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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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] to learn about their specialist
HE practice and to request a copy of the first white paper on
planning your response to the CSR