Category:City2012 Programme

SECTION 1 – CIO’s Foreword
This Information Services (IS) Strategy takes a view over the next 5 years, in technology terms this is an age. The strategy tries to set out what needs to be done, when it is going to be done and, broadly, how much was it going to cost. Such a strategy, which explicitly states what is and, implicitly, what is not, going to be done is not a document which is easy to get approved in the diverse and independent culture of a University. Information Strategies are documents that serve many purposes – perhaps too many. As such they are often either overly long or fail to translate easily into action; I hope that we have avoided that and that we have successfully heeded the advice of the Information Services Committee that City’s IS strategy needed to be a document that really guided practice for the future.

The extent to which Information Services has become an essential part of the fabric of the University is demonstrated by the involvement of people at all levels around the University in the development of the strategy. Whilst Information Services is not just about technology, the pervasive and intrusive nature of information technology makes it a necessary topic of interest, both as a source of intense irritation and as a critical tool to meet schools’ and portfolio objectives. It has proved a challenge for the team developing this strategy to define the scope of Information Services and the limits for this strategy. Some may feel that this strategy strays into areas which are outside the traditional scope; others that we have not gone far enough.

The rate of change in Higher Education and information Services mean that it is entirely possible that in two years time the University will want to radically overhaul this strategy. This strategy needs to be seen as a working document that will be subject to change as Council and The University’s senior management steer the institution through what could be a highly turbulent period of both social and organisational change. It seems clear to me that there are some significant changes in the way that people interact with each other and find and use information. These changes are almost entirely driven by the use of Internet technologies. In particular the impact of social networking and virtual communities on the organisation and behaviour of a university community has yet to be understood.

At the practical level, the implementation of the strategy through a series of clearly defined programmes does represent a milestone in our understanding of the way to manage this kind of change. With projects focussed on the delivery of things, e.g. new processes, new applications etc. and programmes focussed on the delivery of benefits, e.g. improved student experience, it is likely that The University will need to think about how it coordinates investment generally to deliver most benefit. The use of integrated programmes of activity mixing professional disciplines such as IS Management, Estates Management and Staff Development to achieve enterprise goals is still rather rare in higher education. To some extent, the implementation approach within the strategy is intended to demonstrate something of what IS professionals regard as good practice. However, it should be understood that some of the programmes will necessarily be incomplete through the lack of overall integration. Perhaps the best example of this is in the delivery of physical teaching space. Modern teaching rooms should be a mix of well designed physical space with flexible often purpose-built furniture littered with appropriate communications and other information technology. Teachers and learners need to be taught how to use such rooms effectively. From the perspective of getting a maximum return from the cost of delivering such an environment, The University would need to be able to integrate and coordinate Property and Facilities activities, Information Services Activities, Staff Development activities and Student Services activities. It is worth pointing out that the recently approved Estates Strategy also noted the need for better integration in the provision of modern learning environments. Such coordination and integration requires not just people and planning integration, but a more sophisticated approach to investment management. Under our current models, it is often difficult to get the right balance of funding across strategies and teams.

So, the strategy is a document with many audiences. Most should simply read the executive summary. It is a strategy made against a very uncertain future and therefore the 3 to 5 year plans need to be treated with some caution. Whilst it has been built around The University’s strategic goals, its programmes are necessarily incomplete. The strategy is a challenge for senior managers around The University.

All of this said, the strategy is the result of widespread involvement from stakeholders around the University and it has created a sense of unity around the stated goals and plans and it does provide a useful tool for the management of IS investment over the next 2 to 5 years.