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Information and Communication Technology Strategy 2016-2017
This document outlines the ICT Strategy for Brunel University London for 2016-2017.
The ICT strategic aims are to provide effective and efficient information, communication, technology and media services for students, staff and affiliates, by balancing quality of service, innovation and efficiency.
The ICT strategy has been planned for two years to coincide with the end of the current University strategy in 2017.
Foreword
Contents
Introduction 3
Section 1 Strategic choices and principles
Articulates the principles and strategic choices that will underpin ser-vice design decisions over the next two years.
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Section 2 Technology drivers and trends
Outlines the overarching technology trends in the external environment and which will affect the Higher Education sector.
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Section 3 Internal analysis
Gives a brief overview of ICT Services at the University and the key internal challenges.
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Section 4 ICT organisation
Uses the McKinsey 7S model to analyse 7 different factors of the ICT organisation which need to change and align together to achieve or-ganisational excellence.
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Section 5 Delivery of the ICT Strategic Plan
Describes how the strategy will be delivered through a series of proj-ects and initiatives, and describes how ICT governance will work.
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Information and communications technology (ICT) is a fundamental part of all University activities. It is now impossible to deliver any part of the University’s key functions without using some facet of information technology to gather, create or transmit information. This dependence on ICT will increase as technology becomes ubiquitous and new generations of students and staff who have only known a technology enabled world come to study and work at Brunel University London. The consequence is that ICT needs to be seen as a key strategic asset for the University and managed and resourced accordingly.
This ICT strategy provides an overall framework and vision for ICT for the next two years. It is aligned with the University’s overall policies, aims and objectives as outlined in the University Strategic plan 2012-2017. It was developed by reviewing the major University strategic plans for Education, International, Library, and College and Research Institute strategies, as well as from consultation with users via focus groups and a variety of other feedback mechanisms.
The next two years will see the commissioning of a new Data Centre in Slough and a move to new office accommodation for central ICT staff. The Vice Chancellor stated in the 2015/16 Annual Plan an intention to invest in IT services, therefore this is potentially the dawn of a new and exciting era for all staff involved in delivering, supporting and using ICT services across the University.
The role of the ICT organisation in the University is to provide the basic ICT services, support other units in reaching targets, participate in the core activities and
Introduction
ContextThe ICT Strategy forms part of a group of three strategic documents, and underpins the Information Strategy which will be developed by the Chief Information Officer.
Figure 1 - Information Strategy document group
Information Strategy
Information and Communication
Technology Strategy
Library Strategy
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support ‘everyone’s IT’ to increase productivity. In the first two years the basics will be put in place, and later cost / quality optimisation, and becoming a business partner for other units.
1. Strategic choices and principles
Service deliveryThe role of the ICT organisation in the University is to provide basic ICT services, support other units in reaching targets, participate in the core activities (teaching in particular), and support ‘everyone’s IT’ to increase productivity.
In the first two years the service portfolio will be addressed including new processes, metrics and service levels. This will be followed by cost / quality optimisation, and finally becoming a business partner for other units.
We will enhance effectiveness through easy to use systems with common standards and providing systems which are easy to access, intuitive and easy to learn. Systems will be future proofed and resilient, secure and compliant.
PartnershipsWe will develop our working relationships throughout the University by adopting a business partnership approach with our stakeholders. We will improve our communications with our University customers at all levels in the organisation.
We will increase our involvement with external organisations such as the Universities and Colleges Information Services Association (UCISA), European University Information Systems organisation (EUNIS), the Service Desk Institute (SDI), the Association for Project Management (APM), the VMWare User Group, the Customer Service Excellence and Investors in People standards, to explore best practices. We will engage with colleagues in other Universities to understand trends and share hints and tips for the implementation of best practices.
External service providers and partners will be used increasingly for services that are readily available in the marketplace.
TechnologyThere will be a shift in focus from infrastructure towards applications and customer service. This will be implemented gradually through the use of modern technology and new service delivery paradigms such as Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS). While some university specific solutions will still be running in our own Data Centres, we will adopt a “cloud first” approach for new solutions. Consideration will be given to data access and security, speed of response of the service, and planning for disaster recovery and Business Continuity.
