Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #7

Here's a final update for 2017 - Season's Greetings to all our readers!

• Started week with discussions about purchasing contract for new desktops and laptops.  IT and procurement have been leading the NDNA process and this week we were holding final selection interviews.
• Ran through the final feedback on the original capital plan submission and prepared a one-pager on essential versus highly desirable investments for 2017-18.  This was circulated to IT team leaders although we haven't yet gone through it together.
• Attended my first Estates and IT working group which was a very useful session. It feel like we have a good basis for building relationships between the teams. We discussed some of the capital projects in progress as well as a number of teaching room projects.  There is a desire to proactively manage the estates elements of projects which was very welcome.
• There was a separate discussion about AV tender in the New Year with procurement including IT and Estates. We came up with viable options which should not hold up any urgent or ad hoc requirements that emerge.
• Held several 1-2-1 catch ups which are now scheduled regularly in diary with direct reports.  
• Attended Finance workshop on budget and forecasting.
• Business Continuity discussed for Christmas/New Year and a briefing pack created and circulated.  Doing some more work on this will be a priority ahead of the next extended break at Easter 2018.
• Met with Faculty of Arts - Dean and Faculty Manager - about the desktop replacement program which has been approved.  Have agreed a timeline and process for IT to present options and recommendations in New Year, and will pull team together to support that.
• Introduction meeting with Director of HR and OD.  Some of the good things were mentioned that had been picked up about DAS and Digital Campus (tackling culture issues for example).

Good News Stories

• Lots of positive stories in DAS Newsletter - good piece about Enterprise Architecture for example.
• First IT Task and Finish Group met and agreed follow-up actions for January meeting and way forward for 2017/18 IT capital bid.
• Generators in MI and MX refuelled and tested in time for the Christmas break
• NDNA process moved on to next step.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #6

Update from week six

• Sunday and Monday brought us lots of challenging weather so didn't travel to Wolverhampton as planned first thing Monday morning.  Spent time on a variety of admin activity - it was useful to catch up on  some of the things in my "to do list".  Since week one I have found myself in meeting after meeting and limited time to do any of the actions that I have agreed!  Just one of these which has been rumbling around is SAMS maintenance - now all sorted.
• There was a "P1" incident Tuesday morning due to another power interruption affecting one of our server rooms. We will make sure a lessons learned report is produced and any actions identified and allocated.
• Got up to speed with recent work on "lead nurturing systems" which had involved two workshops.  Arranged next workshop for mid-January and a pre-session with those involved from IT.
• Held a number of  "account management" meetings this week:  made introductions and a very positive meeting with Strategic Planning; spent a couple of hours with External Relations on the list of outstanding issues - all now being picked up;  met with Purchasing about the upcoming contract reviews and those in progress.
• Met with Ultimedia who had been involved in an Estates/IT workshop in the Summer about requirements for content management system.  Agreed follow up actions which will be picked up with Estates in the New Year.
• A very positive meeting with Estates and Facilities colleagues. An extensive list of follow-up actions was circulated for review and comment.
• After the JISC learner analytics meeting followed up with our JISC account manager and among other things discussed getting some outline costings for potentially moving/upgrading the core network.  The standard lead time is maximum five months from placing orders which is worth knowing - probably longest lead time items.  We also followed up about accessing further information about the JISC Shared Data Centre with our internal legal and procurement people - next steps agreed as this is not yet completed.

Good News Stories

• Estates and DAS discussing and agreeing responsibilities for Server Room infrastructure.
• Night out at Slaters to celebrate Christmas and a successful Christmas Jumper day for charity.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #5

Brief update from week five

• Learned about a major African research project currently based in the Congo and met with the academic lead about hosting and "on premise" alternatives.
• Met with local support teams and toured Telford and Walsall campuses.  Circulated short follow-up notes and took some photos.  Key issues raised by teams were staffing levels to provide professional service and AV support issues.   We noted potential for front of house "face to face" support provision for students (and staff).
• Attended Cyber Security Centre Project Board and exciting £9M new build project in Hereford.  IT team has been actively involved in verifying and agreeing the numbers which are audit tracked.  Good to be involved early on in such a development.
• Tender for AV next steps in progress with colleagues in Purchasing.  Various options under consideration with advice from external expertise.
• Organised the Panopto Working Group on technical workstream - some great feedback from the team including those directly involved with the roll-out.  Notes circulated and next steps agreed to feed into Panopto Project board.
• Organised useful Logicalis account management meeting.
• DAS IT managers inaugural meeting covered a number of areas - meeting weekly from the start of the New Year.
• Completed review of IT elements of the DAS risk register.
• Introductory meeting with Schools Liaison including integration requests relating to systems in this area and tableau reporting.
• Attended Tableau Implementation meeting with Planning and IT.

