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