and securely. Infrastructure Services focuses not only on its own data centres, but also on a range of cloud capabilities and on providing a comprehensive working environment for its users. Continuity, stability and security are key to making this happen. Handling security incidents is also one of the department’s core tasks. Of course, prevention is better than cure: all systems, applications and infrastructure are closely monitored to keep one step ahead of any threats and disruptions to IT continuity. The work of the Infrastructure Services department is in the capable hands of the following teams: Orchestration, Security & Operations Control Centre, EndPoint Automation, Back-end Development and Basic Infrastructure.

Internal Services
The Internal Services department is responsible for ensuring and enhancing the quality of the IT department as an organization. The various aspects of this role are Quality Assurance, Audit/Business Analysis, Process and Incident Management, Security and GDPR. The department is supported by communications and secretarial specialists and is managed by the Director of IT.

Office of the CIO
The Chief Information Officer and the teams that support this position help to shape and implement VU Amsterdam’s strategy by deciding which activities IT needs to develop and optimizing the structure of information systems to facilitate education, research and healthcare in a rapidly changing world. The CIO Office consists of the teams for Strategy & Policy, Enterprise Architecture, Security & Risk Management, Strategic Portfolio Management and Vendor & Contract Management.

View the organizational chart of the IT department.