Good News Stories

• DAS Leadership Team workshop - number of positive and specific outcomes.
• No P1 major incidents in first week December.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #4

Brief Update from Week Four

• Cascaded briefings from Leadership Team meeting.
• Attended first DAS Exec meeting - good discussions on change management and service management system project as well as process for taking forward discussions on new DAS structures.
• Met up with SUMS consultants ahead of initial workshop on Digital Strategy exercise
• Discussed KX (catering/accommodation) system improvements and agreed action plan
• Organised briefing session with Faculty IT  and set up team leader meetings from New Year along with others who have IT related responsibilities.
• Involved in review of Library Platform award and procurement process.
• Undertook a detailed review of project and program management observations presented by Faithful & Gould  as part of scope of works.
• Ran a budget review event with Finance and allocated primary and secondary budget holders for all IT related budgets - next step is monthly budget profiling.
• The team completed a review of capital investment projects (16/17 funding).
• Attempted to understand some more about the FLEFTwatch research project ahead of audio conference with academic leaders next Tuesday.
• Involved in several escalation discussions to resolve internal issues with services.

Good News Stories

• Christmas drinks event at Slaters arranged (Wednesday December 13th).
• Obtained GDPR Foundation qualification.
• No P1 major incidents in November and survived major power outage and subsequent interruptions to resolve power issues, without any significant IT service disruption.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #3

Some brief highlights from this week include:

• The NDNA mini competition tender document was issued at the start of the week. 
• We are continuing to review the IT operational plan for 17/18 and will be bringing it all together in a team meeting shortly which has been scheduled. 
• Set up date for lessons learned activity for Summer AV installation program and held further weekly review of progress with PMs. 
• Set up a review session ahead of Christmas break for the major incident process which includes lessons learned from previous exercise. 
• During this week dealt with a number of HR related matters. 
• Provided IT sign off to Cyber Security Centre project team meeting after face to face review with academic sponsors, Estates and IT. Further work subsequently taking place on network pricing and clarifying revenue versus capital items. All in good shape for next Project Board. 
• Interesting meeting with Wolverhampton City Council about a bid for new capital funding related to "Smart Cities" and city centre high speed broadband. Will be a very competitive national process - may need letter of support at some point. 
• Attended GDPR foundation course which includes training materials for potential future briefing process. 
• Planning to start on Christmas Jumper Day and a team night out before Christmas - watch this space and hold the date (December 13th provisionally).

Good News Stories

• Digital Strategy Committee went ahead with a full agenda, good attendance and engaged members - good stuff. 
• No P1 major incidents so far in November.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #2

Some of the things that I have been doing during this week:

• Spent time with the team, individually and in small groups, to reach a decision on how we would handle departure of a senior colleague and handover. Communicated outcome through face to face meetings, DAS newsletter and prepared individual letters.
• Briefly discussed MI Data Centre migration and obtained a timeline for planning purposes (ideally space vacated and refurbed for Sept 2018).  Started to think about options - and arranged onsite meeting with potential partner.
• Attended half day workshop on Problem Management and Knowledge Management and contributed to identification of next steps.
• Met with Timetabling project manager for a briefing on the timetabling project – aim is for fully personalised timetabling for Sept 2019 and online room booking by Sept 2018. This involves a major  "four version" upgrade to the CMIS system and investigations about CMIS GO which is a new web portal product.
• Met with Business Analyst to understand role and recent activity – briefed on mobile phone review and views on broader BPM opportunities.
• Helped with review and feedback on the Current Research Information System (CRIS) business case.
• Completed first two elements of the review of IT operational plan. A number of key risks highlighted with respect to investment.
• Briefed on FLEGT rainforest research project and potential costing which has been prepared for hosting on-premise. Organised a follow up with lead researchers in early December.
• Sorted out commitment to refuel and service for the MX (and MI) diesel generators in time for Christmas/New Year break.
• Weekly update on AV project with project management team and also reviewed contract paperwork, scope of works and organised follow up next week to review.
• Briefing meeting with IT and Purchasing on the NDNA procurement of desktop and laptop computers.

