First Class - World Class?

Prof M. J. ClarkDirector IS

The University of Manchester, UK

First given at EUNIS 2004

Manchester Computing

Synopsis: What makes a world class Service?

What does the question ask Why ask the question The world class institution The world class service Benchmarking; exploring the issues

Inputs or outputs What is the role of the CIO What is service Some conclusions!

Background to the question?

5 months ago (Oct 1 2004): The Victoria University of Manchester merged with UMIST

creating The University of Manchester

+ =

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Background - 2

However: just A+B would be deemed a failure!

The merger is premised on establishing a world-class institution (vision: Manchester 2015)

all constituent parts were asked • what does world-class look like• what is necessary to be/become world-class….

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World Class?& the ten factors!

The dictionary defines world class as "ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence." • Fine who decides?

For universities, world-class standing is built on reputation and perception• often seen as subjective and uncertain• and it requires outstanding performance in many

events.

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Factors (1): Quality of Faculty

a world-class university will be widely recognised as an eminent institution• as a place where top staff will wish to congregate and given

opportunity staff from other universities will migrate towards• In turn top faculty attracts top students.• The process is auto-catalytic

it is almost certain to be research-intensive• it also must educate well; a place where people will want to

spend time for the experience, and to associate with the fame and respect that goes with this

academic freedom and an atmosphere of intellectual excitement is essential

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Factors (2): Research Reputation is Critical

Research will be perceived as excellent• it should be seen to deliver worthwhile ‘outcomes’• economic benefit (to region/nation) is to be ‘expected’

Research performance should excite and inform the learning process for all members of the university• i.e. build reputational capital and hence be at jeopardy

• keep the pressure on those who wish to be seen as the best.

A university perceived to be world class now ‘may’ not be in the eyes of the next generation• Mobility in reputations, as much as with staff and students,

helps keep the flame alive!

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Factors (3): Importance of a Talented Undergraduate Body

World class institutions will enrol the best of the brightest • as in the past, so into the future

Increasingly students have a choice• national and international reputation is a very big edge• an edge to be ‘claimed’ by partaking

There is a special impact created from having thousands of exceptionally talented students• a campus buzz!!

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Factors (4): An International Presence

Universities not constrained by national borders• International recruitment of staff and students

A world shrinking through: • globalisation of economies, • revolution in international access, real and virtual• the opening of minds to international engagement

• through people networks that interlace study, work, & leisure

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Factors (5): Resourcing is an excellence Issue

the move to massification in higher education has significantly changed the agenda. • how the balancing of private and public sourcing for

university resourcing is handled, largely by governments, will have a profound bearing on where the world-class universities are based.

the title of world-class doesn’t come at a discount• without world-class funding the goal of reaching, and

preserving high standards is rhetoric alone.

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Factors (6): Multi-Disciplines

world-class institutions ‘generally’ accommodate a large number of disciplines • ensures cross-fertilisation of ideas and a frissance

which comes from the gathering together elite groups

multi-disciplinarity offers fertile research opportunities • Must be bottom-up lead; top down facilitated

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Factors (7): Being Technologically Smart

World Class institutions are about the discovery and transmission of knowledge

ICT infrastructures now underpin core business functions & increasingly impact pedagogy • world class institutions will not retain position simply

by standing still!

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Factors (8): Excellent Management & Governance

Eminent institutions excel in research & teaching.• However, paralleling and supporting those core

activities will be an excellence of process management underpinned by first-rate administrative systems.

Good management tensions • between collegiality and managerialism.

Governance: World-class institutions have significant internal self-governance • but aligned with accountability• the control over core elements of academic life must

rest with the academics

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Factors (9): The Virtual Challenge

world-class universities view the "virtual university" phenomenon with some anxiety• it throws open to all comers opportunities

there are many potential competitors (or collaborators) • virtual attributes, managed carefully, can breathe life

into strategic alliances, can help bring institutions otherwise isolated beyond the critical mass to compete in the larger league.

