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JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Project Document Cover Sheet
Project Information
Project Acronym
PIPaL
Project Title
Process Improvement Pilot at Loughborough
Start Date
29 June 2009
Lead Institution
Loughborough University
Project Director
Jon Walker, Director of External Affairs
Project Manager &
contact details
Sally Brown
Head of Corporate Systems, IT Services, Loughborough
University, Loughborough, Leics. LE11 3TU
S.A.Brown@lboro.ac.uk 01509 226012(W)
Partner Institutions
n/a
Project Web URL
http://jiscpipal.wordpress.com/
Programme Name
(and number)
Business and Community Engagement (BCE) Programme:
Customer Relationship Management: Process Improvement
Pilot Projects
Programme
Manager
Simon Whittemore
End Date
30 April 2010
Document Name
Document Title
Final Report
Reporting Period
Author(s) & project
role
Martin Hamilton, Analyst
Sally Brown, Project Manager
Date
19/03/10
Filename
URL
Access
X Project and JISC internal
General dissemination
Document History
Version
Date
Comments
1.0
19/03/10
Final report – draft submitted to JISC
1.1
26/04/10
Updated based on stakeholder feedback
1
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Table of Contents
PROJECT DOCUMENT COVER SHEET
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4 1. BACKGROUND
5 2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
7 3. METHODOLOGY
8 4. IMPLEMENTATION
9 5. OUTPUTS AND RESULTS
13 6. OUTCOMES
14 7. CONCLUSIONS
15 8. RECOMMENDATIONS
17 BIBLIOGRAPHY
19 APPENDIX 1 – STAKEHOLDER GROUP
20 APPENDIX 2 – PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS
21 APPENDIX 3 – EVENTS ATTENDED
22 2
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Acknowledgements
Process Improvement Pilot at Loughborough (PIPaL) was funded under the
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Business and Community
Engagement programme. The project ran from June 2009 to April 2010.
Our stakeholders and their nominees provided the raw material for this study.
We are indebted to them for sparing us the time to discuss their work, and for
their contributions to the feedback that we have provided in this report on the
JISC Self-Analysis templates. We are particularly grateful to Phill Dickens,
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Enterprise); Jon Walker, Director of External Affairs; Ian
Cairns, Director of Marketing & Communications; Hannah Baldwin, Head of
Public Relations; Jim Overend, Head of Alumni Relations; Kathryn Walsh,
Director of Business Partnerships; Chris Garrod, Assistant Registrar
(Graduation); Julie Taylor, Consultancy Manager and Richard Barber,
Information Officer for Development and Alumni Relations.
We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by our JISC Programme
Manager Simon Whittemore and the Relationship Management Support and
Synthesis (RMSAS) team at the University of Bolton. Sharon Perry and Paul
Hollins in particular worked above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that
projects in the programme kept in touch with each other both directly via face
to face meetings and Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and Twitter.
3
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Executive Summary
The PIPaL project piloted the JISC Self-Analysis Framework for Relationship
Management with a group of external facing units at Loughborough
University. It assessed institutional maturity and possible next steps towards
an institutional Relationship Management system. The project concluded that
the institution as a whole had an Operational maturity, moving to Tactical in
certain key areas such as Development and Alumni Relations.
A number of observations relating to the Self-Analysis Framework are made
in this report – notably that it may be difficult to reduce key processes to a
flowchart process map format, and that there is a danger of alienating
colleagues working in education through excessive use of business jargon.
We also make a number of suggestions for further development of the
Framework, and further work by JISC. These include investigating the role of
Government in addition to the Student and Business, the role of Shared
Service contact databases with multiple contributors, and the potential of a
Linked Data approach to creating a “University API” – or at least identifying a
common set of vocabularies across the sector to facilitate data interchange.