Good News Stories that have already been communicated:

• Successful launch of new University managed Apple Mac platform (November 1^st)
• Successful launch of new guest wi-fi network (November 2^nd)
• Successful launch of Panopto through Apps Anywhere delivery on and off campus (November 10^th)
• No P1 major incidents so far in November – confirmed 3 P1s since April 2017.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #1

It has been a tremendous pleasure to return to the University to such a friendly team with so much experience of the University and its operations. Thank you for making me feel so welcome second time around.

My primary objectives for the next six months are:

• Line Management for a number of permanent roles which report directly. 
• Management of a number of short-term contract staff, including two Business Analysts, and two Project Managers from Faithfull and Gould
• Oversight of operational plan delivery
• Oversight of the IT operational budget
• Membership of a number of groups and committees, including: Change Advisory Board, Digital Strategy Board, IT task and finish group, Information Security Board etc
• Membership of DAS Executive, contribution to DAS plans, and maintenance of Business As Usual

During my first week there have been a number of formal and informal opportunities to meet with people and begin to get up to speed with just some of the recent activities. Among other things, I was involved with:

• A TRIBAL briefing on future system strategy – I prepared and shared a briefing note and organised a follow up with the SITS Team in Registry.
• Attended DAS Leadership team meeting – emphasis on carrying on as planned, line management changes relate only to recent departures.
• Met with IT management team both as a team and in brief individual 1-2-1 sessions
• Developed and discussed viable options and consulted on line management plans for upcoming departure of senior IT manager.
• Organised a handover meeting and process to document outstanding tasks in progress
• Kicked off piece of work by IT managers on review of the current IT operational plan – specifically any projects that are “at risk”.
• Attended Panopto Project Board – some very positive feedback on Summer progress.
• Delegated and followed up on PwC penetration test paperwork
• AV supplier – both pre-meeting and face-to-face meeting with Directors. Successful outcome including resolution of all significant outstanding snags.
• Arranged to hold weekly review meetings with IT managers and on alternate weeks extend invitation to others involved in IT who report elsewhere - this schedule will commence from January.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #21

Here is my final update as the contract at Wolverhampton successfully ends.

This week I have been making sure that there are no loose ends and handing over various things that are in progress.  Therefore quite a few meetings and conversations with colleagues in the Directorate and beyond.

I will continue to be available over the coming weeks and months for any follow-ups that are needed.

I plan to return at the end of April in a personal capacity for the JISC/UCISA digital strategy forum, and the agenda includes an update on the University Digital Strategy.

During this week I have also:

• Provided feedback on the Nexus sessions for the DAS newsletter
• Prepared input for the monthly DAS highlights (based on scrum meetings among other things)
• Followed up the regional get-together with Birmingham City University, which has proposed a joined up IT and Library approach
• Met with Purchasing ref partnership landscape
• Met with an academic colleague regarding his Professional Doctorate thesis (absolutely fascinating regarding Digital Campus and future strategy)
• Invited Wolverhampton City Council to speak at the UCISA digital strategy forum on its digital journey

I have also provided a summary of my 90 days at the University with a personal reflection on the original objectives.

I will next be back at Wolverhampton University on April 28th for the Digital Strategy Forum.

It has been a great opportunity to work with new colleagues and create new friends.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #20

Here is a penultimate newsletter - with one more week to go.

This week was dominated by the run up to the Digital Strategy Committee meeting including updating several documents as well as a few updates to the main powerpoint and presentation materials including development of a "one pager".  There was also some preparation for the first of the Academic Reference Groups on Monday. It was great to meet a colleague in the Maths department and corresponded about "humagrams" launched at BETT, and also a meeting next week with another colleague regarding his PhD Thesis which has a Digital theme.

Dates were circulated to all members for the Digital Advisory Board hosted by McCann and that will be part of my handover during next week - when I have also scheduled time to complete final handover tasks.

Our meeting with the City Council was fascinating.  Great tour of the facilities which are being significantly re-developed on our doorstep in the Civic Centre.  Various photos and observations are available, however, as some of them are sensitive (i.e. Server Room) I am not putting them here. It was agreed to meet on a regular basis from now on, and to invite them along to our Digital Advisory Board.

I facilitated a final meeting on the Business Intelligence (BI) Lessons Learned activity.  This captured a number of new and different perspectives from those involved with earlier stages of the BI project activity. Draft report is with participants and I will circulate the final signed-off version for next Thursday's deadline.