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Factors (10): Cautions!

There are choices to be made, and strategies to be set, and while it once took centuries to build reputation as a university of renown, the timeline on this has been collapsed.

Because the discovery and transmission of knowledge is so accelerated, and because there is a whole new game plan for collaboration and co-operation, as well as competition, universities of world-class standing can emerge in a matter of decades.

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So: What is World-Classin the context of IS services?

It is necessary to explore this question making consideration of various components• Is it about:

• scale, or diversity, or breadth and/or depth, • or quality, or quantity, • or being leading edge, • or being research focused, • or customer centricity?

• Perhaps it is about culture and staff ethos? • Alternatively perhaps it is about funding, or marketing,

or even just believing that you are world class!

Perhaps it’s being all of them!

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Benchmarking

An acknowledged means of testing an institution’s resources, commitment or performance against a set of comparators.• for Libraries/IS services in the UK, there are published

annual tables for IS services/academic libraries in terms of staffing, resources and holdings/PCs…; they have their limitations.

resources alone do not make a world-class Library or IS service; the quality of that service is determined more by output than input.

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Measures

Input measures generally relate to the amount of annual financial resources put into Library and IS services, the level of staffing, the amount of computer hardware, the number of books, periodicals and manuscripts held. • It would be difficult to match the library and IS resources

available to certain universities in the US.

Output measures refers to such statistics as the number of books borrowed, inter-library loans, enquiries dealt with, hours of PC login time, consultations/support or time devoted to induction/instruction, usage statistics

Output measures are far less consistently measured and hence direct comparisons are difficult and relate to input measures directly or indirectly.• Applying normalisation factors is very difficult!

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Benchmarking world-class IS services

Computing/Library services world-wide were compared• Conclusions: easy to compare input measures, e.g.

• The unit of resource (e.g. expenditure per staff or student)

• The computer or book ratios (stockholdings etc)• Annual expenditures, no’s of PCs, no’s of staff

• Close to impossible to compare outputs meaningfully• Normalised i/p measures easy – not so for o/p

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What output measures are there!

How do you compare service outputs• Is it related to usage figures• Is it related to volume figures• Is it some measure of quality

How do you measure quality• Is it user satisfaction• Does it relate to leading/bleeding edge!

Is it quantitative or just subjective?

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World-Class IS conclusions

Perceptions: World-class IS services are generally related to top-class Institutions• Finance

• More than 50% of finance is externally derived• More than 40% of staff are supporting the external

function(s)

• It is known primarily for its external portfolio• It has national/international individuals on its staff

• Know for their external activities

• Staff support wider portfolios than the internal services

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The CIO: Director of IS

Crucial role which can make or break a reputation

Generally a world class institution is perceived as having world class services• not always the case!• in wealthy institutions services can be massively

replicated internally to service needs locally

The CIO reputation can be falsely established by the world class institution’s reputation• not vice versa

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The CIO in world class institutions

In world class institutions the CIO is a member of the top-table team

World class institutions do not have converged services!

World class IS services have staff undertaking• Research• Teaching• and most importantly: delivering and supporting the

administration (business) function

The role for the CIO is ascending• the ‘librarian’ is no longer ascending!

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The CIO Role: increasingly sophisticated & complex

The major role: setting, aligning and commingling IT vision with the University’s overall strategies

Provide technology vision and leadership• for developing and implementing IT initiatives that create and maintain

leadership for the enterprise in a constantly changing and intensely competitive marketplace.

Understanding IT and how it enables business strategy

Distant from operations

Substantive technical expertise• adequate to discern across breadth of services

Good understanding of financial / legal issues

Makes substantive effort to ‘network’ widely

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Prerequisites for CIOs

Leadership: Strong education business orientation• Knowledge of, experience in: research, learning & teaching

Ability to:• align and leverage technologies; agent for, and management

of, change• attract, develop & retain high quality IT/S professionals• communicate with and understand the needs of non-techies• conceptualize, launch & deliver multiple IT projects on time

and operate to budget

Skills to build a management team, being a good listener, and an articulate advocate of their IT vision

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The CIO & distributed provision

Distributed approaches to services are here to stay in Universities• ending the reigns of monolithic IT organizations at which CIOs had

complete control over all information-management functions.• these dynamics give rise to fragmented and poorly coordinated

ineffective service models. Left unchecked, that fragmentation will escalate.