We will also improve efficiency through rationalisation of software licences and versions and by removing unnecessary complexity, therefore enabling easier integration and maintenance of systems.
We will monitor the environmental impact of our systems, devices and data centres and ensure they are energy efficient and sustainable.
Customer engagementWe will improve our engagement with all our Customers, through involving our stakeholders in the Governance of ICT, through to working to become partners for service delivery.
As can be seen from the Role of IT diagram below the focus will remain on IT as an Engine room delivering ongoing cost improvements and looking for new ways to deliver the same IT capabilities for less. In addition, the ICT function will expand its services into the other three dimensions: IT as a Service Provider concentrates on adding business value. Everyone’s IT focuses on information and productivity of end users rather than technology, and in the dimension of IT as Core Activity the focus is on direct participation in the University’s core business, i.e. education and research.
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The role of IT
IT as service provider
Orientation
Focus
Externally focused
Internally focused
Operational Transformational
IT as core activity
Everyone’s IT IT as engine
room
IT as service provider
Orientation
Focus
Externally focused
Internally focused
Operational Transformational
IT as core activity
Everyone’s IT IT as engine
room
Today Future
EvIT as engine
room
ovider acti
EveryoIT as engine
room
Adapted from: Four Futures for IT, Gartner (November 2012)
2. Technology drivers and trends in the external environment
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ICT is an exciting discipline to work in because of the constant technological developments. This has benefits in increasing the options available for service provision but also enhances user expectations. A review of the HE market ICT trends based on UCISA, EDUCAUSE and Gartner reports has identified seven common themes in the next two years, which are highlighted below.
Cloud including Software as a Service (SaaS)Cloud based options are maturing rapidly and software suppliers are adapting their applications quickly to provide new products and services to their customers. Some University software suppliers offer ‘managed hosting’ in their own data centres located in the UK or Europe.
Other suppliers such as Microsoft and Google offer full SaaS service delivery models with fees charged on a volume usage basis rather than per number of users. In this service delivery model data is stored in commodity data centres such as Amazon Web Services.
Our vision is to be in a position where we are not playing catch-up on the Cloud services being procured across the University. We will develop contract and account management skills in ICT staff and key stakeholders to ensure the new Cloud service relationships are managed proactively to obtain value for money for the University.
Cyber security threatsThe University is a target for cyber security crime due to the value of the research data and personal
information of staff and students held on University systems. The current situation of using applications such as Dropbox to share data, and external hard drives to store and transport data means the potential for loss or theft of data is high. Unauthorised access to student and staff personal data at other Universities in London in the last 18 months has led to high profile social media firestorms and has potentially damaged University reputations.
Eric Thomas, president of Universities UK stated ‘We are saying, you have to understand that you will be subject to purposeful attacks to get your data. Universities need to be on high alert.’
A Cyber Security project has been approved and a Cyber and Information Security Manager has been appointed to conduct a full audit and create a priorities list of activities to protect our data. Additionally the encryption of the University laptop fleet is being addressed in the Software Lifecycle Management project.
The Internet of Things (IoT)The graphic below shows the expected explosion in devices connected to the internet.
An example of the Internet of Things at the University are the fire alarms, access control points and 85 network enabled water meters installed across the campus during 2015.
Our vision is to be prepared for the Internet of Things by continuously upgrading the University network in advance of increasing demand. This involves updating servers, switches, firewalls, access points and cabling to provide increased bandwidth and resilience and upgrading the network addresses to the new internet protocol standard IPv6.
Bring your own device (BYOD)A survey by UCISA shows students brought on average 2.5 (and a maximum of 7) wireless and wired network enabled devices to campuses in 2012.
This is consistent with the experience at Brunel University London, where students registered 29,042 BYOD devices during the 12 months from 1st October 2014 to 1st October 2015, with an average of 2.6 devices per student.
The proliferation of devices places great demands not only on the network, but on the provision of power i.e. to charge the device batteries, as many devices have high power demands. This is a particular problem in the Library, where the location of power sockets and the style of furniture for personal study space is inadequate for the demand.
