Document 6526428
Transcription
Document 6526428
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Project Document Cover Sheet Project Information Project Acronym PIPaL Project Title Process Improvement Pilot at Loughborough Start Date 29 June 2009 Lead Institution Loughborough University Project Director Jon Walker, Director of External Affairs Project Manager & contact details Sally Brown Head of Corporate Systems, IT Services, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leics. LE11 3TU [email protected] 01509 226012(W) Partner Institutions n/a Project Web URL http://jiscpipal.wordpress.com/ Programme Name (and number) Business and Community Engagement (BCE) Programme: Customer Relationship Management: Process Improvement Pilot Projects Programme Manager Simon Whittemore End Date 30 April 2010 Document Name Document Title Final Report Reporting Period Author(s) & project role Martin Hamilton, Analyst Sally Brown, Project Manager Date 19/03/10 Filename URL Access X Project and JISC internal General dissemination Document History Version Date Comments 1.0 19/03/10 Final report – draft submitted to JISC 1.1 26/04/10 Updated based on stakeholder feedback 1 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Table of Contents PROJECT DOCUMENT COVER SHEET 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1. BACKGROUND 5 2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 7 3. METHODOLOGY 8 4. IMPLEMENTATION 9 5. OUTPUTS AND RESULTS 13 6. OUTCOMES 14 7. CONCLUSIONS 15 8. RECOMMENDATIONS 17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 19 APPENDIX 1 – STAKEHOLDER GROUP 20 APPENDIX 2 – PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS 21 APPENDIX 3 – EVENTS ATTENDED 22 2 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Acknowledgements Process Improvement Pilot at Loughborough (PIPaL) was funded under the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Business and Community Engagement programme. The project ran from June 2009 to April 2010. Our stakeholders and their nominees provided the raw material for this study. We are indebted to them for sparing us the time to discuss their work, and for their contributions to the feedback that we have provided in this report on the JISC Self-Analysis templates. We are particularly grateful to Phill Dickens, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Enterprise); Jon Walker, Director of External Affairs; Ian Cairns, Director of Marketing & Communications; Hannah Baldwin, Head of Public Relations; Jim Overend, Head of Alumni Relations; Kathryn Walsh, Director of Business Partnerships; Chris Garrod, Assistant Registrar (Graduation); Julie Taylor, Consultancy Manager and Richard Barber, Information Officer for Development and Alumni Relations. We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by our JISC Programme Manager Simon Whittemore and the Relationship Management Support and Synthesis (RMSAS) team at the University of Bolton. Sharon Perry and Paul Hollins in particular worked above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that projects in the programme kept in touch with each other both directly via face to face meetings and Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and Twitter. 3 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Executive Summary The PIPaL project piloted the JISC Self-Analysis Framework for Relationship Management with a group of external facing units at Loughborough University. It assessed institutional maturity and possible next steps towards an institutional Relationship Management system. The project concluded that the institution as a whole had an Operational maturity, moving to Tactical in certain key areas such as Development and Alumni Relations. A number of observations relating to the Self-Analysis Framework are made in this report – notably that it may be difficult to reduce key processes to a flowchart process map format, and that there is a danger of alienating colleagues working in education through excessive use of business jargon. We also make a number of suggestions for further development of the Framework, and further work by JISC. These include investigating the role of Government in addition to the Student and Business, the role of Shared Service contact databases with multiple contributors, and the potential of a Linked Data approach to creating a “University API” – or at least identifying a common set of vocabularies across the sector to facilitate data interchange. 4 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 1. Background The PIPaL project at Loughborough was funded under the 2009 JISC call for Relationship Management proposals. It is one of 20 projects investigating various aspects of business and community engagement and the “student lifecycle”. An earlier phase of this programme had developed the JISC SelfAnalysis Framework for Relationship Management. This project was chartered to pilot the Self-Analysis Framework with a group of key stakeholders in external facing departments. Loughborough is renowned for the quality of its support for students and the learning experience. The institution has recently achieved the twin accolades of being awarded the Times Higher Education Supplement’s Best Student Experience award for the fourth successive year, and the Sunday Times University of the Year. These achievements are a testament to the hard work of staff and students at Loughborough of which all at the institution are justly proud. Loughborough is also a leading research intensive institution, with strong performance in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. It is renowned for its close ties to industry. A large proportion of students undertake industrial placements as part of their courses. On a recent visit to Loughborough Gordon Brown stated that: “No other example of links between industry and universities is so strong.” Loughborough has had a particularly good relationship with companies such as Rolls Royce, BAe Systems and Ford, with each of these firms making significant investment in facilities for collaborative work with the University on the Loughborough campus – e.g. the £60m BAe funded Systems Engineering Innovation Centre. The University campus was also recently selected as the headquarters for the £1bn Energy Technologies Institute, bringing 5 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Loughborough researchers together with their counterparts from BP, Shell, EDF, e-on and others. Loughborough makes targeted use of Relationship Management technology at present, notably via the Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity products from Blackbaud. An emergent institutional Relationship Management strategy is being informed by discussions with our peers in the Higher Education sector an ongoing dialogue of which this project is an important part. It should be noted that this is not an implementation project, and a key outcome of the project was to advise the institution on next steps and a way forward, based on an analysis of the results of applying the JISC framework. 