Outsourcing LMS Hosting and Help Desk

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Outsourcing LMS Hosting and Help Desk

• Allan Christie and James Strong
• NetSpot Pty Ltd

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Outline

• Why consider outsourcing LMS Hosting and Help
  Desk?
• What can be outsourced?
• Issues to consider before outsourcing
• Case Studies

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Introducing NetSpot

• Began in 1995, proprietary company in 1998
• Focus on e-learning and systems integration
• Federal Government endorsed supplier for IT
  services
• Only Australian company with an ASP (Application
  Service Provider) license of WebCT

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Our focus is on the Higher Education Sector

• The modern student demands accessible education

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Outsourcing Definition

• A formal agreement with a third party to perform
  a service for an organisation

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Outsourcing Definition
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Outsourcing Definition
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never complains, is always well behaved, washes
and repairs their own clothes, and never gets
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Outsourcing Definition

• Some things cannot not be outsourced (core
  activities), but others (such as an LMS) can.
• Outsourcing is not just about cost it can
  provide a qualitatively different and improved
  service

... and who always cleans his room when asked,
never complains, is always well behaved, washes
and repairs his own clothes, and never gets sick!
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Outsourcing in the context of an LMS review

• LMSs have moved to a new level in terms of
  sophistication and complexity
• These LMSs provide more tools and functionality
  and flexibility in delivery, but are more complex
  to manage
• When considering an LMS, alongside functionality
  and pedagogical approach, issues of support,
  reliability of service delivery are also
  important
• Outsourcing options that are available for a
  particular LMS may have some bearing on the
  overall perceived value of that LMS for ADFA

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Why Institutions are outsourcing their LMS

• Manage risk
• Increase competitive advantage and quality of
  service
• Manage costs
• Refocus on core activities
• We have observed a changing response to
  outsourcing in Australian Higher Education over
  the last 3 years.

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Managing Risk

• There are specific risks already inherent in the
  technical and support operations of an LMS,
  including
• Loss of data
• Extended outages
• Poor performance
• Compromised security
• Inadequate support for academics and students
• Delayed implementation of new application releases

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Managing Risk

• Should such things eventuate, this could
  potentially lead to
• damage to the institution brand
• decline in uptake of e-learning
• decline in student enrollments
• The risks are certainly real, considering that
• The complexity of LMSs is increasing
• Current LMSs are yet to reach the maturity of
  other enterprise applications
• The skilled IT staff necessary to manage such
  complex and changing systems are becoming harder
  to retain
• There is continuing growth in e-learning and
  associated increases in demands on the supporting
  systems
• The expectations and demands of students are
  increasing

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Challenges supporting an LMS

• Retaining IT skills
• Although higher education enjoys a
  continuous inflow of talented youth and
  faculty,it is having a hard time meeting its
  particular requirements for skilled IT staff.
• Educause Center for Applied Research Report, 2002
• An increasing number of roles are required
• Network Administration
• System Administration
• Database Administration

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Challenges supporting an LMS

• Complexity of current and future LMS offerings
• The size, cost, and complexity of integration
  of e-learning will outpace the capabilities of
  an increasing number of institutions to perform
  in houseHassett, E., et. al. Higher Education
  IT Outsourcing Future Trends and Market Forecast

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Challenges supporting an LMS
71 of respondents indicated that providing a
24x7 support service was a significant challenge
in faculty support Educause Center for Applied
Research Report, 2002

• Increasing Growth and Demand
• Students now expect and demand more support
• Increase in client-side issues personal
  firewalls, spyware, etc.
• Large fluctuations in demand for helpdesk

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Competitive Advantage

• Provide a higher quality service by
• Increasing service availability
• Keeping up with the fast pace of development
• Integrating with existing campus enterprise
  systems
• Effectively managing demand
• Extending help desk support (e.g. to 24x7)

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Manage Costs

• The internal costs of managed hosting and
  helpdesk will steadily increase
• Control costs while not compromising on quality
  of service or introducing undue risk
• Fixed costs provide more certainty
• LMS Hosting and Help Desk is becoming a commodity
• Managing this internally can be a distraction
  from the core mission of the institution
• Internal resources can be redeployed to focus on
  core-activities and enhancements

Refocus on core activities
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What can be outsourced?
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What can be outsourced?