To alleviate this situation, top-down command-and-control models must be replaced with organizing philosophies that facilitate communication, collaboration and adaptability. • The CIO must be able to influence and inspire internal units to work

toward a common goal in a coordinated fashion. The CIO must lead a clear vision for IT and motivate

executives and all staff to operate within this vision.

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Consequences from pervasive IT

it impacts every aspect of organizational performance; it is a driving force within which organizations operate• its proper deployment can determine an organizations

growth, direction, structure, and viability.

CIOs must be prominent members of the senior management team• their opinion directly impacts an organization now• the role of CIO is really as a facilitator for the whole

business• there is nothing that touches every piece of that

organization in the same way that IT does

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World class IS services support

The Institution and its users (staff, students, alumni and semi-attached users)

Entrepreneurial aspects with spin-off activities

Undertaking research/support for• Government, Commerce &

Industry

Characteristics• Large staff diversely funded• User communities beyond

the Institutional boundary

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The dual function

World-class computing services have dual functions:• firstly to underpin the IT/IS activity of the institution in

support of research, learning and teaching, and administration;

• secondly, delivering a portfolio of services and support at a national level and, ideally, at an international level

• not necessarily across or related to the whole spectrum of above

World-class computing services will have staff actively involved in computational research, collaborating with the academic areas of the University to provide added value to the institution’s research output. • Specific examples may be in the areas of eScience, the Grid,

statistical data analysis, HPC, visualisation, networking, etc.

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However

the whole service is not necessarily world class• for Library and Computing Services, some aspects of

those services, might aim to have an international status in their own right

• their primary function is to serve the needs of the university and promote its core functions. In summary this is expressed as:

• facilitating excellence in teaching and research• providing the highest level of customer services • maximising efficiency through IS

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Back to the world-class question and Manchester?

The merger offers opportunity to rethink the strategy for IT/IS delivery to meet the needs of the next decade. • ‘Green field’ situation

The role of information systems is critical to the aspirations of the institution• support to teaching & research is critical• support to the business function offers real opportunity

I will highlight the expectations through investment in infrastructure and services

• this has to be owned by the Institution as a whole as the costs and the risks are enormous.

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How do we deliver world class IS internally to support the business?

Facilitate a technology empowered, not led, environment for the University

Must grasp opportunities to be a leader, not follower• effective deployment of technologies, systems and services

can facilitate business advantage

What is required for the next five years?• to provide a transparent and seamless interface to teaching,

research and administrative information services; • i.e. it is about integration of information and access to it!

Information systems offer opportunity to rethink every aspect of our business model and business processes.• Business process re-engineering supported by high quality

information systems it will be possible to transform the efficiency and effectiveness in support of our core missions.

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Use every opportunity

Reorganisation presents an opportunity to:• ensure optimal strategic approaches adopted for

management of all information systems services• organise structures and management responsibilities around

the services and underpinning architectures• organise for an empowerment culture

• with devolved responsibility and accountability

• optimise structures for cost effective but resilient operations• Plan for 99.999% availability

• focus on a customer centric service approach • measured against SLA’s and performance metrics

• facilitate practical working arrangements• between core infrastructure support and service support teams

• facilitate more seamless change to arising technologies

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What is my environment?Probably the same as yours!

Estate• offices, pc clusters, help desks and specialist functional

support areas. Network and server infrastructures

• including voice services. Computers and support for a variety of specialist

applications• desktops, laptops/pda, Grid, HPC, visualization,

data/information services, etc. Internet services

• email, file services, print services, web, Access Grid/video-conferencing and interfaces with multi-media support

Business/Administrative computing support• with ever increasing emphasis on information management.