6 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 2. Aims and Objectives From the project proposal and plan, it was agreed that: - PIPaL will apply the JISC Self-Analysis Framework for Business & Community Engagement and Relationship Management at Loughborough University. - It will report back on the success of the Self-Analysis Framework approach and make recommendations for enhancements to the framework where these would be advantageous. - The project will also consider alternatives based on “data mining” technology such as the Google Search Appliance. - The project’s key deliverable will be a case study (this report) summarising the results of piloting the Self-Analysis Framework. The project has been able to successfully execute these objectives, produce the high level view of Relationship Management at Loughborough and how it might develop, and provide feedback on the JISC Self-Analysis Framework. A number of areas for further work have been identified and may be the subject of future project proposals. 7 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 3. Methodology The project employed a range of approaches to piloting the JISC SelfAnalysis Framework and gathering feedback on it. These included one-toone interviews with stakeholders and stakeholder workshop consultation. IBIX5 Consulting, experts on Relationship Management systems and their application in Higher Education, acted as external facilitators. Andrea Addison from IBIX5 is a co-author of the Case Study. In the early stages of the project we explored using the templates from the Self-Analysis Framework directly with our stakeholders. We found that a more conversational approach provided the best results, and hence did not take this further. However, several of our peers in the JISC programme used the questionnaire format to undertake large scale surveys of their staff and students. Our interviews did not follow a strictly prescribed format, and we encouraged the interviewee to take the initiative. This is an area that our stakeholders already have a great deal of interest in taking forward, and several members of the group already had experience of using Relationship Management software and systems. One of our stakeholders had led an institutional Relationship Management implementation at another Higher Education institution. The project made use of staff from the University’s IT Services department working as analysts. One staff member already had significant experience of “Customer Relationship Management” in a commercial context. However, this was a small scale project with minimal dedicated staff resources. Thus the role of the stakeholders and their nominees was crucial, and we were gratified by the level of interest shown. 8 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 4. Implementation We conducted one-to-one interviews with stakeholders from the external facing departments being profiled for this study. The diagram below provides a stylised interpretation of the activities of these units based on the interview feedback: The interference is that each unit operates in a “silo” of its own and little or no information is shared between them. In practice this is not the case, and several of the units have recently been collaborating on a pilot exploring the use of the Raiser’s Edge system on a large scale beyond the Development and Alumni Relations (DARO) office. An initial outcome of this was the recognition that the current version of this software does not provide sufficient granularity of access control to be appropriate as an institutional Relationship Management system. It does appear, however to be useful to extend its use under controlled conditions – e.g. from DARO to the Vice Chancellor’s Office. A number of IT systems were in use typically for highly specialised purposes, e.g. the RACE-2 system used to cost research proposals, and myIP to manage the University’s portfolio of Intellectual Property, patents etc. The Enterprise Office used an externally hosted relationship management system 9 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report (RIBSYS) shared with other organizations under the auspices of emda, the East Midlands Development Agency. Loughborough was unusual in having chosen to implement its own Student Information System, whereas most institutions had bought and tailored an offthe-shelf commercial package. This presented both opportunities and challenges. By contrast Loughborough had used off-the-shelf software for most other key corporate systems, including the popular open source Moodle software for its “Learn” Virtual Learning Environment and the Google Apps cloud computing suite for communication and collaboration. The HEFCE funded Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (EngCETL) has developed a range of tools for use by Academics in managing their relationship with their students from a pedagogical perspective. These facilities range from attendance monitoring to assistance with managing personal tutees and industrial placements. Key pieces of this toolkit are Web-PA, an on-line peer assessment system which allows students to assess their own performance and also that of their team in a groupwork context, and Co-Tutor, a fully fledged Student and Staff Relationship Management System. Of course we also found numerous examples of data held on spreadsheets, Access databases and other mechanisms that fall short of formal IT systems – which was only to be expected. Of the systems described above, Co-Tutor and Web-PA are of particular interest as unique products built from scratch to the requirements of Loughborough Academics. RIBSYS is also significant as an example of a Shared Service used by multiple organizations. In stimulating discussion with our stakeholder group we used the high level matrix diagram shown below. This condenses what we felt were the key elements of several of the JISC Self-Analysis Framework templates. Our stakeholders found this much more approachable than the templates, which are perhaps best used “behind the scenes” as a tool for business analysts. 