Information Technology Services

1
Information Technology Services

• Planning Forum 2003

2
Group Reports

• Group 1 Fish Avril Grant, Paul Mottram, Dan
  Tran, Phillip Kent, Terry Smith, Lena Wong,
  Jacqui Sosnowski (Student Guild)
• Group 2 Dogs Joe Dascoli, Jim Campbell, Ross
  Hall, Jacky Frew, Barry Lynam, Chris Kane
  (Faculty of Business)
• Group 3 Butterflies Belinda Mills, Bernadette
  Savage, Ted Mync, Don Caruana, Paul Tasker,
  Matthew Haidn, Dan Moradian (ITCG)
• Group 4 Cows Warren Goodman, Warren Fraser,
  Jodie Savage, Peter Kurtz, Clayton Ford,
  Wendy Harper, Bruce Callow (GU)
• Group 5 Motorbikes Graham Keys, Ross Gorham,
  Kathy Hessling, Michele Berrie, Dave Richards,
  Kevin Anderson, Greg Palmer

3
Group 1 - Fish

• Brainstorming
• Diverse range of students
• How can we encourage students to stay?
• What things other than study can we offer?
• Can not provide all things for all people

4
Group 1 Fish continued..

• Common themes
• More campus-based University
• What makes QUT unique?
• History
• QUT has done well by experiment and regeneration

5
Group 1 Fish continued..

• Impacts
• Increase in demand has led to increase in
  services
• Need to rethink
• How and what technology we deliver
• How ITS fits into the organisation

6
Group 1 Fish continued..

• Recommendations
• Go back to basics
• Have people spaces where people can come
  together
• Make the experience more comfortable
• Make all student rooms the same using good
  technology
• Online interaction
• Explore innovative ways to provide service
• Form partnerships with industry collaboration
• Economies of scale

7
Group 1 Fish continued..

• Feedback from Panel
• touched on important issues, particularly the
  lecture rooms
• good community focus

8
Group 2 - Dogs

• Advice for QUT
• IT Strategy
• OLT (on/off campus experience)

9
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• IT Strategy - advice to the VC
• Lead senior management and the organisation in
  the formulation of an IT strategy that
• - gets above the silos
• - captures all IT initiatives
• - links to the Blueprint
• Move AMP (IT) away from an annual
  bidding/planning cycle to a project life cycle

10
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• IT Strategy advice to DVC
• Needs to be project managed
• - resourced
• - uses the Project Management Framework
• - sets milestones
• - establishes deliverables
• - communication strategy
• Identify how the IT Strategy links to the
  Blueprint
• Prioritise TILS IT project/strategic objectives

11
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• IT Strategy advice to IT Director
• Break down the internal ITS silos by
• - using the Extended Leadership group to
• look at cross-silo issues more effectively
• and to make informed departmental
• decisions
• - ensuring consistent advice to clients (e.g.
• delivering what we say we will deliver in
• terms of communication)
• Prioritise IT projects at a departmental level

12
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• OLT Review advice to VC
• To ensure that appropriate governance processes
  are in place to implement the recommendations of
  the OLT Review
• - define the role of the TL Committee
• - what is the mix of the on/off campus
• experience
• - funding availability

13
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• OLT Review advice to DVC
• Gather the resources required to support the
  implementation of the recommendations from the
  OLT Review
• Encourage collaborative support between Divisions
  and Faculties
• - student use
• - staff use, materials development

14
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• OLT Review advice to IT Director
• Ensure that the appropriate resources from ITS
  engage with TALSS to provide advice and skills to
  facilitate the implementation of the review
  recommendations

15
Group 2 Dogs continued..

• Feedback from Panel
• idea of departmental priority setting can be good
  but need to be cautious not to reinvent silo
  process
• gathering resources is a good idea
• impressed with pre-filtering but to ensure we
  dont disconnect from rest of QUT
• transparency issues in decision making process

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Group 3 - Butterflies

• With finite budgets all priorities cannot be
  afforded
• What balance should be struck across key themes
  of IT capital investment, such as
• - improving student experience
• - increasing infrastructure reliability
• - streamlining administrative processes

17
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• Definition of Infrastructure
• The essential hardware and software/applications
  that provide consistent end-to-end core services
  for students and staff. This includes
• The physical network hardware/equipment and
  network software/applications together with host
  servers hardware and software applications which
  provide essential Admin/Business services (eg
  authentication, DNS, Diary, email, QV, Oracle)
  and Teaching / Learning - OLT

18
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• How should we prioritise the money?
• - streamlining processes and reliability to
  benefit the student
• experience eg physical access
• - even if main benefit is improved student
  experience,
• reliability and streamlining are key criteria
  eg student
• portfolio
• - sweet spot optimal window of support eg
  DNS,
• authentication, network, hosts
• Reliable core systems
• ROI can be measured more than the 3 nominated
  benefits eg s, goodwill, community outcomes
• To engage and experiment QUT needs an IT
  foundation that is reliable

