As University Information Services prepares for Alan Vidmar’s retirement in August 2023, we wanted to share and celebrate Alan’s industrious career at the University of Colorado.

Alan’s career spans more than 30 years at CU, beginning as a CU Boulder student where he helped the Department of Residence Life and University Libraries modernize their systems and move their technology forward. In 1992, he joined the Financial Aid Office at Boulder as a full-time employee, where he stood up the first document imaging system and integrated it with the student mainframe. The system was so innovative that it expanded to other departments, then campuses and even other universities, such as Western Governors.

Alan joined University Information Services in March 2010 and, in his first year, converted seven document imaging systems into the Enterprise Content Management system, involving more than 5 million documents and 1,000 users. He developed a distributed administration service model that emphasized customer needs and collaboration, a model that still influences UIS today.

“One of the things I’m proudest of, besides the distributive model, is that we have a platform that we have maintained for almost 30 years,” Alan said. “We are continually reevaluating, applying what we learn and making it more sustainable, more accessible, efficient and user-friendly.”

Alan has served as a mentor and teacher to numerous employees who went on to other roles within CU and beyond.

Paul O’Brian, CU Boulder Buff Portal product owner, was originally hired by Alan. “I’ve never met anyone as broadly knowledgeable and well-versed in the technology domain, and just being able to shadow him and consult with him on my work was an amazing learning experience,” Paul said. “As a colleague, he led the Boulder Financial Aid office through a series of crucial modernizations, including document imaging, synchronized desktop updates, and in-house server management. As a friend, he’s very kindly lent me both his expertise and his copious stores of PC components over the years, ensuring I always have the right equipment for my family’s technology needs, and he’s been personally very supportive over the several decades I’ve known him.”

"I think the world of Alan," said Art Figel, director of Student IT Services for UIS. "Anyone who has worked with him has probably glimpsed how considered, smart, and skillful he is. Look more closely and you may see that those abilities are born from a core of caring, compassion, and empathy. For my entire CU career, Alan has been a friend, a role model, a thought-provoker, a teacher, and someone whose support I could rely on whenever I needed.  I am forever grateful for the indelible mark Alan has made on my life and on CU."

A recent Enterprise Content Services win was the integration between InfoEd and OnBase, with InfoEd now storing all its data on OnBase. The Enterprise Content Services team will continue to expand its support of research and finance groups, thanks to the work of Alan and his team. Alan led CU in a distributed model approach that has become essential to our ability to innovate in an era of increasing complexity.

Even as he prepared for retirement, Alan was giving back, helping onboard his successor, Kevin Perron,  as the new assistant director of Enterprise Content Services. Thank you, Alan, for all the ways you have helped UIS support our customers and made us better professionals — and better individuals. 

              Thank you, Alan, for creating innovative solutions and serving as a leader and mentor to so many.