10 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Subject Area Current position Where do we How can we move want to be? forward? Range of BCE services/partner types & groups covered Partners inwards view/ creating customer value Functional & University wants/needs/benefits Functional & University weaknesses/issues Data duplication/unified partner view Efficiency/performance Management Information & KPIs Security & Ownership Also consider: Key Drivers for change Readiness for change Timescales PRM SMART measures of success Recap HEI-centric or Partner-centric With only minor modifications to use more accessible language we believe that this matrix approach is one that could be used across an organization 11 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report with staff working at all levels to develop a common view at both operational and strategic levels. A simple model for a largely unified database of partner information to support the various units and sections is presented below. We have shown Raiser’s Edge continuing as a discrete product, with interfaces to ensure two way data flow where relevant. We anticipate that some of the special purpose institutional systems touched on in this report (such as myIP and RACE-2) would continue in their present form, but with interfaces wherever feasible to reduce duplication of data and improve information sharing. 12 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 5. Outputs and Results Deliverables from the project are structured around the JISC Core Project Documentation Set: • Project Plan • Project web page for JISC website • Project website • Progress Reports • Technical and supporting documentation • Final Report and Completion Report • Case study incorporating results from interviews, self-analysis templates and stakeholder workshops • Intangibles such as improved knowledge transfer and business processes and opportunities for “quick wins” within existing systems and processes At the time of writing all of the above had been completed with the exception of the Completion Report, which will follow on from this Final Report. 13 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 6. Outcomes In our proposal and project plan we stated the following intended outcomes: • To have achieved wide engagement in the process of analysing the range of systems used for managing external contacts • To have charted a possible multi-year process for migrating from a mixed peripheral/tactical environment to predominantly tactical provision, with first ideas of how a move to strategic might be achieved in the future • Case study on the JISC Self-Analysis Framework developed for the benefit of the JISC community We also committed to make recommendations for enhancements to the SelfAnalysis Framework where these would be advantageous. The project also considered alternative approaches such as “data mining” technology including the Google Search Appliance, and the potential of a Linked Data approach to joining up key institutional systems. We believe that all of these aims have been achieved. Our work is summarised in the project’s key deliverable – the Case Study summarising the results of piloting the Self-Analysis Framework at Loughborough. 14 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 7. Conclusions Our stakeholder group identified the following key points: • Academics are the key to new partner relationships but the pressure of their roles leaves little time for on-going relationship development or account management • The University is very effective in developing specifically targeted relationships • For research and consultancy it is the academic who is contacted in an estimated 95% of enquiries • In what is a competitive situation a more consistent and simple contact procedure would improve the partner experience • Information and the relationship is retained by the academic with further and duplicate information built up in other departmental touch points • Enterprise could help with these opportunities if they were aware of them and involved at the right stage • Existing partners represent a pipeline of prospects/ opportunities that are not currently exploited • Enterprise may be able to leverage new research contacts and opportunities • Major companies often need/want a wide range of services. The combined relationship value of Enterprise and Academics is more powerful and could be successfully deployed if Enterprise had an greater awareness of current partners and their existing relationships with for example Academics The group concluded that it was necessary to conduct a feasibility study profiling the extent of the University’s involvement with key partners from 15 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report several groups including the private sector, central government, charities / non-governmental organizations and other educational institutions. The results of the feasibility study will be used to inform a decision as to whether to request funding for a full scale relationship management system. They will also help to clarify what the scope of such a system should be, i.e. University-wide, or for the use primarily of external facing units. 