My final scheduled Nexus session went ahead with the Faculty of Engineering and Arts. It was much more interactive than any other of these sessions and there were some very helpful input from the Faculty team leaders including:-  the need for specialist teams in Faculty; about the nature of relationships with DAS/IT; some fundamental issues with planning and budgeting for basic hygiene factors; confirmation that "one size does not fit all".

CAST kindly circulated a message around DAS with an invitation for a beer and a natter next Wednesday evening to mark my departure at Slater's Bar.  I also created a short highlight report  of my 6 months at the University.  It has been a great opportunity.  Thanks to everyone who has made me feel so welcome.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #19

This is a shorter than usual weekly update as I was very fortunate to spend a long weekend away in the French Alps trying to ski.

The week started with pulling together a short report from the UCISA17 Conference which I also circulated later in the week to team leaders at the fortnightly "scrum".  There are a couple of follow-up meetings now beginning to appear in diaries with suppliers that we met.  I also prepared a short paper for circulation ahead of the next DAS leadership team meeting on the partnership analysis which we have agreed to facilitate.  This will be coming for a short discussion at next Tuesday's meeting.  In preparation I have created a "starter for ten".  This is ahead of a meeting next Wednesday with Purchasing to cover areas they might be able to help with.

I spent some time on the "top 5" requests for the next phase of the ServiceNow implementation alongside the strand of work on the software request process.  With CAST team assistance we have honed in on guest Wi-Fi accounts, IT account extensions, mobile phone administration (new, change, leave, billing) and IT equipment purchasing (printers, laptops, tablets etc).  I have kept in touch with the project in my role as QA - the first stage of the project is still progressing well and on schedule - the only glitch is the self-service portal and this is not part of initial launch.  HR are also progressing really well and on schedule.

I have obtained confirmation from McCann that they will host the June Digital Advisory Board (Technology Suppliers). Early next week I will circulate members for the two proposed dates (June 20th and 28th reserved in your calendars) and a request for topic(s).

We have also confirmed the date for Wolverhampton to host the next JISC Digital Strategy Forum which is Friday April 28th.  I am hoping to return and attend the event as a member of the forum and happy to assist with any logistics on the day.  The leader of that group is currently circulating members for the agenda and potential speakers.

The Head of IT at Wolverhampton City Council has confirmed a follow-up meeting next week to include a tour of the new call centre and the computer server room.  Should be interesting.

With two more weeks until the end of March there are two more newsletters to go before my contract finishes here at Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #18

This week was mainly about UCISA17 which is the Management Conference for UCISA - Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association.  There is a live stream of all the main sessions here if you register your details.  There was also a Twitter feed at the conference hashtag #ucisa17.

Among other things, I was pleased to represent the University of Wolverhampton on the panel for the JISC Digital Strategy Forum. This was a "University Showcase" session and was well attended.  We hope to increase participation from senior leaders in the forum and to have a well-attended event which we are hosting at Wolverhampton towards the end of April.

There were several attempts at an "East Midlands" meet up.  Birmingham City University are more than willing to host a proper get together for anyone interested and show local Universities around BCU including new developments/refurbishments.

Highlights of the exhibition for me included learning about a new authentication system layer (two factor authentication) which has been developed for the HE market and come from the US and is now going into York.  Also useful to talk to Proof ID and Oxford Computing Group who could potentially solve a couple of things - dealing with "associates and non paid staff" account management etc, and supporting Office365 migration.  I also spoke to Telepen about new attendance monitoring and room booking products - the new service that has gone into the Library  at Birmingham looked attractive and efficient.  The Samsung showcase was interesting and I spent an hour chatting to the MD of WellKon who was demonstrating the wellness app they were launching at conference. Given our Well@Wolves week I thought this might fit very well with both a digital agenda as well as an existing wellness agenda.  The students who were with my demo liked it a lot (they were from Lincoln). They were offering a one-day on-site activity which was student focused.  Samsung would like to join our advisory board and would be willing to potentially do a Wolves specific showcase - perhaps as part of a "digifest" activity.

I have also been making progress with CAST on a quick review of the University mobile phone contract.  Any phone on this contract now has flat rate call and data charge. I am just on the look out for any that could be terminated which wasn't done during the process. I will let you know if there are any (there may of course be none).

