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Open Source for Higher Education - how to optimise under the Comprehensive

Spending Review

Date: Thurs 9 Dec 2010

Online webinar: 4pm UK, 5pm CET

Professor Roger James

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Introduction

● Join Professor Roger James and Alfresco Partner, Ixxus, to

find out how the Higher Education sector in the UK has had to

respond to the dramatic funding cuts outlined in the

Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) by reducing budgets,

increasing productivity and exploiting new opportunities.

● Drawing on their experiences at a leading UK University, they‟ll

share key strategies to get your University through these

challenging times. You'll learn about solutions based on a „no

upfront cost‟ complete enterprise content management

platform that includes an open source, integrated approach to

Virtual Learning Environments and easy migration tools.

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Personal History: Roger James

● At Glaxo Research in the 90‟s: he brought Internet email and

the web. Introduced process modelling, document

management and portal systems supporting core R&D

processes.

● At Napp Pharmaceuticals in the early 00‟s: he implemented a

European Sharepoint strategy, Knowledge Worker tools &

prize-winning Intranet

● At the University of Westminster in the late 00‟s: he pioneered

cloud computing for Google eMail & Docs, completed the

„transactional systems‟ roll-out & delivered the strategy and

won the funding for Intranet 2.0 built on Open Source Content

Management

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Westminster Solution History

● Big institutional spend on „transactional systems‟ - £m on

[VLE, Student Records, HR, Financials].

● Little money then remained to improve the support for

“Knowledge Workers”, only a single pot of £000k intended for

a marketing Website.

● These marketing Website funds were “re-purposed” through

an Open Source strategy onto enterprise wide content

management and the Website

● Sharepoint & Alfresco considered: Alfresco/Ixxus chosen

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Intranet 2.0: Improving our professional & public content

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The Business Case

Benefit Elements

Direct income generation

Increased student recruitment

Increased research funding

Increased consulting income

Indirect income generation

Greater % success in research grants with better partnerships

Student retention

Institutional visibility as knowledge hub / centre of expertise

Image

Amplify University mission & brand

Focused marketing & communication campaigns

for student showcase

Reflection of contemporary interpretation of our history

Effort savings

Improved finding & searching, right version & context, complete

Reduced wastage from old, incorrect, superseded, duplicate wrong

information

Better communication, less information appearing as noise

Cost savingsReduced institutional liability in the use of restricted material

Expedited institutional content audits

Time, quality, speed to

market

Faster execution of collaborative processes such as new course development

Better quality processes

New collaborative mixes & teamwork

The Institutional Buzz

Locating expertise, new ideas, new lines of activity

A better more vibrant place to work

Purpose, morale and productivity

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But then ….

● In the Autumn of 2009 budget projections for 2010/11 showed

● Running at a deficit for the last few years, with a shortfall from

asset sales

● Staff costs as a % of revenue had grown to 64% which had to be

brought under the HEFCE target of 60%

● Produce a „re-structuring‟ between January & July 2010 – staff

reductions

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Alfresco System

“amplifying the case for change”

The Comprehensive Spending Review

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Likely Response

Funding Bodies Funding Bodies

FeesFees

Research Income Research Income

Commercial ActivitiesCommercial Activities

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%-120.0%

-100.0%

-80.0%

-60.0%

-40.0%

-20.0%

0.0%

Target Spend Current Spend Current Income Target Income

Interest DepreciationEnergy Building CostsExpenditure Student ResidencesTeaching New Course DevelopmentStudent Support ResearchFinance EstatesRegistrars Learning & teaching support

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Institutional Costs shown for an IT service model

● Based on the UCISA definitions of IT services

● Allows identification of spend - by type, by purpose, by customer (use)

● Basis of strategic budget development and sustainable cost savings

● Method applicable for all institutional activities

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Critical Areas:support your knowledge workers

-50.0%-45.0%-40.0%-35.0%-30.0%-25.0%-20.0%-15.0%-10.0%-5.0%0.0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Teaching

New Course Development

Student Support

Research

Finance

Estates

Registrars

Teaching Support

Knowledge Work

Transactional

KW Savings

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Making Savings

Making Savings

Risk

Time

Procurement

Staff Severance

ServicesPortfolio

ProjectEmbargo

Innovation

09 December 2010 Roger James computiv ©2010

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A Plan

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Designing a Response

● Efficiency

● Effectiveness

● Practicality

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Organisational Efficiency

The majority of University employees are knowledge workers and a

framework needs to be developed to manage knowledge and support

communities of practice.

