Information Technology StrategySupporting Excellence

Tim Phillips, Director of Information Systems & Computing

Information Technology, supporting excellence

Tomorrow’s ChallengesTomorrow’s Challenges

• Responding to student expectationsResponding to student expectations• Enabling research and collaborationEnabling research and collaboration• Generating and sharing knowledgeGenerating and sharing knowledge• Meeting the Exabyte challengeMeeting the Exabyte challenge• Transforming business processesTransforming business processes• Being innovative and achieving technological Being innovative and achieving technological

leverage leverage • Developing all our peopleDeveloping all our people• Building the “Virtual University”Building the “Virtual University”

Information Technology, supporting excellence

IT Strategy Aims

Information Technology, supporting excellence

A Vision of the Future

“We are moving towards a mobile, broadband society”

“I see a near-future in which mobile terminals (phones, other handheld devices) have more processing power than today’s laptops; with cognitive radio, they will select the best wireless system for the task in hand …terabit communications are not that far away”

Joe McGeehan, Professor of Communications Engineering, credited with pioneering many of the major developments in mobile communications.

Information Technology, supporting excellence

The future (or the present)?Did you know?

Portal

You Tube

• UOB

• Comp. Sci.

Podcasts

Online Courses

e-Portfolios

Weblogs

• Physics

Wikis

Virtual Campus

SOASecond Life

Information Technology, supporting excellence

What does that mean for Jane?

Jane is woken by her mobile alarm, checks out the day’s todo list and diary and reads her email over breakfast whilst catching up on yesterday’s soap in the corner of her laptop screen.

She picks up a recorded lecture from last week as she cycles in (click here for podcasts). As she walks by the Students’ Union she sees a display of the week’s events and downloads timings and details to her mobile calendar. A message arrives saying her first lecture has moved, so she goes straight to the new venue.

Jane downloads images and notes during the lecture and annotates them, uploading them via the portal to her workspace afterwards. She’ll use them when working on her essay later on in the library. A message arrives from a friend in a 2nd Life seminar from another part of the course and they arrange to meet. (click here for 2nd life)

The students compare notes and search video clips of lectures from the 3rd year options to try to work out which to choose for their final year. (for an example, see UC Berkeley Youtube)

Information Technology, supporting excellence

Students can…Students can…

Information Technology, supporting excellence

Staff can…Staff can…

Student submits assignment

Student submits assignment

Lecturer sets assignment for

students

Lecturer sets assignment for

students

Lecturer uploads learning resources into on-line learning environment

Lecturer uploads learning resources into on-line learning environment

Student accesses on-line resources and assignments

Student accesses on-line resources and assignments

Student attempts assignment

Student attempts assignment

Lecturer accesses submitted assignments

Lecturer accesses submitted assignments

Lecturer reviews, marks, and returns assignmentLecturer reviews, marks, and returns assignment

On-line AssignmentsOn-line Assignments

Information Technology, supporting excellence

It’s all about integration (and access)

• Processes

• Communication

• Data

Workflow: Integrated processesReporting

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) = Process and Systems Integration

New Systems:PurchasingTimetabling

fEC

WorkflowBusiness Process Model

Portal

CODA SITS Library Aleph

VLE Bboard

JISC/SOA

Information Technology, supporting excellence

Integrated Communication & Collaboration

Portal

Expertise Locator

eLearning

Large FileTransfer

Shared Workspaces

Web Conferencing

Messaging PresenceAwareness

Search

Single Point of Entry

Access to Applications & Reporting

Q&A Forum

Virtual Meeting Rooms

Information Technology, supporting excellence

Integrated Data & Information Resources

ROSE: Bristol Repository of Scholarly Eprints

?

Information Technology, supporting excellence

A Vision of our future

“We are still some way off a modern and wholly integrated IT system. This, in part, reflects years of underinvestment but also a kind of natural conservatism and a fear of the sums of money involved.” Speech to University Court, 7th December 2007

(Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor; Speech to Court, December 2007)

Information Technology, supporting excellence

3. Systems &Technology

Balancing business requirements with technology and maturity of the organization

1. Requirementsof business

2. Maturity ofOrganization1)

Unbalanced,technology “push”

Balanced, business led “pull”

1) Processes, Structures & Organization, People & culture