I have written up some feedback on a meeting with the Head of IT at Wolverhampton City Council. There are some specific opportunities to follow up and we have a further meeting in diaries shortly.  I was particularly interested in the possibility of sharing rack space temporarily in the server rooms for mutual benefit - that could be a big cost avoidance opportunity to explore.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #17

There was no newsletter last week as it was half-term and time for a week away with the family.  Therefore, quite a lot of ground covered on return this week.

Monday kicked off early and meetings commenced with the Vice-Chancellor's update – the notes were circulated promptly so no need to cover here. I noted the  link  between Careers Week and Well@Wolves week  etc and whether we ought to consider sponsoring a “Digital Week/Digifest” to promote and market our various new (and existing) services.  The Nexus sessions have highlighted what we already know – that even those who are actively engaged are not aware of some of the existing messages (like new corporate plan, NSS, TEF etc).  There is value in emphasising the existing as much as the “jam tomorrow”.  One of the messages from Well@Wolves week was avoiding academic misconduct – and I imagine we do a lot already – but perhaps an opportunity to emphasise to students again what we do to support them.  The launch of a peer-to-peer mentor scheme also got me thinking about how we could have a go at doing that from a digital perspective too.  It could be student-to-student, but also student-to-staff as well.  Just another thought.

There was a session on ServiceNow requests and a workshop will follow - looking to document process, workflow and decision points. All good stuff.  In the afternoon, I ran the first of three Nexus sessions this week.  This involved a student focus group assembled from the student ambassadors and interns within our Directorate.  It was good to introduce everyone.  The other Nexus sessions involved travel to Walsall and Telford and were very worthwhile I believe.  To help with immediate feedback I have kept a record of the key things which were raised or discussed at all of the sessions.  Of course there is also the Digital Lens feedback which is online and anonymous – so far I have had minimal take up with that, but a reminder and link went out with a deadline in the newsletter.

Met With one of our Deans ahead of the Digital Strategy Board – got a thumbs up for the faculty to get involved withServiceNow futures and also the Digital Advisory Boards.  Not an issue with any overlap with Industrial Boards – happy that we maintain good communications as main thing. There was positive feedback from the Digital Strategy Board which felt positive and constructive.

We also did some QA work on the Service Management project this week as it was month-end, and I sent a short report which brought together views – continuing a "green" outlook at present.  Report available on request.

There has also been some more logistics this week – we will be hosting the JISC Digital Forum at Wolverhampton in late April;  also followed up with McCann and HP Enterprise about hosting the next two Digital Advisory Boards (technology suppliers) in Birmingham (June) and London HP Experience Centre (November).  Also set up feedback sessions on the Digital Strategy  at the next two Academic Forums in mid-March.

There was another well attended scrum session on Thursday – which among other things has led to a Faculty Nexus session on March 15^th (aiming to cover across all the faculties involving IT/Technical interests) about the Digital Strategy.  Very pleased that our faculty are leading the invitations and logistics. For UCISA17 next week I am in process of getting some introductions organised for Wednesday for those attending from West Midlands Universities.  A great chance to forge new relationships and collaborations.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #16

One of the roles that I have picked up along the way is QA for the ServiceNow project so at is was month-end, I spent some time preparing a QA report.  This will be reported back through the Digital Campus Board which has been agreed as the current route.  I created a template as we didn't have one "in stock" and also passed on for future use.  Using a traffic light approach, there was plenty of green, a couple of amber and no red.

The Digital Advisory Boards continued with a very positive meeting involving our technology suppliers/partners. We have agreement to two further sessions this year in June and November and hosting/facilitation offered by partners including one in its London office where it has a customer experience space.  I also took up the offer of using the new cohort of student ambassadors and together with invites to student interns etc set up an initial session.  I am also in touch with Digital Marketing team about #packleaders (advertised on the foyer TV this week).

The Digital Strategy presentation is now in Spark format, and I used this for an extended "teaser" session with the DAS leadership team and with the Digital Advisory Boards.  It is ready to roll-out in this format to next week's Nexus sessions. These were advertised during the week and bookings are starting to come in.  Here is the link to the latest iteration: https://spark.adobe.com/page/xWWrBjaxMJrkE/.  I have also taken some detail out of this from the Powerpoint version to avoid overload.  Looking forward to some constructive feedback over the next week.  I had an hour's briefing from COLT who helped set me up Panopto and will be having a go at recording the Nexus sessions.

I met with colleagues about looking a little into expenditures - and we identified three work order "owners" to follow up with. So far I have spoken with one and we have the first candidate contract renewal already.  We are looking at what's coming up for renewal and whether we have recently negotiated.

