MIT/Stanford "Total Cost of IT" Project

Welcome to the MIT/Stanford "Total Cost of IT" Project web site.

Beginning in Summer 2004, MIT and Stanford embarked on an inter-University study to estimate total information technology spending on their respective campuses.

After several months work by small teams on each campus, MIT and Stanford University produced estimates of overall IT spending at each institution for the period July 2003 through June 2004. The primary goal of this study is to provide data in support of understanding how much IT spending is taking place in the central IT department (IS&T and ITSS, respectively) versus in the schools and departments, as well as how much IT spending is being done in support of teaching and learning (academic), research, and general administration. Once we understand how much IT costs and where IT spending takes place, we hope to build a rationale model for how IT spending should occur at each institution and to be able to compare the results across institutions.

This web site includes documents and data to help other schools conduct their own "Total Cost of IT" studies or use the MIT/Stanford data for their own comparisons.

We invite you to use the links at left to explore the project documentation, presentations, and data and to begin your own journey.