In the medium term, there is an opportunity to leverage BYOD by virtualisation of applications. This can bring benefits of reduction in space requirements and support costs, as there will be less hardware to manage.
Big Data, information management and analyticsTechnologists from the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) estimate a 4300% increase in annual data generation by 2020. This is driven by the switch from analogue to digital technologies, and the increase in data generated by individuals and corporates alike.
Academic staff at the University are already seeking advice on how to store petabytes of data for research (generally images, but also high volume transactional data provided by industry clients e.g. banks) and how to transfer large volumes of data securely between sites. Library surveys and communications with
Number of Student BYOD registrations at Brunel University London in 2014/15
642926
8342
19132
Desktop
Entertainment
Laptop
Mobile
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academic staff have indicated very strongly that they have major concerns over the speed and reliability of the network to be able to support their use of research data.
In future information and analytics software will become increasingly sophisticated in order to analyse and report high volume unstructured
In July 2015 Brunel University London became the seventh member of the consortium of research intensive institutions using Virtus Slough. The other six institutions are: University College London, King’s College London, The Sanger Institute, The Francis Crick Institute, The London School of Economics and Political Science and Queen Mary University London.
Data Centre at Virtus Slough
data, as well as highly structured business data. This will consequentially require a greater number of ICT staff with broader skills to support these applications.
Converged network and telephonyThe University has a converged voice and data network providing the building block for an enriched user experience and facilitating deployment of applications and features such as: presence awareness, video conferencing, instant messaging, soft phone clients and single number reach.
Development of these features will give significant business benefits in terms of increased collaboration (especially for millennial workers for whom this functionality is taken for granted), increased productivity, and cost reduction.
Digital capabilitiesDigital capabilities are those that fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. This definition also includes the infrastructure and digital environment in which individuals live and work, and a range of other capabilities including information literacy, digital professionalism, ICT skills, digital scholarship and electronic collaboration and communication.
A survey by UCISA in 2014 showed that for the 63 HE institutions who responded, the most important internal strategies for driving development of digital capabilities included the Teaching, Learning and Assessment strategy, the Library/Learning Resources strategy, the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) strategies. There was general recognition that the digital capabilities agenda impacts across the organisation. UCISA recommends institutions should adopt a whole institutional approach and embed digital capabilities into all strategies, including Estates, HR, Finance, as well as Library, ICT, Academic Development etc.
The digital technologies driving change in learning and teaching are:
• Pre-recorded content available via VLE (needed for flipping the classroom)
• Lecture capture of all lectures (pervasive recorded content for revision)
• Distance learning teaching (video pre-recorded lectures and interactive media)
• Technology Enhanced Active Learning environments (high tech teaching space)
• Video feedback, chat and social media links to teaching content
• Collaborative technology
Lecture Capture continues its exponential growth. Scheduled recordings are doubling each year with 760 in 2015.
The feedback from students has been very positive and the view of unique users has risen from 1,000 views to 3,519, a massive leap in students accessing recorded teaching materials.
Teaching and Learning development has progressed with Production and Multimedia teams working with The College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences (CBASS) to develop a production method for “distance learning videos” to support the new MA in Intelligence and Security Studies, using green screen filming and “Articulate” animation. 22 Modules have been completed by September 2015 with a further 88 modules to be produced over the coming academic year.
There will be an increasing need to review teaching methodologies and ensure developments proceed at the same pace top maximise the potential of the technology.
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3. Internal analysis3.1 An overview of the ICT Services at Brunel University London
ICT services at Brunel University London are delivered through a combination of centrally and locally managed services. The Computer Centre is a support department within the Chief Operating Officer’s directorate and consists of 85 FTE staff. The Computer Centre has an annual Operational budget of approximately £6m, which includes expenditure for staff (c£4m), and recurrent spend (c£2m) covering non-capitalised hardware (i.e. PCs), licence and maintenance costs and a small operations budget.