During the Leadership Team meeting I made a note that the next submission of the risk register which is end March.  I subsequently provided some relevant material offering to facilitate a DAS workshop on this if its appropriate.  This is something I have done recently so this might be timely.

There were more Servicenow activities this week with discussions about asset management, and future workshops around the "top five" requests.  We were unable to combine the Servicenow visit on Wednesday to discuss as planned how we might proceed with "the art of the possible" discussions  - the HE lead turned back due to a major traffic incident.  I have arranged instead to see them in London next Wednesday morning for a couple of hours.

Thursday I met with Canvas project managers to bring them up to speed on where we have got to with (1) IT Strategy (the one pager) (2) the first phase of digital campus in the digital strategy document and (3) a roadmap I have begun working on with Technical Services.  This mainly covers Microsoft technologies which would form a range of potential solutions for the "none teaching" WOLF functions.  A very interesting few hours has left me more optimistic than I was, and that progress is going on "in the background" certainly in relation to building blocks.  More to follow on this one I am sure over the next week or two.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #15

Here is my usual round-up for the last week.

On return from BETT I spent some time preparing material for a feedback session including creating an Adobe Spark on-line document which is now updated here.  I have got onto the agenda at the beginning of the next round of "Tech Talks" and I have also circulated the material with the offer of attending team meetings to cascade.  I also prepared some materials for the Printer/MDF lessons learned workshop which took place on Tuesday.  There is a deadline of 5pm Friday for any other additions or corrections.  The session went well, in particular helpfully flushing out a range of outstanding actions.  These will be turned into an action plan with ownership and timeline.  I followed up about the lessons learned process for BI and have been unable to find anything so far.  Therefore I will set up another process in a similar format which will involve Directorate colleagues in the first instance.

Tuesday was the all-day ServiceNow workshop with two Fruition consultants and the DAS project team.  A really positive session - made easier by the amount of pre-work that had been undertaken.  My role was to primarily probe around the scope and understand the activities that need to be carried out in future phases - once we have replaced basic functions in the existing system which this workshop was primarily focused on.  We came away with a list of things in three broad categories which I will be writing up covering (1) Broader Directorate requirements beyond initial launch (2)  "the art of the possible" and (3) Things that need addressing which are not directly related to this project.  In a subsequent meeting I also agreed to take on a workstream relating to flushing out the top 5 requests which we will attempt to incorporate before July.  I can see that being a nice little challenge......

There was a bit of logistics this week setting up what are now going to be branded as relaunched Nexus Sessions week commencing February 13th.  There are now three sessions in diaries and we will be sending out invites and bookings via standard templates.  We will emphasise the chance to come to City Campus (and vice versa) and we are also setting up sessions in Telford and Walsall.

We made a reasonably good start with the Digital Advisory Boards this week, and there are 8 of our technology partners currently confirmed for next week's session.  There was another "scrum" meeting.  The "small successes" reported at the last two scrums have been fed into the Newsletter.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #14

This week began with preparing a monthly highlight report and potential items for the next DAS Newsletter.  The subsequent Leadership Team meeting was followed by a conference call with Fruition who are the integration partners for ServiceNow.  As part of its pre-sales function we obtained agreement to Fruition's assistance with developing a roadmap for future stages of implementation. This will take the form of identifying opportunities within the University to enable ServiceNow capability for other core business processes (ie beyond IT and HR). Fruition say they have an approach based on recent work with other agencies and I understand we may be the first University to have approached them. I also took the opportunity to invite them to join the Digital Advisory Board for our technology partners.  At present we have positive responses from a number of others too.

I travelled down to London in the evening for the BETT show which opened at Excel on Wednesday.  A fuller report and feedback session will be arranged - I will tie this into the "Tech Talk" series. I took quite a few photos as backdrop to such a session.  In summary, this event brings together a wide education community from primary, secondary, FE, and HE in the UK together with some overseas contributors.  As well as a significant supplier exhibition there are also demonstrations, seminars and an arena program.  As well as taking in an overall tour I also spent my time at around 15-20 key stands ranging from the start-up entrepreneurs in the BETT futures zone, through to the big corporate stands like Microsoft (primary sponsor) as well as investigating some new suppliers that I hadn't heard of before.  I also attended the keynote Microsoft session (Anthony Salcito VP Worldwide Education).  The Secretary of State was there but I didn't bump into her or her entourage.   Key take-aways:  lots of Virtual Reality in the classroom, launch of Google's VR Expedition technology (field trips to anywhere), quizzes and assessments linked to big data analysis, Hololens demonstrators, Apps aplenty, a guided tour of the HP intelligent classroom of the future etc.  One launch of particular note, given how close Land Rover are to us, was the launch of a life-sized "HumaGram" which chief designer Oliver LeGrice demonstrated live - short clip available and on page 11 of the Evening Standard that night. I came back with a cardboard VR set with links to the Youtube VR channel. We should be considering how we can utilise and be first to use these new channels at pace - they make paper prospectuses and web pages look very dated.  As you can perhaps sense I found it an inspiring event!

