IT Services Newsletter #14

Finance Business Services System (FBSS) Project
At October’s FBSS Project Board there was a message of thanks and appreciation to IT Service teams in delivering the COA system infrastructure against tight time timescales to enable the training and development work to commence according to schedule. There was a particular appreciation from COA on the ease of use and capability of the Sun Global Desktop (SGD) set-up that they were provided with during this process. Thank you to those involved for making this part of the project happen so effectively.

Award for ALPS - Supported by IT Services at Bradford
A University project - The ALPS CETL – won the 2009 Handheld Learning Awards for Innovation & Best Practice. This involves colleagues from across the University and our participation is led by the School of Health Studies. We are particularly pleased that this award is shared with John Fairhall and Zee Miran who provide the pioneering “shared support service” on behalf of the consortium based at the University of Bradford. Congratulations to everyone involved and especially John and Zee.

Shared Services and Collaborative Working Project
Geoff Bell and I attended a full afternoon’s workshop with KMPG the facilitators. The results of that workshop have just been circulated – basically there are a number of significant hurdles in respect of IT collaborations because the Council have outsourced to IBM (two years into a ten year contract), the Health Trust have ruled IT “out of scope” and the West Yorkshire Police service already act as a regional collaborator within the Police service and have a number of policy (not technical) issues with sharing data networks for fairly obvious reasons. On this basis, the potential areas that the group came up with were fairly limited but included less controversial areas such as printing/copying (where all participants have “spare” capacity including InPrint and Design at Bradford University) and also shared call centre operations. Our interest was in Clearing/Enrolment and potential plans to contact alumni for fundraising in the New Year.

Leeds College of Music (LCM) Merger
There has been a lot of activity in the last month preparing a bid to the Funding Council (HEFCE) for the set-up costs of merging the University with the College of Music. This has been done in consultation with colleagues at LCM. There are a number of new opportunities from closer collaboration with what would become a new “Academic School” and there are also a number of challenges with merging a wide range of corporate and support services and systems. We have identified a wide range of services that would be affected, and this could lead to a significant project for us, if the project is approved towards the end of December by the HEFCE Board.

Student Account Provisioning Workshop
Russell Allen facilitated the first of several workshops with representatives from every Academic School and colleagues from IT Services. We are looking at how we currently provision IT accounts for new students, with a particular focus on the needs of flexible, distant and “non traditional” student entry. This is going to be a growth area in the new Corporate Plan for the University and we are trying to facilitate some more streamlined and effective working procedures. It is already clear that the current approaches in Schools can be fragmented and sometimes down to individual preference – and we reached a consensus that there were some opportunities to make this better in terms of both student experience and reducing our manual administration. The next workshop takes place in late November.

New University IT Strategy 2009-14
The new IT Strategy was approved at Information Strategy Committee (ISC) - subject to a inclusion of Research requirements.

Improving the student printing experience
The self-service student printing facility is continuing to work very effectively. We will hopefully be able to compare the print volumes with the new service compared to the previous system and see if there has been a reduction (as forecast) in the volume of paper that is being printed. We will need to factor in the additional student numbers on campus – it seems even busier than usual, perhaps affected by the closure of the Communal Building for refurbishment. During the last month an additional printer was fully commissioned on Level Zero, potentially increasing capacity by 50 percent. There are plans to further increase capacity for the busy end of calendar year assignment deadlines.

Leading-edge computer aided assessment
Hopefully you will have seen the article in the current News and Views around learning and teaching. It’s a very positive piece. The University is hosting a major UCISA seminar on e-assessment on November 4th with John Dermo as one of the keynote speakers, and involving other colleagues from LSS and IT Services. We are establishing a very positive position in the HE sector around e-assessment and should continue to be proud of this association.

Update on Library Management System (BradFinder) project
All the major modules are now implemented, with telephone renewals now operational. Next steps are transferring Virtual Scholars records to BRADfinder (the project starts in November), implementing the Electronic Resources module to allow better management of the Library’s electronic journals and databases packages (starts January) and lots of new functionality for BRADfinder (email alerts for new items based on saved searches, RSS feeds for items on order etc). For the photocopiers in the Library, a trial has started of the Ricoh iMFP software, that will enable printing via Pharos on a photocopier.