University of Westminster

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Efficiency

People Processes:

who knows, how it happens, where it is, which one is it?A

rch

ive

Cale

nd

ar

Dir

ecto

ry

Inte

rfacin

g

IP P

rote

cti

on

Po

rtal

Refo

rmati

ng

Tem

pla

tes

Wo

rkfl

ow

Gra

nd

To

tal

Alerts 0.0% 6.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.3% 0.0% 0.0% 5.7% 19.5%

Assessment 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.1% 4.1%

Collaboration 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.1% 0.0% 0.0% 4.9% 8.9%

Dossier 4.1% 2.4% 0.0% 1.6% 0.8% 9.8% 1.6% 0.0% 9.8% 30.1%

faq 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.1%

Forms 0.0% 0.0% 1.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 10.6% 12.2%

Publishing 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 4.1% 0.8% 2.4% 2.4% 10.6%

Quality 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 0.8%

Search 0.0% 0.0% 1.6% 0.8% 1.6% 4.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 8.9%

Sharing 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 0.8%

Grand Total 4.1% 8.9% 3.3% 2.4% 3.3% 33.3% 2.4% 2.4% 39.8% 100.0%

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In short

● Many critical activities surrounding the transactional systems

needing support for collaboration, collections, version

management and publishing (for example producing the

student prospectus)

● When key support staff depart a greater need for content

protection, dossier collections (such as papers for committee),

search and content use

● Insatiable demand for mini- workflows replacing the individuals

who knew how, or knew who to ask

● All needs exacerbated by headcount reductions

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Organisational Effectiveness

You are talking to users about something they care

about!

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Institutional IP

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In short

● Many critical activities University work, especially research & enterprise,

lies outside of the core transactional systems.

● Opportunities abound for sharing, collaborating, publishing & re-

publishing to project the University image and attract new partners.

● New and periodic challenges, such as QAA or REF, as Knowledge

Worker processes which would be revolutionised by content

management. Just having a unified and complete search facility would

make a big difference.

● New social media trends and opportunities are founded on secure, stable

and performing content collections. These need to be owned by the

institution.

● Research staff departures present an immediate and acute case for

action.

● All needs exacerbated by headcount reductions

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The Perfect Storm

Thanks that’s a great idea, but we’ve not got the time,

money, resources to make any changes

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Options

● Money: buy or rent (with complete flexibility to swap)

● Time: purchase without delay (revex), operate without building

(hosted), integrate without development (interfaces)

● Effort: minimum user involvement (Agile), minimum training

requirement (familiar tools)

● How much, how little: as required and as necessary

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We consult and design.

We architect and build.

We support.

And we realise the

true value of your content...

Ixxus were chosen for their expertise in Alfresco, their experience with content and document management, and their ability to work in partnership with our internal team.

University of Westminster

Introducing Ixxus

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Sustainability Equals Architecture

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Modularity:Standard: as much as possible

Special: as little as necessary

HE Interfaces

Standard Services

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Developing the Roadmap with Ixxus

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Making the JourneyFuture White Papers

● Audit & Strategy [Planning for the future changes]

● Content loss prevention [Content capture and integration

services]

● Access & locate [Integrated search and access services]

● Enable & exploit [Transformation and publishing services]

● Share & develop [Collaboration services]

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To learn more

● Contact Ixxus at he@ixxus.com to learn about their specialist

HE practice and to request a copy of the first white paper on

planning your response to the CSR

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Thank you

&

Questions

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To learn more

● Contact Ixxus at he@ixxus.com to learn about their specialist

HE practice and to request a copy of the first white paper on

planning your response to the CSR