While there, I also took the chance to meet up with one or two of our key partners including Adobe and Microsoft (the HE education team were all there). There are some interesting links - which may already have established of course - with local showcase colleges like Shireland.  We may wish to explore an invitation through Microsoft to a future forum e.g. Digital Advisory Board.

Finally, I spent some time in a seminar session on the free Adobe Spark technology by the University of Lincoln - here is my attempt at turning the blog entry into a Spark!

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #13

This week feels like it has flown by.

I have spent time on the future phases of ServiceNow - meeting with the PMs, planning meetings with Fruition (the systems integrator), and setting up conversations next week with other parties so that we can begin scoping.  It was good to hear that the first workshop day had been a success, and that while there is no slack in the project, the overall risk rating for our implementation is low - presumably due to lack of complexity in this initial phase. That sounds positive.

I also did some more work on developing the one page IT strategy into a format we can start working on here. There was some useful input to this later in the week from others who I shared the draft with.  This will be an iterative process but also a "quick win" if we can agree the shape and content.

There were several conversations this week about none-teaching activity within WOLF.  We need to ensure that the requirements that are emerging are really well understood - various people are digging into this area with gusto. There are potentially some other WOLF-related activities which are not currently being considered in scope, and as a result of our conversation today, I will develop a "landscape" (with others) to try and ensure that we uncover any other areas.

There were quite a few actions arising from the Leadership Team meeting and I will pick mine up during next week.  The session was really positive and good to be talking about future planning, culture change and new Ways Of Working (WOW).  There is a positive vibe around the place which is really good.  This was reinforced by a number of "small successes" reported at the scrum meeting which took place for half an hour today.  The Engineering and Science Faculty was present, which is also positive, and provided us with a potential cloud-based leave management solution which has been running successfully in the Faculty - and which deals with some of the harmonisation issues that are going to be tackled.

My time spent with the enquiry team was illuminating explaining the central enquiry team processes and data collection activity.  Others in the sector are making investments in digital recruitment, but nevertheless we have some robust and automated processing largely based in one system.  We have agreed some follow up actions about improving data input validation which would make a difference and is currently being tackled in different ways, in different places.  Right now we don't appear to have postcode validation or email validation on any data input forms going into eVision (SITS).  That should be fixable.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #12

The Multi Function Device (MFD) roll-out continued at pace, and our building (MX) was fully switched over to the new service for staff and students.  The first week of student assessment appeared to pass without major incident relating to print (so far as I was aware).  During the week the DAS lessons learned workshop was set up, identifying the key players across library and IT.  This is scheduled for January 31st and it will follow the DAS template.  Once written up this will be shared with the broader implementation team in Finance and Print Services etc.

This week we talked some more about DAS communications including broader use of social media channels. One of the team has involvement in a company called Modern Human (relating to future library user experience) which led us to some innovative mobile app developments.  It reminded me again how important it is to keep a broad view across the Directorate of potential digital opportunities.

The Leadership team meeting included an update on a Senior PM role for Audio-Visual which is welcome.  We also need to make sure we have clarity over AV investment and day-to-day AV technical support. Towards the end of the week there was some feedback on new installations coming up. The ServiceNow platform will definitely assist with managing and scheduling these sort of standard operating procedures.

During this week, I have started presenting the first draft digital strategy to various people and teams within the Directorate.  The feedback has been constructuve and helpful and I have been modifying and updating as I go along.  Along with the work on the "Digital Lens" and also the Digital Advisory Boards this week, I feel that by the end of January there will be something that is taking shape - this is the major activity and it is on track.