• Core services
• Own and host servers and infrastructure
• Management of servers / operating systems
• Database Administration
• Application upgrades
• Optional
• Support Help Desk
• Application Administration
• Systems Integration
• 3rd Party Applications, eg., LCMS (TLE)

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An outsourcing company will often

• Have highly dedicated and skilled IT staff with
  built-in redundancies
• Have a close working relationship with vendors of
  the LMS
• Have experience working with multiple
  organisations, providing essentially the same
  service
• Achieve economies of scale that a single
  organisation cannot
• Not be bound by the enterprise bargaining
  agreements that institutions must operate within

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• General outsourcing
• Reliability
• Performance (AARNet hosting?)
• Service Levels
• Available providers, and their experience and
  track record
• Experience in Higher Education
• Security / Privacy
• Risk
• Cost
• Cultural/Political
• Assessment of current internal service levels and
  costs

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Specifically (for an LMS)
• What is included in the service?
• Support (end user vs technical)
• Development/Staging environments?
• What other services can the provider deliver?
• Integration
• Help Desk
• Training
• Third Party applications
• Shared vs Dedicated infrastructure?
• What is the quality of the infrastructure?
• Backups and Disaster Recovery

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Specifically (for an LMS)
• What access to and control over the application
  is provided?
• Administration
• PowerLinks
• Integration
• Monitoring, and response to alerts
• Outage Management
• Upgrades
• Maintenance
• Communication policy
• Migration
• How long, and what is involved?
• Setup Timeframe
• Operating procedures
• Easier or more complex?

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Service Level AgreementsDeveloped to ensure
  clear understanding between the customer and
  service provider regarding services to be
  delivered, roles and responsibilities of both
  parties, and to define the level of service that
  will be provided.
• Should be developed Collaboratively
• Should be concise, easy to read, and realistic
• Management is critical, and reporting essential
  all service levels stipulated must be measured
  and reported.

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Service Level Agreements
• Application Availability e.g. 99.9
• Based on past figures? What timeframe monthly,
  quarterly, yearly?
• Outage Management
• Maintenance windows (outside of business hours?)
• Notification timeframes
• Backups
• Various usage caps users/storage/bandwidth
• Help Desk
• Hours of operation
• Target response and resolution times
• Reporting
• Penalty Clauses

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Backups
• What data is being backed up?
• How frequently?
• What is backed up online vs offline (tape)?
• Are tapes stored off-site?
• What is the retention policy?
• Typically how long will it take to restore the
  data?
• How often are backup restoration tests performed?

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Disaster Recovery
• Is there a Disaster Recovery plan?
• What sort of disasters are catered for?
• Is there a physically separate facility?
• Is data mirrored between the facilities?
• Is there stand-by hardware at the facility?
• What is the fail-over time?
• How often is the Disaster Recovery plan revised
  and tested?

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Security and Privacy
• Is all data between the LMS and integrated
  enterprise systems encrypted?
• Is the login process encrypted?
• What sensitive information (e.g. from the Student
  Information System) stored on the LMS, and is
  this necessary?
• Are there written policies around what the
  provider can do in terms of administering
  users/courses e.g. changing passwords, adding
  enrolments, etc?
• What physical and environmental security measures
  are in place?

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Help Desk
• Extended coverage? - 24x7x365
• High-level helpdesk staff?
• Target response and resolution times
• Support methods Phone (toll free), Email, Web
• Ticket system (client access?)
• Reporting
• Collaborative and Flexible?

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Issues to consider before outsourcing LMS Hosting

• Next Steps
• Talk to others - obtain references
• Site visit
• Review internal SLAs
• Review outsourcers proposed SLAs

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Case Study AGSM

• Outsourced hosting and helpdesk since 2001
• Over 1000 students using WebCT
• Moving to WebCT CE 6 for a May 2006 Pilot with 3
  courses
• Reasons for outsourcing to NetSpot
• High profile students demand a professional
  service
• High availability and reliability
• Responsive extended hours end user help desk
• Responsive technical helpdesk
• Maintain autonomy over IT systems
• No internal resources to manage WebCT
• Third-party product support Horizon Wimba, The
  Learning Edge

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Case Study Australian Catholic University

• Six campuses across 4 states
• Approximately 9000 EFTSU
• Outsourced LMS to NetSpot since 2003
• Semester 1, 2006 - Full rollout of WebCT CE 6

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Case Study Australian Catholic University

• Services Provided
• WebCT Hosting
• WebCT Helpdesk (Staff and Students)
• WebCT Administration
• WebCT IntegrationHorizon Wimba and TLE hosting
  and support

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Case Study University of New England

• Semester 1, 2006 pilot of WebCT CE 6 with Masters
  of Law students
• Within 3 weeks, NetSpot
• Provisioned production servers in AARNet facility
• Migrated courses from CE 4.1 to CE 6.0
• Integrated WebCT with Student Information System
• Customised and Configured WebCT
• Setup Helpdesk
• Developed and integrated operating procedures
  with university

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• For further information, contactNetSpot
  Allan Christie (allan_at_netspot.com.au)
• James Strong (james_at_netspot.com.au)