Launch of CampusM

On Monday went to the launch of the oMbiel product called CampusM (I learnt on the day that oMbiel is an anagram of Mobile doh). The University has procured the system for set-up and launch early in the New Year, initially on Iphones and Touch, and by Spring available cross platform (smartphone). The attenders didn't get complimentary iPhones but I am now the owner of an apple ballpoint - looks of envy all around. Bradford already has a dotmobi site and has been a pioneer - we will be active members of the inaugural University User Group. The early adopter is Sheffield. There are other people blogging about this - about 70 people attended. We also got an update on iTunesU which is growing fast however, the key enabler of this is great content - providing the full platform for free is an interesting gesture and I liked the way that John Hickey described "rock star academics" and the analogy between U2 (the University), CD (the course), music track (the module). Yes. Quite. If anyone is interested in the session notes then they're available. Key message: more and more students will have access to this sort of mobile technology. It enables new ways of accessing a wide range of University services. We will be part of a pioneering club that will improve student experience. We may also save student's time and also University staff/resources through mobile and self-service. We are continuing to invest in new technology at Bradford Universtiy.

First IT Managers "Away Day"

Well to reassure in these budget conscious times it wasn't away (it was Horton Building) and although it included a sandwich (menu A) I went to the co-op and provided the biscuits, croissants, chocolate twisty pastries and crisps - and the supplementary food was definitely needed after 6 straight hours with only comfort breaks thrown in. We had a presentation from Richard on his recent asignment from the PGCert module covering an IT Services marketing audit. We discussed the Leeds College of Music in order to provide an updated document to the project board later that day with updated costs. We spent the majority of time (2.5 hours) on going through the draft plan and the individual team plans developed so far for 2009/10. Sara joined us for an hour to cover the governance and "account management" discussions which was really productive - we may have an emerging plan. Finally we covered some further areas around the new structure including some labels (which are being slept on). So overall a very good use of time. At the end, it felt like a very intense day - and we also seemed to generate a productive set of ideas, actions and agreements. Thanks to all.

Another campus tour - pretty in pink?

Last week three of us took another look around some of the areas that are associated with IT provision on campus across three buildings. It took us nearly two hours. One of the group was a critical friend who is Fellow in Arts and we asked for an opinion on the spaces - how they could be improved or modified to respond to student criticisms the last time we took a tourist group. I started out thinking that we could do something with student work and/or art display. What I discovered is that the rooms (especially the ones that have just been built or refurbished) are all rather good in terms of colour choice, flooring and general ambience. The main proposals were to highlight the space outside the rooms on the entry and exit points, where sometime students wait between classes or maybe take a break for 5 minutes. Toalso provide a small "oasis" space with calming colour, soft furnishing (for one or two people only) and maybe plants. These changes could be done with feature walls in plain colours and perhaps a temporary transient exhibition. We are going to investigate the photographic exhibition which is on display in the atrium and was commissioned by the University using its own students (with consent) and campus spaces. These are colourful and bright and "people" oriented. I think the most controversial recommendation could be the flourescent pink (matt finish) proposed for the entrance lobby on level 01 - the colour chart arrived today and we are going to get some costings. Watch this space!

Dave Gorman returns

So the Cycling Curry Club have booked half a dozen tickets for the Dave Gorman show in Bradford. We are all on different rows as its nearly sold out. Looking forward to it because (a) like Dave Gorman (b) it may have a cycling theme (c) it will be rounded off with a curry (d) sounds like an excellent evening all round

IT Services Newsletter #13

Welcome to the second newsletter, this year. IT Services can be very proud of the outstanding level of service to our students and support staff since A level results day on August 20th. The A Level Results Day, Confirmation, Clearing, Enrolment and Re-Enrolment processes have been executed in a highly professional and co-ordinated manner. During the last two weeks and before then, via the pre-enrolment portal, over 4,100 new UG and PG students have enrolled at the University. The University systems have ably managed the increased volume and also the new business processes introduced this year (e.g .scanning almost 30,000 images to meet new Borders Agency external requirements). THANK YOU to everyone that has made this year such a success.

As usual there have been lots of other things happening and this update will only cover a few selected items.

Re-structure of IT Services
There was an important communication sent on October 1st in a separate email about the new IT structure. Alastair was the first to spot an error in the document. I expect it’s not the only one, so we will not re-issue at this stage awaiting further feedback. We will soon be starting the process of individual and team discussions.