I came across the deadline for RITAs this week (a set of national IT Awards), and it reminded me of THELMAs and the UCISA Awards for Excellence etc. January is when this starts happening, and I believe that we already have some good collateral from the internal Vice-Chancellor's Awards in 2016.  This could be a good time to publicise and promote the success of the foundation work (Digital Campus), and raise the profile.

This week also provided an opportunity to update investigations that I had been making into Lyris (the email list distribution system) and the Course Catalogue.  There were a number of recommendations that have been made and shared.  Student recruitment is a key organisational priority but we need to use robust and fit for purpose systems too.

I also learned this week about some things which haven't affected me so far (as a "new starter") - which are data storage limits on staff email (1 GB limit while student is unlimited in Office365?) and an issue with pop up messages about "your profile has exceeded limit".  These types of capacity issues are hygiene factors which are hopefully being resolved.

Finally, I have been keeping up to speed with ServiceNow project, marked a day for the internal workshops, and brokered a visit to the University of Bradford to share implementation lessons learned on the 20th January.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #11

Welcome to 2017!

A shortened week due to Bank Holiday Monday, but nonetheless plenty of things going. As usual a short summary follows of the key updates:

On Tuesday it was good to see people back in the office refreshed after the festive break and with no major service or electrical interruptions to report.  I checked up with the technical teams on the first morning back and also with Estates.  There had been no call-outs or interruptions over the Christmas or New Year period.

The really positive news this week was the success so far of the MFD roll-out, which has been full steam ahead before and after the break.  There was a very positive email from the Dean of Students.  It's too soon to call, with the students and many academic staff still away until next week.

I gave a little assistance with a feedback survey by obtaining the UCISA template from the Exec team in Oxford and this is in relation to the upcoming "Tech Talks" for which there is a roadmap - this is being shared at next Leadership Team to brief everyone.  I personally think this is a really positive development from within the team, which has been further supported and re-inforced by comments about this being mandatory not an optional session.

There are another couple of "Digital Lenses" based on feedback received from the LIS customer service team and also a very productive meeting with the Dean of Social Sciences).  I was impressed with his focus on the bigger picture challenges.  I have a number of these developing now.

I also reviewed the results of the JISC Digital Capability survey last year and that makes for useful reading in the Wolverhampton context too.

Finally, we made some good progress on invitations to the inaugural Digital Advisory Boards and getting an outline agenda and invites out to prospects for expressions of interest will be a priority early next week.  I will also (as a courtesy) run past procurement colleagues.

Ten Towns: Bradford and Wolverhampton

An interesting article comparing the two Cities of Bradford and Wolverhampton.  Great cities with many similarities and of course many differences too.   Perhaps there should be greater collaboration between them - and perhaps there already is?

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #10

At the start of the week there was a review meeting for the supplier responses to our tender for information asset register activity.  This will be picked up again in the New Year with those who responded.

It was also the start of the Multi Function Devices (MFD) roll-out at Walsall campus.  The big bang was rather more of a whimper on day one at least – there were a few glitches reported during the first morning as the MFDs began to roll off the wagons, but no major reports of issues.  In fact, that is the position as we approached the end of the week, which also reflects the lightening of load as staff take well-earned annual leave, and students are not timetabled.  We shall all be hoping for the best in the New Year but so far…so good.

I took some time to prepare a summary site visit after my tour of the Science Park last week. We are going to update with some “before” pictures to go with my “after” photos of the network rooms up there.

I had a useful catch up about the Enquiry Management System project, and also to pick up the offer to lead the investigations for the next phase (after April 2017) of the Service Now implementation.  I have contacts on standby for early in the New Year for probing about the implementation lessons learned and approaches.

A short paper was drafted for the emerging Digital Advisory Boards setting out background, Terms of Reference and Membership etc.  This needs more work ready for sending out formal invites early in the New Year if we are all happy with the proposed approach.  There was some useful input to this process from others and using our links and contacts to make this as effective as we can from the start.

A couple of "moles" have been tackled this week raised by the Digital Services team.  I have dug deep into the burrows of the system called Lyris and we a finalised a couple of recommendations which resulted.  The other one related to Course Finder and after further burrowing it would appear that we are more joined up than anticipated and that the timeline and preferred approaches are consistent.  I will be checking this is the case early in the New Year.

I have also pulled together a first draft Development Portfolio template for the Directorate.  We have shared a couple of approaches and I also took the liberty of digging around other University websites for exemplars.  There is established good practice in this area and some of it is public domain. Some of the customer-facing communications is - in my opinion - of a really good standard.