First Class - World Class?Powered by the Web!

Whose Web?

Prof M. J. ClarkDirector Manchester Computing

The University of Manchester

Manchester Computing

Synopsis:

World class? The context and environment The ten factors The architecture issues The gateway and ERP The semantic web & web services Knowledge Management Some conclusions

Background to the question?

9 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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Context 1: Information Services Environment

Information services – central to the university for all its activities• Very expensive infrastructures

• significant number of single points of failure– All aspect must be assessed by risk analysis

• costs and support issues largely invisible to the user– the iceberg!

• The fastest changing area of the University• Staff skills have short 'half-life'

– Requires ambitious programme of staff development (and rollout)

• Everyone thinks they are experts!• They are becoming so!• Solutions have to scale to support national usage and

Institutions 50,000+ users5

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Modern Government• “education, education, education”• massification/diversification/social inclusion• e-access to all areas of public services

Education - a lifetime experience• A holistic approach to Lifelong Learning

‘The customer is king’ The e-revolution

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Context 2: The environment

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Higher Education,Government,

Business

EconomicPressures

PoliticalPressures

Peer Pressure andCompetition

Changing Customer Expectations

Context 3: Economic, Political and Peer pressures

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Anyone anytime anywhereDynamic learning

environments

Efficient management

systemsTailored portals

Home

Schools F-HE

CommunityWorkplace

Context 4: Holistic learning

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Context 5:

21st Century life’s two great equalisers:• education• IT and the Internet

Both should/will be abundantly available to all • Not simply for national economic well-being but for individual

social fulfilment

Requirement to blend long-term vision with short/medium term pragmatism

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Context 6:The academic story

University 2005+ Increasing Differentiation Escalating Price Competition Consortial Models Mergers/takeovers Outputs Assessment Financially viability Changing academic roles? Changing support roles

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Who can predict the future?• Certainly not Universities

• we can’t plan a certain future• There are only two global

mega-industries• We must expect attack from

new providers!• HEIs are not alone in feeling

‘threatened’• Evident in many industries

– mergers, takeovers, collapse of some economies

The certainties:• New skills, a possible

information culture & an information rich & poor society

Context 7: Globalisation

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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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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 based on the web!

• 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 presented 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 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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Base Infrastructures

24 x 7 & five nines requires major investment• Multiple: data centres, networks, power…..

Enterprise Server architectures SANs, NAS, Mirroring…..

• Lights out computing approach

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IT Hierarchy of Needs

World Class IT Infrastructures

Technical maturity leads to business value

• Let’s look at the stack hierarchy

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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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So: Where does the Web fit in this?

Increasingly the web has become the vehicle which facilitates access • with web services undertaking background processing

to support The Context in 2010

• The (A5-ish) PDA• WiFI (max)• Simple interfaces• Scribble pad/voice command recognising

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Getting from two of everything

Merger meant we had 2 of every core business system

The decision to procure world-class solutions will take several years to deliver but we are well on the way!

Making the interim work but with a plan for the future

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Data Warehousing

A data warehouse is a copy of transaction data specifically structured for querying and reporting.• The form of the stored data has nothing to do with

whether something is a data warehouse.

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The case for Data Warehousing

Data warehousing may be implement for all or only one of the reasons cited: • To support server/disk bound tasks associated with

querying and reporting; i.e. not used by the transaction processing systems

• Reports require data from multiple systems. The data warehouse may contain archival data relevant for historical comparison

• May be used to prevent persons who only need to query and report from having any access whatsoever to the actual transaction processing system.

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ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP integrates key business and management processes• ERP tracks company financials, human resources data and (if

applicable) manufacturing information• The leaders in ERP market share are SAP, PeopleSoft Inc.,

Oracle Corp., Baan Co. NV and J.D. Edwards & Co. ERP was intended to solve the problem of integrating

Best of Breed systems as software needs to communicate across functions. • ERP aims to replicate business processes in software, guide

the employees responsible for those processes through them step by step and automate as many procedures as desired.

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Has ERP worked?