4
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 1. Background
The PIPaL project at Loughborough was funded under the 2009 JISC call for
Relationship Management proposals. It is one of 20 projects investigating
various aspects of business and community engagement and the “student
lifecycle”. An earlier phase of this programme had developed the JISC SelfAnalysis Framework for Relationship Management.
This project was
chartered to pilot the Self-Analysis Framework with a group of key
stakeholders in external facing departments.
Loughborough is renowned for the quality of its support for students and the
learning experience. The institution has recently achieved the twin accolades
of being awarded the Times Higher Education Supplement’s Best Student
Experience award for the fourth successive year, and the Sunday Times
University of the Year. These achievements are a testament to the hard work
of staff and students at Loughborough of which all at the institution are justly
proud.
Loughborough is also a leading research intensive institution, with strong
performance in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. It is renowned for
its close ties to industry. A large proportion of students undertake industrial
placements as part of their courses. On a recent visit to Loughborough
Gordon Brown stated that: “No other example of links between industry and
universities is so strong.”
Loughborough has had a particularly good relationship with companies such
as Rolls Royce, BAe Systems and Ford, with each of these firms making
significant investment in facilities for collaborative work with the University on
the Loughborough campus – e.g. the £60m BAe funded Systems Engineering
Innovation Centre. The University campus was also recently selected as the
headquarters
for
the
£1bn
Energy
Technologies
Institute,
bringing
5
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Loughborough researchers together with their counterparts from BP, Shell,
EDF, e-on and others.
Loughborough makes targeted use of Relationship Management technology
at present, notably via the Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity products from
Blackbaud. An emergent institutional Relationship Management strategy is
being informed by discussions with our peers in the Higher Education sector an ongoing dialogue of which this project is an important part.
It should be noted that this is not an implementation project, and a key
outcome of the project was to advise the institution on next steps and a way
forward, based on an analysis of the results of applying the JISC framework.
6
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 2. Aims and Objectives
From the project proposal and plan, it was agreed that:
-
PIPaL will apply the JISC Self-Analysis Framework for Business &
Community
Engagement
and
Relationship
Management
at
Loughborough University.
-
It will report back on the success of the Self-Analysis Framework
approach and make recommendations for enhancements to the
framework where these would be advantageous.
-
The project will also consider alternatives based on “data mining”
technology such as the Google Search Appliance.
-
The project’s key deliverable will be a case study (this report)
summarising the results of piloting the Self-Analysis Framework.
The project has been able to successfully execute these objectives, produce
the high level view of Relationship Management at Loughborough and how it
might develop, and provide feedback on the JISC Self-Analysis Framework.
A number of areas for further work have been identified and may be the
subject of future project proposals.
7
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 3. Methodology
The project employed a range of approaches to piloting the JISC SelfAnalysis Framework and gathering feedback on it. These included one-toone interviews with stakeholders and stakeholder workshop consultation.
IBIX5 Consulting, experts on Relationship Management systems and their
application in Higher Education, acted as external facilitators.
Andrea
Addison from IBIX5 is a co-author of the Case Study.
In the early stages of the project we explored using the templates from the
Self-Analysis Framework directly with our stakeholders.
We found that a
more conversational approach provided the best results, and hence did not
take this further. However, several of our peers in the JISC programme used
the questionnaire format to undertake large scale surveys of their staff and
students.
Our interviews did not follow a strictly prescribed format, and we encouraged
the interviewee to take the initiative. This is an area that our stakeholders
already have a great deal of interest in taking forward, and several members
of the group already had experience of using Relationship Management
software and systems.
One of our stakeholders had led an institutional
Relationship Management implementation at another Higher Education
institution.
The project made use of staff from the University’s IT Services department
working as analysts. One staff member already had significant experience of
“Customer Relationship Management” in a commercial context. However, this
was a small scale project with minimal dedicated staff resources. Thus the
role of the stakeholders and their nominees was crucial, and we were gratified
by the level of interest shown.
