First Class World Class

1
Manchester Computing

• First Class - World Class?
• Powered by the Web!
• Whose Web?
• Prof M. J. Clark
• Director Manchester Computing
• The University of Manchester

2
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

3
Background to the question?

• 9 months ago (Oct 1 2004)
• The Victoria University of Manchester merged
  with UMIST creating The University of Manchester

4
Background - 2

• However just AB 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.

5
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 users

5
6
Context 2 The environment

• 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

6
7
Context 3 Economic, Political and Peer pressures
PoliticalPressures
EconomicPressures
Peer Pressure and Competition
Higher Education, Government, Business
Changing Customer Expectations
8
Context 4 Holistic learning
F-HE
Schools
Home
Community Workplace
9
Context 5

• 21st Century lifes 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

9
10
Context 6The academic story

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

11
Context 7 Globalisation

• Who can predict the future?
• Certainly not Universities
• we cant 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

12
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.

13
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

14
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!

15
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!!

16
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

17
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 doesnt come at a
  discount
• without world-class funding the goal of reaching,
  and preserving high standards is rhetoric alone.

18
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

19
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!

20
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

21
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.

22
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.

23
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.

24
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.

25
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 SLAs and performance metrics
• facilitate practical working arrangements
• between core infrastructure support and service
  support teams
• facilitate more seamless change to arising
  technologies

26
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/infrastructure
  s 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.

27
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

28
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.

29
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

30
IT Hierarchy of Needs

• World Class IT Infrastructures
• Technical maturity leads to business value
• Lets look at the stack hierarchy

31
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 its architecture

32
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

33
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

34
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.

35
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.

36
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.

37
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.

38
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.

39
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

40
Is ERP achievable?

• To date their hasnt 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

41
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.

42
What does ERP really cost?

• Too much if you have to ask!
• When will we get payback from ERPand 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

43
Top 10 IT Issues
44
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.

45
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?

46
Hype Cycle Web Services from Gartner
47
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 isnt excited by carrying a device giving
  ready access to the worlds information resources!

48
The University Campus model

• Today

The Net
Buildings Students Staff Libraries Systems/Service
s (ISP)
49
The New campus
The net The net The net The net The net The net
The net The net
Students Students Students Students Students
Students Students
The net The net The net The net The net The net
The net The net
Students Students Students Students Students
Students Students
Staff Services (PoP)
50
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.

51
The context continued 1
52
The context continued 2
53
The context continued 3
54
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.

55
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

56
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 countsproviding complex and
  tortuous access to some applications and some
  processes.
• What is needed is an enterprise gatewayone 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.

57
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.

58
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.

59
Time and Customer-Centricity Todays 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.

60
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?

61
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
knowledgeknowledge that can be readily codified
and shared with othersand 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
62
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
63
Thank You