Multimillion project failures and successes. • The promise of ERP is great but so is the expense

• time, effort and money. Implementing usually involved changing

business processes• Job change is notoriously difficult• Only now do we capture best practice and implement

Requires that executives hone their change management skills. • With careful planning and lots of effort ERP can work

and make an enterprise more efficient.

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How long will an ERP project take?

The important thing is not to focus on how long it will take:• real transformational ERP efforts usually run between

one and three years, on average• generally we are not managerial institutions so it will take

longer!

• but rather to understand why you need it and how you will use it to improve your business.

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Reasons to desire the holy grail of ERP

Integrated business information• ERP creates a single truth re core data that cannot be

questioned – everyone is using the same system. Standardize and speed up business processes

• business units can standardize processes and using a single, integrated computer system can save time, increase productivity and reduce head count.

Systems integration• ERP should operate on a ‘single’ platform with support

issues assumed by single supplier Efficiency

• Business process should flow more smoothly

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Is ERP achievable?

To date their hasn’t really been an ERP solution for our business domain

Recent implementations demonstrate software systems fail in certain key business processes.

Many institutions have attempted to procure ERP but most have fallen back to best of breed

Mergers/acquisitions are leading to ERP solutions for academia but not embracing online learning

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The Issues

Needless to say, the move to ERP is a project of breathtaking scope• the price tags make the most placid FO twitchy; in addition to

budgeting for software costs, should plan on large cheques to cover consulting, process rework, integration testing and a long laundry list of other expenses before the benefits of ERP start to manifest themselves.

Underestimating the price beyond the capital cost • teaching users their new job processes; failure to consider

data warehouse integration requirements; the cost of extra software to duplicate the old report formats.

• a few oversights in the budgeting and planning stage can send ERP costs spiralling out of control faster than oversights in planning almost any other information system undertaking

The risks• It is easier and cheaper to change the business process to

accommodate the software than modify the software to fit the process.

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What does ERP really cost?

Too much if you have to ask! When will we get payback from ERP—and how much will

it be?• Don't expect to revolutionize your business as evolution is a

slow process What are the hidden costs of ERP?

• Training • Integration and testing • Customization • Data conversion • Data analysis • Consultants ad infinitum • Replacing (backfill) your best and brightest – they will be

needed to undertake the project• Implementation teams can never stop • Post-ERP depression

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Top 10 IT Issues

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Quoting from the survey

Institutions find themselves forced to deal with multiple portal solutions as campus ERP and CMS projects result in the deployment of multiple portal products.

“campuses confronted with the challenge of portal deployment and integration should be mindful that this product niche will continue to evolve”.

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Web service issues

Web services are rising to prominence because they can provide long awaited opportunities for applications running on different platforms, programmed in a variety of languages, and custom-built or vendor-acquired to interoperate and satisfy organizational processing requirements.• How can Web services provide optimum return on existing

investments and provide enhanced scalability?• Can the institution make modular/iterative development of Web

based applications, a hallmark of Web services, sustainable and less costly?

• Although Web services and the required standards are still evolving, what should we do now to ensure that Web services are an integral part of future strategic plans?

• What will it take to utilize a Web services approach when developing new Web-based applications?

• What are the availability and the flexibility of Web services in institutional applications?

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Hype Cycle – Web Servicesfrom Gartner

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Context of the Information Society

Ready and immediate access to the worlds information• Most new information is created in digital format• The pace of digitisation of legacy information is significant

Access to information provides competitive advantage

Who isn’t excited by carrying a device giving ready access to the worlds information resources!

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Today

BuildingsBuildingsStudentsStudents

StaffStaffLibrariesLibraries

Systems/ServicesSystems/Services(ISP)(ISP)

The The NetNet

The University Campus model

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StaffStaffServicesServices(PoP)(PoP)

The New campus

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Metadata & theSemantic Web

Metadata is not a new phenomenon. • Metadata, by a different name, has been used for many

decades to bring order to information collection, access, and management.