8
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 4. Implementation
We conducted one-to-one interviews with stakeholders from the external
facing departments being profiled for this study. The diagram below provides
a stylised interpretation of the activities of these units based on the interview
feedback:
The interference is that each unit operates in a “silo” of its own and little or no
information is shared between them. In practice this is not the case, and
several of the units have recently been collaborating on a pilot exploring the
use of the Raiser’s Edge system on a large scale beyond the Development
and Alumni Relations (DARO) office.
An initial outcome of this was the
recognition that the current version of this software does not provide sufficient
granularity of access control to be appropriate as an institutional Relationship
Management system. It does appear, however to be useful to extend its use
under controlled conditions – e.g. from DARO to the Vice Chancellor’s Office.
A number of IT systems were in use typically for highly specialised purposes,
e.g. the RACE-2 system used to cost research proposals, and myIP to
manage the University’s portfolio of Intellectual Property, patents etc. The
Enterprise Office used an externally hosted relationship management system
9
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report (RIBSYS) shared with other organizations under the auspices of emda, the
East Midlands Development Agency.
Loughborough was unusual in having chosen to implement its own Student
Information System, whereas most institutions had bought and tailored an offthe-shelf commercial package.
This presented both opportunities and
challenges. By contrast Loughborough had used off-the-shelf software for
most other key corporate systems, including the popular open source Moodle
software for its “Learn” Virtual Learning Environment and the Google Apps
cloud computing suite for communication and collaboration.
The HEFCE funded Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning (EngCETL) has developed a range of tools for use by Academics in
managing their relationship with their students from a pedagogical
perspective. These facilities range from attendance monitoring to assistance
with managing personal tutees and industrial placements. Key pieces of this
toolkit are Web-PA, an on-line peer assessment system which allows students
to assess their own performance and also that of their team in a groupwork
context, and Co-Tutor, a fully fledged Student and Staff Relationship
Management System.
Of course we also found numerous examples of data held on spreadsheets,
Access databases and other mechanisms that fall short of formal IT systems
– which was only to be expected. Of the systems described above, Co-Tutor
and Web-PA are of particular interest as unique products built from scratch to
the requirements of Loughborough Academics. RIBSYS is also significant as
an example of a Shared Service used by multiple organizations.
In stimulating discussion with our stakeholder group we used the high level
matrix diagram shown below. This condenses what we felt were the key
elements of several of the JISC Self-Analysis Framework templates.
Our
stakeholders found this much more approachable than the templates, which
are perhaps best used “behind the scenes” as a tool for business analysts.
10
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Subject Area
Current position
Where do we
How can we move
want to be?
forward?
Range of BCE
services/partner types
& groups covered
Partners inwards view/
creating customer
value
Functional &
University
wants/needs/benefits
Functional &
University
weaknesses/issues
Data
duplication/unified
partner view
Efficiency/performance
Management
Information & KPIs
Security & Ownership
Also consider:
Key Drivers for change
Readiness for change
Timescales
PRM SMART measures of success
Recap HEI-centric or Partner-centric
With only minor modifications to use more accessible language we believe
that this matrix approach is one that could be used across an organization
11
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report with staff working at all levels to develop a common view at both operational
and strategic levels.
A simple model for a largely unified database of partner information to support
the various units and sections is presented below. We have shown Raiser’s
Edge continuing as a discrete product, with interfaces to ensure two way data
flow where relevant.
We anticipate that some of the special purpose
institutional systems touched on in this report (such as myIP and RACE-2)
would continue in their present form, but with interfaces wherever feasible to
reduce duplication of data and improve information sharing.
12
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 5. Outputs and Results
Deliverables from the project are structured around the JISC Core Project
Documentation Set:
•
Project Plan
•
Project web page for JISC website
•
Project website
•
Progress Reports
•
Technical and supporting documentation
•
Final Report and Completion Report
•
Case study incorporating results from interviews, self-analysis
templates and stakeholder workshops
•
Intangibles such as improved knowledge transfer and business
processes and opportunities for “quick wins” within existing systems
and processes
At the time of writing all of the above had been completed with the exception
of the Completion Report, which will follow on from this Final Report.
