The Bloomsbury Colleges Shared Services Feasibility Study AUA

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The Bloomsbury Colleges Shared
ServicesFeasibility StudyAUA
SUMS Consulting Andrea Buttle -
A.Buttle_at_reading.ac.uk
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Agenda

• Context
• Whats your context?
• Approach
• Outcomes
• Competing priorities
• Looking forward

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HE context

• Shared services in local government and in
  private sector
• KPMG report on HE sector potential benefits
• Feasibility studies
• Note HE does already share JANET
• In Ireland An-cheim
• VAT the barrier

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Bloomsbury Colleges context

• 6 specialist colleges
• Colleges each have less than 100M p.a. income
• Geographically adjacent
• Have not got the same systems development
  resources as bigger Universities
• Biggest shared system to date Bloomsbury
  Learning Environment ( BLE)

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Some Key Questions

• Do we actually share services well as an
  Institution let alone with others?
• Who could we share with?
• Do we need to share?
• Critical mass?
• Specialist skills?
• What should we share?

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What could we share?

• Main University business systems
• Student
• HR
• Finance
• Payroll
• Purchasing
• Estates

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Standard SUMS Consulting methods

• Talk to all the key stakeholders
• Compare with good practice
• Workshop if necessary
• Present initial findings
• Refine

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Systems Development Framework
Reporting Business Intelligence External
Data level Maintain records
Self service Transact online
Integrated Service Delivery
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Key Qs for Student/Finance/HR
Reporting Business Intelligence External
Data level Maintain records
Self service Transact online
Integrated Service Delivery
Do you want to share your core system?
What about joint development of online services?
How about sharing specialist resource?
How will you deliver services in the future?
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HR Systems Service Delivery
Reporting Business Intelligence, self service
manager external
Absence Management
Online exit questionnaires
Appraisal Forms
Workflowed forms
Staff Development
Staff Development
Staff Grievance
Self-service employee
Personnel
Business partners
Pension
Online recruitment
HR Service Centre
Recruitment
Data Level Maintain records
Self service Transact online
Integrated Service Delivery
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HR opportunities

• Need for LSHTM to replace HR/Payroll system
• Could follow RVC onto Trent
• Need for SoP to upgrade system
• IoE already have and could help
• Unfortunately e-recruitment is split
• RVC, IoE stonefish
• BBK, SOAS i-Grasp
• HR service centre
• Not a vision shared by all

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Managing Expectations

• Staff need a very good reason to change systems
• Staff need consistent evidence of senior
  management commitment
• But is there a way forward YES

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Estates

• Already share contracts for
• Catering
• Cleaning
• Security
• Heat and Power
• Identified student space sharing as an
  opportunity for Birkbeck, SOAS, IoE, and possibly
  LSHTM
• Held a student space vision workshop

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Sharing Student Spaces
Virtual Student Facilities
Infrastructure Management
Contracted services for BLE hosting Catering Clea
ning Security Heat Power
Study skills
BLE
Physical Student Facilities
Study Space
Identity Management
Social Space
Smart Cards
Language Labs
Conference Office
Computing Space
Teaching Office
Teaching Space
Exam Space
Exam Scheduling
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Space Management Opportunities

• Need for LSHTM to upgrade current timetabling
  system or take a managed service from SOAS
• More sharing of technology rich spaces
• Collaboration on new student spaces
• Hiring/sharing of AV technicians

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Focus on Student Experience

• Difficult to argue against
• Specialist skills and facilities not easily
  provided by small colleges
• Build on proven success of BLE

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Key questions

• Where do you see opportunities?
• What are the criteria for picking services to
  potentially share?
• Could I address the issue by buying a service
  from a third party?

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One that got away!

• 4 of the 6 colleges use the SITS student record
  system
• Shared system development?
• BUT
• 1 college already shared a self employed support
  analyst with St Georges
• 1 college was happy to pay SITS to provide
  upgrade support

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In Conclusion

• Context understand your drivers
• Where are you and what are you trying to achieve?
• How can you achieve it
• inhouse, shared, outsource
• Agree a direction with potential partners
• Look for early wins by starting small

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A parting thought

• Systems will increasingly be offered as services
  by software vendors seeking to rise up the value
  chain
• Increasingly need to consider shared service as
  just another sourcing options
• Provide service inhouse
• Take shared service from consortium
• Pay third party to provide service to many

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Any questions?

• Please feel free to get in touch
• a.buttle_at_reading.ac.uk