The Computer Centre delivers 16 core services to the University community:
• two on-site data centres;
• the wired and wireless network and remote access Virtual Private Network (VPN) and eduroam;
• the AV and wireless and ethernet connectivity in Teaching and Learning spaces (including the design, procurement, installation and maintenance of the equipment);
• an AV, Media and WiFi Support Service for conferences and events;
• a full Media Production Service including marketing, communications and teaching support;
• a Media Teaching Centre providing professional film and editing training;
• the voice communication infrastructure;
• the email system;
• personal computing hardware, software and peripherals for Professional Services departments and PC work areas;
• the University core server and storage infrastructure;
• the Student Print Service;
• the Computer Centre Service Desk, and Connect Service for staff, students and affiliates;
• application and database support for all major corporate systems including development and maintenance of interfaces between systems;
• development and maintenance of corporate applications including Web, Intranet, Blackboard Learn and Timetabling;
• identity and account management; and,
• project and programme management support for all staff undertaking ICT projects.
College based ICT delivers:
• personal computing hardware, software and peripherals for academic staff and specialist research laboratories; and,
• the Grid Research computing facility.
Locally provided ICT support varies hugely, with some large engineering departments having teams of staff who provide and support everything in their department. Others have more modest provision limited to basic desktop troubleshooting, and in some there is no locally provided support, with all resources coming from central ICT Services.
Professional and Support Services Departments have very few staff devoted to the support and development of the main corporate systems. For example, SITS and timetabling which are essential systems for the University have only 5 and 2 staff respectively. HR has 1 FTE supporting Northgate and Finance have 0.5 FTE supporting BluQube Symmetry. The licence costs of these systems are approx. £1.5m per year.
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Strategic needsThe ICT Strategy supports the overall strategic aims of the University to improve the quality of teaching and the student experience at Brunel, whilst increasing the research activity and its impact, thereby enhancing the University’s academic strength and reputation.
As specifically stated in the strategy, ‘with the ever expanding penetration of information technology and digital media in the educational sector, many new and exciting opportunities to communicate and engage across boundaries have emerged and will continue to shape the higher education landscape. We will harness these technologies to offer more innovative modes of delivery in our educational provision, and take advantage of their potential
to improve dissemination of knowledge and the sharing of cutting-edge research across national and international borders and time zones.’
As shown in figure 2 below, the University’s strategic plans have a bidirectional relationship with the ICT strategy both in presenting requirements for ICT and being influenced by technological developments.
Operational needsThe Annual Plans of the University, Colleges, Institutes and Departments detail their operational ICT needs. The ICT requirements arising from these will be incorporated in the ICT Annual Plan (a separate document).
3.2 Strategic and operational needs
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Figure 2 - University strategies
ICT Strategy
University Strategic Plan
International Strategy
College Strategic Plans
Library Strategy
Education Strategy
Estates Strategy
Research Institutes Strategy
Research Strategy
In November 2014, staff in the Computer Centre undertook a feedback survey of ICT Services customers (students, academic and administrative staff) to better understand customer needs. The key priorities of each group are highlighted below:
A survey of 70 students included a range of students from different years and disciplines. Below are the key points of feedback distilled from over 300 comments:
Student Services• Improve the functionality and integration of
Blackboard Learn
• Provide all the lectures digitally through lecture capture
• Introduce real time updates of timetabling and mobile messaging
• Provide more specialist software and facilitate access to it 24 hours a day
Systems and Infrastructure• Provide one printing service for the University
• Provide more student file storage, and simplify requests for extra storage
• Provide improved wireless service in terms of speed and seek to eliminate gaps in the service
• Provide consistent sign on (and preferably a single sign on) for all students
• Provide better information and signage across the campus
A survey of 65 staff included deputy vice chancellors, deans, directors, senior management, staff from the Computer Centre and staff from the
3.3 Customer needs
three Colleges and the Research Institutes, as well as the corporate staff. Below are the key points of feedback distilled from over 110 comments
Staff Services• Services not very customer focused, multiple
entry points and no agreed service levels
• Intranet systems would benefit from improvement
• Campus signage, real time information systems and mobile applications are limited
• Limited ICT services are available to support the research community such as grant management, collaboration and big data etc.