13
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 6. Outcomes
In our proposal and project plan we stated the following intended outcomes:
•
To have achieved wide engagement in the process of analysing the
range of systems used for managing external contacts
•
To have charted a possible multi-year process for migrating from a
mixed peripheral/tactical environment to predominantly tactical
provision, with first ideas of how a move to strategic might be achieved
in the future
•
Case study on the JISC Self-Analysis Framework developed for the
benefit of the JISC community
We also committed to make recommendations for enhancements to the SelfAnalysis Framework where these would be advantageous.
The project also considered alternative approaches such as “data mining”
technology including the Google Search Appliance, and the potential of a
Linked Data approach to joining up key institutional systems.
We believe that all of these aims have been achieved.
Our work is
summarised in the project’s key deliverable – the Case Study summarising
the results of piloting the Self-Analysis Framework at Loughborough.
14
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 7. Conclusions
Our stakeholder group identified the following key points:
•
Academics are the key to new partner relationships but the pressure of
their roles leaves little time for on-going relationship development or
account management
•
The University is very effective in developing specifically targeted
relationships
•
For research and consultancy it is the academic who is contacted in an
estimated 95% of enquiries
•
In what is a competitive situation a more consistent and simple contact
procedure would improve the partner experience
•
Information and the relationship is retained by the academic with
further and duplicate information built up in other departmental touch
points
•
Enterprise could help with these opportunities if they were aware of
them and involved at the right stage
•
Existing partners represent a pipeline of prospects/ opportunities that
are not currently exploited
•
Enterprise may be able to leverage new research contacts and
opportunities
•
Major companies often need/want a wide range of services. The
combined relationship value of Enterprise and Academics is more
powerful and could be successfully deployed if Enterprise had an
greater awareness of current partners and their existing relationships
with for example Academics
The group concluded that it was necessary to conduct a feasibility study
profiling the extent of the University’s involvement with key partners from
15
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report several groups including the private sector, central government, charities /
non-governmental organizations and other educational institutions.
The results of the feasibility study will be used to inform a decision as to
whether to request funding for a full scale relationship management system.
They will also help to clarify what the scope of such a system should be, i.e.
University-wide, or for the use primarily of external facing units.
16
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report 8. Recommendations
Our stakeholders saw the introduction of an IT system in support of
Relationship Management as a secondary activity, contingent on us
developing a fuller understanding of our own processes. The consensus view
at a recent stakeholder workshop was that we should begin by profiling the
extent of our involvement with a small number of key partners, across the
spectrum of organizations that the University is involved with. There was a
feeling that an overly mechanistic approach as exemplified by process
mapping may fail to capture key requirements – in a sector which is
characterized by flux and mutability.
There was clear consensus that a Relationship Management programme can
only be successful given effective business processes, committed people and
supporting technology. The scale of the effort involved at an institution could
vary drastically depending on the scope of the project – e.g. a system for use
only by external facing units, versus a system or systems for crossinstitutional use. Some consideration should be given to institutions taking a
dual-path approach, with separate (but integrated) Relationship Management
systems targeting particular business areas.
Loughborough is not unique in having one-of-a-kind systems such as Web-PA
and Co-Tutor, and indeed following a successful JISC project the Web-PA
software is now open source and in widespread use in the Higher Education
community. Relationship Management may prove to be one of the areas
where an organization can obtain a genuine advantage by developing
something that reflects back those characteristics that make it unique.
The role of the Linked Data initiative in unlocking information and putting it to
good use has set an excellent precedent.
Organizations should be
considering how they may apply the Linked Data principles internally to create
a low impact “University API” that permits the mashing up of key data to
17
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report facilitate the generation of Key Performance Indicators, and visualizations of
the sort shown in this report. JISC should find ways to encourage this, and
work to help the community to find a common vocabulary of identifiers.