The desire to move to the Semantic Web will not happen by technology alone

• The semantics will have to come from human consensus and agreement on metadata content. This is the metadata ecology. Metadata communities will need to be nurtured through this process to evolve and fully exploit the underlying technologies. Reuse, adoption, and extension of existing core metadata sets across communities is also a key enabler of the Semantic Web.

The future of Metadata is the Internet and the future of the Internet is Metadata.

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The context continued: 1

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The context continued: 2

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The context continued: 3

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Content

Exponential Growth in digital information/data• Scientific and technical literature is now created in digital form• large quantities have been converted to digital retrospectively. • Crucial data collections in the social, biological, and physical

sciences are coming online and becoming remotely accessible• modern genome research would be impossible without such databases

Increasingly powerful data mining techniques• are creating greater demand for access to cross-disciplinary data

archives.• new knowledge is being discovered in problem areas never intended

at the time of the original data acquisition.

Much data is “preserved” in ad hoc and fragmented ways• all too often ends up in “data mortuaries” rather than archives.

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The Manchester Webwhere is it going?

The Branding• Essential to drive a brand and brand values

The CMS approach• Is it possible to have a CMS and significant devolution?• Should a CMS be and end-to-end solution

The Web is too expensive and too ‘static’• Must be driven from data and information systems• Must be knowledge enabled• Must deliver to the user expectations

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Information Flows

What is needed are fluid information flows that support the workflows and business processes• Yet information technology lags these enterprise

changes. Laptops, e-mail, remote access, and VPNs fall short on many counts—providing complex and tortuous access to some applications and some processes.

• What is needed is an enterprise gateway—one that provides not just smart content searches but rather a full architecture for users to get to the information, applications, and communications tools they need here and now to undertake the business.

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What does it facilitate?

An enterprise portal should allow users to use ‘any’ Web-enabled device to tap into a virtual workspace. • The virtual workspace should present or facilitate users with

all of the file, e-mail, calendar, and collaboration tools along with all of the legacy, client/server, and Web-enabled enterprise services they need.

• It should support access to these applications whether they reside in an intranet, an extranet, on the Internet, and whether they are hosted by the enterprise or by a service provider.

An enterprise portal should extend easily to support the wave of smart PDAs, cell phones, Internet phones, etc.

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The principle

The key principle is to provide infrastructure and services which ensure that information, applications, and communications tools are accessible in a way that fits how an institution and its staff/students actually work, rather than forcing the users to adapt work habits to technology constraints.

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Time and Customer-Centricity: Today’s Competitive Weapons

Customer Centricity• We must be customer-centric in every aspect of our

operations, not just at the traditional customer interfaces.

• Information, applications, and communication tools are the competitive weapons that successful enterprises will use to squeeze time out of the equation and to get as close as possible to each customer.

• But these tools must be aligned with how work actually gets done.

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Who owns the web?

The web is an enabler and must be owned strategically by the Institution!• It is no longer the static pages of the W.W.W.• It must become cost-effective!

There must be real vision to its exploitation

Are you up for the challenge?

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“If higher education is about anything, it must be about the furtherance of knowledge and wisdom, and this requires going beyond the limitations of what Michael Polyani (1966) calls “explicit knowledge”—knowledge that can be readily codified and shared with others—and venturing into the realm of “tacit knowledge,” or knowledge that is inherently bound to the experiences, skills, and judgment of a person. Explicit knowledge can be organized in a database or set forth in a document; tacit knowledge must be teased out in the exercise of skills, problem solving, or judgments of an associational or critical nature. Tacit knowledge is mined through conversation, not computers; it is inherently “messy,” requiring dialogue, observation, or storytelling to be shared with others (Davenport & Prusak, 1998, pp. 81ff.)”.

From Course Management to Curricular Capabilities: A Capabilities Approach for the Next-Generation CMS

VAN WEIGEL Educause review May/June 2005

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The success of the knowledge century will depend not on the spread of new technologies themselves but on the quality of the information which is made available through them and our ability to use it wisely.

The challenge to universities is to adapt fast enough to exploit the opportunities of the market so that they survive to uphold those values.

THES, Opinion, 22-5-98

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Thank You