19
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• How should this process be done effectively?
• - funding approval should match project
• lifecycles
• - serious commitment to chunking
• - timely funding using rolling funding and
• discretionary funding
• - strategic governance should endorse/enforce
• IT recommendations
• - Review of committees - all investments
• should be evaluated against set criteria eg
• reliability, streamlining, student experience

20
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• Multiple dimensions to evaluating
• - Mc Farlanes model
• - Blueprint matching
• - Cost benefits
• To regenerate and experiment we need a governance
  process that is well defined and responsive
• University community gaining confidence in IT
  provision
• IT is integral part of engagement and
  experimenting rather than just a service provider

21
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• Soap Box
• Everything else is growing but funds are not
  cannot regenerate
• Funding should take into account recognition of
  achievements
• Opportunities
• - promote use of technology
• - involve staff in IT Planning
• - develop staff cross training
• - recognise and celebrate achievements
• Flexibility to do RD
• IT is an enabler, not just a cost

22
Group 3 Butterflies continued..

• Feedback from Panel
• Ambition of QUT is soaking up funds
• Opportunity cost as we choose from alternatives
• Streamlining is a good idea
• Good definition of infrastructure though not
  circular

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Group 4 - Cows

• 3 key issues
• - market research
• - reliability and availability
• - service delivery alignment
• Influenced by Blueprint

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Group 4 Cows continued..

• Definitions
• Market research
• QUTs ambitions .. provide outstanding learning
  environments
• Reliability and Availability
• Fully integrate physical and virtual
  considerations in the development of the
  Universitys AMP. In this context it is expected
  that IT infrastructure will require significant
  additional resources maintenance and reliability
  will be of increasing importance
• Service Delivery Alignment
• Integrate technology into our teaching,
  research, business/support functions and
  infrastructure

25
Group 4 Cows continued..

• Problems
• Why do we choose certain projects over others?
• How do we manage demand, what are the priorities?
• Division in the organisation between Faculties
  and Divisions
• Lab resources difference between hours
  available and hours needed eg 24/7
• Full fee paying students have increased
  expectations can we meet these demands?
• Risk management of advertised results vs
  potential litigation if we dont deliver expected
  results
• Keeping up with the pace of change, balancing
  stability vs flexibility
• Mainstreaming/operationalising projects in
  planning process

26
Group 4 Cows continued..

• Problems
• Mismatch between resources/budget and
  expectations
• What will the future student use? What will be
  the take-up for future staff?
• Guessing technology capabilities into the future
• On-campus experience vs off-campus experience
• Study discipline determines student expectations
  study experience
• Workload management
• Sustainability projects/pilots that never stop
• Retirement of redundant services
• Infrastructure research/IT expectations
• Experiments kudos vs spending on other services
• Direction of online teaching

27
Group 4 Cows continued..

• Recommendations
• Collate current and new data on the student
  experience which will inform decision making eg
  student surveys, market scans
• Continue to evolve and mature internal working
  relationships through negotiation of standards,
  expectations and relationships
• Look at how virtual and physical infrastructure
  can be combined (currently done separately)
• Choose most beneficial components of ITIL and
  better align ITS service delivery with the ITIL
  framework in those areas of greatest benefit
• JUST DO IT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

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Group 4 Cows continued..

• Feedback from Panel
• Good idea to obtain feedback from students and
  clients
• Traps of growing is tendency to procrastinate
  just do it is good point. Risk may be less
  than not doing anything at all
• Need governance process to ensure All CSO is not
  alienated

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Group 5 - Motorbikes

• Analysis
• Directions proposed need to be plausible
• Resourcing implications
• - only resource source implicit is
• through additional students
• Picture/diagram would be useful to convey the
  essence of Blueprint

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Group 5 Motorbikes continued..

• Engage with the University through providing
  infrastructure and systems that support access to
  the physical and virtual experience, alignment
  with the teaching, research and business
  objectives and supporting administrative
  activities of QUT
• We must work with areas of the University to
  regenerate policies, procedures and systems
  through leadership in the application and
  innovation of IT
• We must partner with areas of the University to
  experiment with the application of IT to enhance
  the way QUT delivers learning and undertakes
  research

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Group 5 Motorbikes continued..

• Current student experience

Cosmetic interfaces
Business processes
Infrastructure

• Top heavy trying to broaden student
  experience with limited resources

32
Group 5 Motorbikes continued..

• Future student experience

Cosmetic interfaces
Business processes
Infrastructure

• Make business processes leaner and add to
  infrastructure

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Group 5 Motorbikes continued..

• How will we achieve this?
• Research funding
• - increase collaboration with external parties
• - aggressive pursuit of grants
• Other funding
• - charge full 30 HECS add-on
• - reduce CFP quotas in high demand courses and
  offer as full-fee
• Reduce costs/administrative efficiencies
• - outsource/collaboration of non-competitive
  administrative
• functions
• Improving research profile
• - offer scholarships to high OP/GPA students
• Experimentation
• - leverage off internal research outcomes
  commercialisation
• - committed resources and culture fostering
  research and
• innovation

34
Group 5 Motorbikes continued..

• Feedback from Panel
• More students ? more s
• Student population income, except in areas of
  research
• Issue of how QUT will deregulate fees
• Good use of diagrams