The JISC Self-Analysis Framework makes the assumption that data is either
held in departmental silos, or in a shared central institution database. The
RIBSYS service shows us that there is another model involving Shared
Services that has its own complexities and considerations.
The Self-Analysis Framework overstates the elements of Relationship
Management relating to “Customers” and generally uses business jargon
perhaps a little too freely for an Academic audience. This should be corrected
in a future revision. It would also be desirable for the Framework to consider
the role of Government bodies in partnerships – the tacit assumption is that
these take place primarily with students and businesses.
18
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Bibliography
JISC Self-Analysis Framework:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/gradschool/documents/crm/
JISC PIPaL project blog:
http://jiscpipal.wordpress.com
Loughborough University Strategic Plan:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/policy/strategic_plan.pdf
KSA Partnership CRM Study Final Report:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/bce/crmstudyfinalreport20070817.pdf
JISC Legal, Business and Community Engagement Study:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/bce/pubfundinfra.pdf
19
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 1 – Stakeholder Group
Stakeholder
Interest / stake
Importance
Jon Walker
Director of External Affairs, Vice-
High
Chancellor’s Office.
Phill Dickens
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Enterprise).
High
Kathryn Walsh
Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor
Medium
(Enterprise) and Director of Business
Partnerships
Julie Taylor
Consultancy Manager, Enterprise Office
Medium
/ Loughborough University Enterprises
Limited
Ian Cairns
Director of Marketing and
High
Communications.
Hannah Baldwin
Head of Public Relations
Medium
Ron Gray
Director of Development and Alumni.
High
Jim Overend
Head of Alumni Relations
High
Phil Richards
Director of IT
High
Richard Barber
Information Officer, Development and
Medium
Alumni Relations Office. Manager of
the Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity
systems at Loughborough
Chris Garrod
Assistant Registrar, Academic Registry
Medium
20
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 2 – Project team members
Sally Brown, Head of Corporate Systems (Project Manager)
Sally has been responsible for a number of large business analysis and change
management projects at Loughborough University. Current examples include the
acquisition and implementation of a corporate Web Content Management system,
the introduction of ePayment facilities for a wide range of goods and services,
implementation of a number of projects in the area of research planning and
publications as part of a longer-term Research Portal strategy, and a large scale
upgrade of the HR system including the introduction of major new business
processes.
Anjana Lad (Analyst)
Anjana has worked at Loughborough University as a Systems Analyst for several
years. Major areas of work have included Computer Aided Assessment, where she
managed a significant upgrade project, and acquisition of a Web Content
Management system.
Prior to this, Anjana
worked for 5 years as a Business
Systems Analyst specialising in Customer Relationship Management in a global
Electronic Retail company. She worked on the whole project lifecycle, from
identification of the need for CRM through to implementation and support. Her
experience in this area will be invaluable to the project.
Martin Hamilton, Head of Internet Services (Analyst)
Martin has worked in the Internet industry for some 15 years, in a wide range of roles
ranging from protocol design and software development to account management and
large scale project management. Martin has significant experience of Business and
Community Engagement, having negotiated deals generating some £500K per
annum in income from provision of Internet services to internal and external
customers. Martin also has ten years experience as a digital libraries researcher and
was recently made a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society in recognition
of his pioneering work on Internet technologies.
21
JISC PIPaL Project, Final Report Appendix 3 – Events Attended
Business and Community Engagement programme meeting, Aston University, July
2009
Rapid Innovation Workshop, Manchester, September 2009
CETIS Conference, Aston University, November 2009
Relationship Management Support & Synthesis Modelling Workshop, Aston
University, December 2009
Embedding Business and Community Engagement workshop, Aston University,
December 2009
Business and Community Engagement programme meeting, York St John
University, March 2010
22