• AV and Media services quality varies across the campus
• Desktop services such as email, unified communications (video) and document storage are in need of improvement
• Very limited provision and support of Apple and Android products
• Management information and business intelligence systems are poor
Systems and Infrastructure• The reliability and speed of the network is a
concern due to regular system freezes and logon issues.
• No single sign on, issues with the password change process, no full cloud or web and mobile services are available
• No ubiquitous and pervasive fast Wi-Fi, restricted visitor acces Wifi in residences
• Old legacy corporate systems exist such as Finance and HR
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3.4 Development priorities
ICT Services has a number of development priorities in the next two years to meet the requirements of the University. These are summarised below:
Re-development of the estate and the impact of the replacement of the John Crank buildingThe Estate master plan includes a new teaching and learning building where the John Crank building now stands. A programme is underway to re-locate the Data Centre, the network hub, and the staff from the John Crank building. The Data Centre in John Crank houses critical University systems, so the relocation of the servers, storage, and data, needs to be done seamlessly during 2016 with no loss of service to the University.
Sustaining the physical infrastructure – Learning and Teaching spacesThe development of a teaching and learning strategy and the design of a proposed new teaching and learning building highlights the need to offer a range of “Technology Enhanced Active Learning” (TEAL) environments that will enable the teaching community to trial new skills and develop the techniques needed to exploit a modern building design with the latest supporting technology. The design for a TEAL environment will evolve as we try new technology and ideas and include the whole environment (lighting, furniture and décor, as well as AV/ICT systems).
The current estate of centrally timetabled spaces (80+) is made up of AV/ICT systems of different ages and condition. The assets that make up the systems have an optimal service period (5 years), and once exceeded the service can expect an increasing number of unavoidable failures. This is a risk to the reputation of teaching staff and also to a positive student experience.
The development of a University ICT Strategy and the media service element of that strategy has changed both the way we plan and budget. The current method of assessment is based on the University needs of all spaces, not just centrally timetabled spaces. Assessments of condition, age, and continued suitability have been carried out within all the 255+ teaching and business spaces that have an AV/ICT system regardless of local ownership.
Complementing this assessment, the University ICT audit of assets (completed to support this ICT strategic planning process) identified AV/ICT systems, and attributed costs of replacement and age of installation for all 255+ spaces. Based on the audit findings a five year investment and replacement plan was developed. The current overdue figure of that plan is £1.6m out of a £5m estate. Taking this as an aspirational target, capital spending can be prioritised.
Software lifecycle managementA sustainable solution to software lifecycle management is being developed which will empower the ICT community spanning central services & College teams. The aim is to rationalise the number of software packages and versions on PCs from 16,500 to fewer than 1,000. This will reduce complexity and facilitate a robust and consistent software lifecycle management solution providing flexibility and clarity, and enabling applications to run on shared computers across campus. This solution will be a significant and key enabler for other major projects such as the introduction of cloud email and the finance and HR system upgrades, and will also include the encryption of the laptop fleet across the University.
ICT asset lifecycle managementA standard University wide asset register will be developed to identify, locate and track all hardware, software and licence assets. This will ensure adequate financial planning for cyclical replacements and upgrades, and will allow fault recording on specific equipment.
ICT ProcurementThe next two years will require intense periods of ICT procurement activity including: rationalising and renegotiating the number of software licences and versions in use at the University; developing a software licence asset database; tendering for a new Finance and HR system using the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU); reviewing cloud software contracts etc.
An ICT Procurement Strategy will be created, and with the new Finance and HR system implementation the procurement processes will be reviewed with the possibility to route all ICT procurement requests via the CC senior team for review and/or authorisation. Catalogues will be developed to procure standard University approved ICT equipment.
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Shadow ITDepartments across the University routinely procure and implement software solutions and this is known as ‘Shadow IT’.
In 2015 the Computer Centre established a Programme Management Office (PMO) as a centre of excellence for Project and Programme Management for ICT projects. The PMO controls the register of ICT projects underway and planned, and provides templates for Project Management documents. As the PMO develops and matures, it will become an increasingly valuable resource for all staff managing and governing ICT projects across the University.
Looking forward, a clear governance model for ICT will ensure that ‘shadow IT’ is reduced to a minimum.