Computer/information specialists and support staff.

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What are the considerations?Change management!

Computing infrastructure underpins the University• in almost every area of its operation.

The rate of change of technologies requires staff to have a continuous desire to re-skill – (much easier if you are internally research active!).

The shortening life of technologies/infrastructures makes an investment appraisal essential to determine ROI.• Must recognise the ‘business’ opportunities and threats

The modern IS specialist must be concerned with support planning and delivery including training• this underpins the provision of knowledge and information in

electronic form. The support requirements are being transformed

• the user being the ‘owner’ of the access technologies• thus requiring remote and virtual support.

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An IS architecture to provide an environment:

where the IS solutions maximize efficiency and effectiveness handling of:• routine transactions and access to support• creating solutions for less routine but essential transactions

that facilitates University staff to provide the highest levels of customer service • whilst maintaining high degrees of job satisfaction

where staff have ready access to tools necessary to do their job efficiently and effectively

with simplified processes and policies within constraints • acknowledging risks associated with devolved authority

rich in services through a single aggregated interface accessible from networked devices

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The Principles

Strive for Simplification • Develop tools that can be flexibly applied to reduce the complexity

of University business processes. Enhance Individuals Productivity

• Provide flexible tools that individuals can use to perform their roles more effectively.

Encourage Collaboration and Common Process approaches• alliances with and between stakeholders in process mechanisms in

order to further the University's goals. Empower Technologies as an Investment

• View IS investment in systems, staff and process as an investment that will yield a return in exchange for up-front expenditures with full transparency of any assumptions of risk.

Focus on Outcomes• Measure and assess projects and teams by what is accomplished.

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The ‘Gateway’ to information and knowledge

Consolidating & aggregating the delivery of on-line information services; integration and effectiveness at the data layer• self-service, improved access, improved efficiency and

effectiveness of service.

Access tailored to individual requirements• Authenticate for privileges associated to an individual

Users will ‘personalize’ the GateWay • creating a relationship with the Institution• creating a ‘channel’ for effective communication • the gateway must have knowledge management

centric to it’s architecture

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What is this Gateway?

It is a user personalised portal combining• WebCT VISTA

• Best in class

• Oracle Collaboration Suite• Potentially best in class

• Wiki’s and Bloggs• Making information available

• The University Home web page• The student & staff newspapers• Aggregated electronic library resources

• Our Library: 3rd in the UK; best e-resources in world!

• All Joined by knowledge management engines!

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Servicing the needs - 2010

Support for access to service 24 *365• Five nines (99.999%) availability

Services that are increasingly user orientated• being shaped by the user’s academic and individual

learning/research style;• more about ‘services to wherever I am’;• services and applications delivered to a plethora of

devices.

Services that support ‘just in time cultures’

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Vision to Strategy!

Keep it simple• The University can’t handle complex messages

It must be ‘ownable’ at all levels It must be realistic for the timetable

• Look for quick and slow wins!

It must be communicated• This takes time

Don’t be surprised when it becomes ‘their’ vision• that is real success

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And nearly finally!

World Class services need world class staff.

• Coming to work should be fun!

• We need to invest in our staff, give them the ‘constrained’ freedom to deliver for us!

• They are our successors, invest in them!

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World Class Service

Understanding, supporting, entrepreneurial, leading

Supporting and undertaking research in partnership

International reputation Flexible, responsive,

communicating

Supporting Manchester

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Some conclusions (1)

Not all world–class Universities have world-class IS services

World-class IS services are not always in world class institutions

Not all parts of a world-class IS service are world class

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Conclusions (2)

Customer don’t care about world-classness!• They want service!

Quality is a respect that must be continually earnt

Continuous improvement is essential for us all

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And finally

Welcome to EUNIS 2005, Manchester, week 20th June

The theme:“Leadership & Strategy in a

Cyber-infrastructure world”www.manchester.ac.uk/eunis2005