16 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 8. Recommendations Our stakeholders saw the introduction of an IT system in support of Relationship Management as a secondary activity, contingent on us developing a fuller understanding of our own processes. The consensus view at a recent stakeholder workshop was that we should begin by profiling the extent of our involvement with a small number of key partners, across the spectrum of organizations that the University is involved with. There was a feeling that an overly mechanistic approach as exemplified by process mapping may fail to capture key requirements – in a sector which is characterized by flux and mutability. There was clear consensus that a Relationship Management programme can only be successful given effective business processes, committed people and supporting technology. The scale of the effort involved at an institution could vary drastically depending on the scope of the project – e.g. a system for use only by external facing units, versus a system or systems for crossinstitutional use. Some consideration should be given to institutions taking a dual-path approach, with separate (but integrated) Relationship Management systems targeting particular business areas. Loughborough is not unique in having one-of-a-kind systems such as Web-PA and Co-Tutor, and indeed following a successful JISC project the Web-PA software is now open source and in widespread use in the Higher Education community. Relationship Management may prove to be one of the areas where an organization can obtain a genuine advantage by developing something that reflects back those characteristics that make it unique. The role of the Linked Data initiative in unlocking information and putting it to good use has set an excellent precedent. Organizations should be considering how they may apply the Linked Data principles internally to create a low impact “University API” that permits the mashing up of key data to 17 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report facilitate the generation of Key Performance Indicators, and visualizations of the sort shown in this report. JISC should find ways to encourage this, and work to help the community to find a common vocabulary of identifiers. The JISC Self-Analysis Framework makes the assumption that data is either held in departmental silos, or in a shared central institution database. The RIBSYS service shows us that there is another model involving Shared Services that has its own complexities and considerations. The Self-Analysis Framework overstates the elements of Relationship Management relating to “Customers” and generally uses business jargon perhaps a little too freely for an Academic audience. This should be corrected in a future revision. It would also be desirable for the Framework to consider the role of Government bodies in partnerships – the tacit assumption is that these take place primarily with students and businesses. 18 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Bibliography JISC Self-Analysis Framework: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/gradschool/documents/crm/ JISC PIPaL project blog: http://jiscpipal.wordpress.com Loughborough University Strategic Plan: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/policy/strategic_plan.pdf KSA Partnership CRM Study Final Report: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/bce/crmstudyfinalreport20070817.pdf JISC Legal, Business and Community Engagement Study: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/bce/pubfundinfra.pdf 19 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 1 – Stakeholder Group Stakeholder Interest / stake Importance Jon Walker Director of External Affairs, Vice- High Chancellor’s Office. Phill Dickens Pro-Vice Chancellor (Enterprise). High Kathryn Walsh Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor Medium (Enterprise) and Director of Business Partnerships Julie Taylor Consultancy Manager, Enterprise Office Medium / Loughborough University Enterprises Limited Ian Cairns Director of Marketing and High Communications. Hannah Baldwin Head of Public Relations Medium Ron Gray Director of Development and Alumni. High Jim Overend Head of Alumni Relations High Phil Richards Director of IT High Richard Barber Information Officer, Development and Medium Alumni Relations Office. Manager of the Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity systems at Loughborough Chris Garrod Assistant Registrar, Academic Registry Medium 20 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 2 – Project team members Sally Brown, Head of Corporate Systems (Project Manager) Sally has been responsible for a number of large business analysis and change management projects at Loughborough University. Current examples include the acquisition and implementation of a corporate Web Content Management system, the introduction of ePayment facilities for a wide range of goods and services, implementation of a number of projects in the area of research planning and publications as part of a longer-term Research Portal strategy, and a large scale upgrade of the HR system including the introduction of major new business processes. Anjana Lad (Analyst) Anjana has worked at Loughborough University as a Systems Analyst for several years. Major areas of work have included Computer Aided Assessment, where she managed a significant upgrade project, and acquisition of a Web Content Management system. Prior to this, Anjana worked for 5 years as a Business Systems Analyst specialising in Customer Relationship Management in a global Electronic Retail company. She worked on the whole project lifecycle, from identification of the need for CRM through to implementation and support. Her experience in this area will be invaluable to the project. Martin Hamilton, Head of Internet Services (Analyst) Martin has worked in the Internet industry for some 15 years, in a wide range of roles ranging from protocol design and software development to account management and large scale project management. Martin has significant experience of Business and Community Engagement, having negotiated deals generating some £500K per annum in income from provision of Internet services to internal and external customers. Martin also has ten years experience as a digital libraries researcher and was recently made a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society in recognition of his pioneering work on Internet technologies. 21 JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 3 – Events Attended Business and Community Engagement programme meeting, Aston University, July 2009 Rapid Innovation Workshop, Manchester, September 2009 CETIS Conference, Aston University, November 2009 Relationship Management Support & Synthesis Modelling Workshop, Aston University, December 2009 Embedding Business and Community Engagement workshop, Aston University, December 2009 Business and Community Engagement programme meeting, York St John University, March 2010 22