Strategy for business systems and the enterprise architectureThe procurement of ‘Best of Breed’ business systems applications over the years has meant that sophisticated interfaces are required between core systems. In addition there are a large number of smaller legacy applications, although these systems often provide vital services, they are difficult to support and integrate.
To improve operational efficiency across campus an Enterprise Architecture will be created with individual strategies for each business systems group. This will facilitate excellent administration for teaching and learning and for Professional and Support Services.
Identity and access managementIdentity and access management is a fundamental part of the ICT Infrastructure and supports the creation and management of user accounts, and the systems and services users have access to. Without identity management no one would be able to access any University ICT systems.
A review of the full account management lifecycle will be undertaken to improve the user experience, reduce complexity, replace ageing systems and structures, streamline account provisioning/deprovisioning and enable more sophisticated, fine-grained and modular access to University services.
Service developmentIn the next two years the servive portfolio will be enhanced with new processes, new metrics and service levels. This will enable:
• better fault detection therefore minimising service disruption;
• more sophisticated load balancing and utilisation of resources;
• better planning of service changes;
• generation of service performance statistics; and,
• benchmarking of services with comparator organisations.
Key Performance Indicators will be defined and reported against regularly. These will support the University level KPIs reported annually, and support the weekly and monthly monitoring of ICT performance against agreed service levels.
ICT staff recruitmentRecruitment of ICT staff with the requisite experience, skills and attitude is difficult even with London weighting applied. The result is gaps in support for critical systems, extra workload for ICT colleagues, repeated recruitment exercises using valuable management time; and, extra cost for the ICT department in filling vacancies on a temporary basis with contract staff.
There is no easy solution to this situation, but key positions of single points of failure will be identified, staff training will be targeted at those areas, and succession planning will be undertaken with targeted recruitment.
Career planning will drive personal development plans incorporating skills and competence development, through training and experiential learning.
ComplianceA data breach could compromise an individual’s or group’s sensitive personal information being shared and/or abused and the reputational risks and fines associated with data breaches are increasing, The Information Commissioner’s Office now fines up to £500,000 for a breach, and there is associated risk that a data breach would deter partners from sharing research data with the University.
Financial management of ICTThe full picture of ICT Operational expenditure across the University will be developed. Going forward there will be full transparency of ICT operational costs. ICT Capital expenditure planning will be improved with detailed project accounting and regular reporting.
ICT purchasing will be reviewed, including expenditure on credit cards. The purchasing process and authorisation routes for ICT expenditure will be reviewed as part of the newfinance system implementation.
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4. ICT Organisation
In assessing organisational effectiveness one of the most simple and enduring models is the McKinsey 7S model. First published by Peters and Waterman in their book ‘In Search of Excellence’ in the 1970s, it details seven elements which must change and align in harmony with each other to achieve organisational excellence.
In applying this model to the ICT organisation at Brunel University London, we can see how each element will change over the next two years to deliver the ICT Strategy.
StructureA hub and spoke model for ICT governance will be implemented in order to bring ICT in the Colleges and the centralised ICT closer together. The work will start by defining a co-operation model and responsibilities between the centralised ICT and Colleges.
Hard elements Soft elements
Figure 3 - McKinsey 7S model
Structure
Strategy Systems
Shared Values
Skills
Staff
Style
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An holistic approach will be taken, and the efficiency of the ICT organisation will be improved by shortening the chains of command, flattening the structure and increasing the average number of direct reports.
There will be an increased focus on customer service and applications, and single points of failure in the organisation structure will be identified and eradicated.
There will be a focus on identifying and separating units operating existing services from those responsible for creating new services. In some parts of the organisation it may be sensible for staff to do both.
StrategyThe ICT strategy is outlined in this document, and related supporting plans will be developed such as:
• the Digitisation plan;
• the ICT Procurement plan, and
• roadmaps for the development of each business system.
SystemsThe Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Management techniques and standards will be adopted to deliver ICT services more efficiently and effectively.
Communications will be improved at all levels to ensure frequent and consistent information sharing across and beyond the ICT function.