Student Survey: “You said this, we did that”
There has been a lot of work going on over the Summer to respond to the issues raised by students in our first ever survey. Please take a look here to see just how much we have already achieved in response to student feedback. In a related initiative to improve the overall environment on level 01 JBP Building in particular, there is a site survey taking place on the 13th October with Caroline Hick who is the recently appointed Fellow In Arts. Caroline has already identified some really exciting new visuals for corridors and open spaces which complement the current exhibition of student photography on display in the Richmond Building atrium. In addition, Liz Mortimer has put together some proposed new signage for office doors to identify who we are and where we live. This has been agreed in principle, through managers, and awaits final sign off from Sara Marsh regarding more general signage provision in the JBP Library. I hope that the there will be some new signs arriving on your door before the next newsletter.

IT Services Annual Report 2008/09 – Final Version
This final version is available. It has grown quite a bit since the last version that was circulated. I am hopeful that we will get some support to turn the copy into a better formatted document for internal circulation and also a potential “micro-campaign” with the support of Marketing and Corporate Communications.

Shared Services and Collaborative Working Project
This project is continuing, after an initial data collection exercise. there are two half day workshop meetings taking place on Thursday October 8th and Monday October 12th. There is little more to say at this stage but will keep you posted – we have reports that Bradford Council will experience difficulties in trying to move any of their IT to shared services. They have a long-term contract in place with IBM.

Leeds College of Music Merger
We are currently planning an impact analysis in relation to the proposed merger between the University of Bradford and the Leeds College of Music. We have an initial meeting in Leeds to meet one or two people involved in delivering the IT Service on October 14th (Keith Craig and Karen McMahon)

New University IT Strategy 2009-14
As reported in the last newsletter there have been lots of one-to-one meetings and discussions about this new strategy with the members of Information Strategy Committee (ISC). It will be presented for discussion and approval at the next ISC meeting on October 6th. All of the papers for ISC are published here and the new IT Strategy is here

IT Services - Mission, Vision and Values
This is provided as an appendix to the new strategy document. All feedback and comment welcome. I know that some for some this will be a “pass the sickbag” moment, but there will be others who may be keen to engage in a debate about this. I’ve provided an opportunity for an open dialogue on that via the blog and private comments are also welcome. Those of us that attended the “Inspirational Leadership” events with Robina Chatham had a go at describing something called the cultural web for IT Services – current and future - comprising the following elements: stories and myths, symbols, rituals, control systems, organisational structure, and power structures. If you are interested in what we came up with then they are all displayed currently on the walls in room 01.57.

Update on Communal Building Refurbishment
You will have noticed this week that the work to the Communal Building Project has commenced and that green and orange hoardings are being erected around the building by the contractors Bam Construction. As part of the projects ongoing consultation there will be regular meetings between the contractor and a representative group of end users / UoB neighbours to discuss issues around the construction process its programme and consequences. In addition BAM will issue a newsletter which is intended to inform a wider audience.

E-Strategy update
The E-Strategy Board met on 14th September and it confirmed its approval for three major new investments this academic session, as well as reviewing the status of all existing e-strategy projects. The new investments will be made in:

• SUN Global Desktop to allow off campus access to University image desktop via web browser. This project covers expanding the service with additional licenses and infrastructure.
• Upgrade to latest network cabling in all remaining buildings on City and Emm Lane Campus
• Elluminate Virtual Classroom to support distance learners, host online conferences & meetings

The message is important – the University is continuing to invest in its IT Services

Missions and all of that

Here is something for comment and feedback - anything constructive is welcome. We have included this as an appendix to the new IT Strategy for 2009-14.

Our Mission
To deliver and support high‐quality, reliable and innovative Information Technology services.

Our customers say “keep it simple”. They want to see realistic, noticeable, measurable and incremental improvements in service delivery, rather than a grand design. They also want IT to offer a “service” not just computer systems, which includes working with others outside of traditional “silos” to ensure that process review, support, training, documentation, expertise and use of systems is part of the package.

Our Vision
By 2014 we will

• Continue to deliver robust and reliable IT services that meet current and future needs.
• Use technology to differentiate the University, to transform the student and staff experience and to enable communication and engagement.
• Make a direct contribution to process improvement and enable the business and academic processes of the University.
• Be recognised as a customer‐focused, professional, innovative provider of Information
  Technology Services.

Our Values
The values of IT Services will reflect those of the University – to aim and continue to be
Inclusive, Ethical, Reflective, Supportive, Adaptable and Sustainable – these demonstrate
the culture the institution aspires to.

Hippo eats dwarf

You'd normally say "only in America" but not on this occassion....