StaffPeople are the most important resource of any organisation so within ICT the intrinsic talents of the staff will be grown and developed. Strength comes from diversity so representations of culture and gender will be valued at every level.
The new Personal Development Review (PDR) process review will be used to set cascading objectives and targets from Directors to Managers to staff.
Succession planning will be undertaken and the Investors in People standard will be used to assess the consistency of staff management and development across the ICT function.
The Customer Service Excellence standard will be used to assess the standard of customer service provided by ICT staff.
Staff training will be provided for a range of technical, professional and soft skills. Training will be organised from the extensive range of Staff Development courses where available, and for more specific training with accredited 3rd party training providers.
SkillsSome of the new skills which will be required by ICT staff to deliver the strategy are:
• Contract and vendor management skills - to manage the increasing number of contracts with 3rd party providers of Cloud services and software being procured by departments, and managing performance of suppliers to contracted terms
• Account management skills –to professionalise relationships with colleagues at all levels in the University
• Customer Service skills – including training in Service Desk Professional and Customer Service Excellence
• ICT service delivery skills - including training in ITIL
• Additional technical skills, such as software packaging and deployment skills and vendor-independent broader technology skills
• Architectural skills
• Project management skills – training in Projects in Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) and Agile to deliver projects consistently and successfully
• Business analysis skills – to document and prioritise requirements, and define business processes using Rapid Application Design, Agile and Lean techniques
• Project portfolio management skills – to ensure the right projects are undertaken in the correct sequence to align with the University strategy and to deliver value for money
• Line management skills
• Planning and strategic management skills
The skills required by the institution are to develop digital capabilities across the workforce. Additionally, there are increasing numbers of staff managing ICT projects across the University, and it is recommended that these staff obtain professionally recognised Project Management and Business Analysis qualifications.
A competency framework and a systematic approach to continuous professional development will be introduced to ensure that ICT staff at the university will be able to deliver the strategy and to meet future requirements.
Style / cultureThis is important as it refers to ‘the way we do things round here’. It is often hard to diagnose, and it can lead to difficulties in integration of new staff, so it is important to recognise this and develop new ways of doing things together, especially with the introduction of the new ‘hub and spoke’ governance model.
Shared valuesThe ICT vision, mission and shared values will be identified and defined with staff. The shared values will apply across the entire Unviersity including IT staff in the professional services and colleges.
The name and branding of the ICT function will be reviewed as it is recognised that the term ‘Computer Centre’ is now out-dated.
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Transformational activitiesThis ICT strategy provides an overall framework and vision for ICT for the next two years, and to deliver the strategy there will be a series of transformation activities:
1) A transformation programme of approximately six months, covering:
• organisational change, with an updated governance model;
• putting processes and metrics in place; and,
• continuous development.
2) A competency development programme of approximately three years, to embed the new skills listed on page 14 to support the ICT Strategy.
3) Cultural change toward the target state of partnership which is estimated to take up to five years.
ProjectsThe ‘ICT Projects Dossier 2016-2017’ is a companion document to the ICT Strategy and describes the ICT projects underway in the University and planned to be undertaken, together with the benefits they will deliver.
It is recognised that the list of projects to be undertaken is ambitious and not all the projects will be completed within the two year timescale of this strategy - some will continue into the next strategic period.
ICT GovernanceMany of the projects listed in the Projects Dossier are not driven by the ICT Strategy, they were underway before the ICT Strategy was created. The challenge is therefore to ensure that the right projects are being done which align with the ICT strategy, as well as getting the basics right and improving operational efficiency of the ICT landscape at the University.
It is of critical importance therefore that ICT Governance works effectively to ensure the projects are prioritised effectively. This governance can be provided by the Information Sub-Committee.
Finally, programme and project governance must work effectively to ensure that all projects once approved, are delivered on time and to budget.
Change ManagementTo achieve the cultural changes described in this strategy significant effort will be directed towards professional Change Management processes and practices. This will enable the delivery of changes both within the Computer Centre itself, and as major technological and systems changes are delivered, within the academic and professional services departments and wider University stakeholder groups.
5. Delivery of the ICT Strategic Plan
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