ICT Strategy News (Issue Five)

Oxford University ICT

ICT Strategy News (Issue Five)

Table of contents

1. Halfway There!
2. Priorities
3. Future Meetings
4. Membership Update
5. Steering Group
- 5.1. Progress
- 5.2. 'Straw man' strategy
- 5.3. Next meeting
6. Learning from others
7. Gartner ECE Models
8. ICT Seminar Series
9. Presentation to ITSS
10. Further Information

1. Halfway There!

We are now halfway through the ICT Strategy Programme with the final Steering Group meeting on 11 April 2006 looming ever closer.

Work Tasks members are working hard, consulting and producing reports which are appearing on the website as soon as they are complete. Much remains to be done over the next four months.

On the suggestion of Professor Mike Giles (Comlab) a ‘straw man’ ICT Strategy will be published in January. Its rationale is to provide a focus for consultation and to test proposals emerging from the Work Tasks. The ‘straw man’, being developed by Work Task J, will propose a structure for the final report and, under each heading, draw recommendations and models together with a request for comment. The ‘straw man’ is intended as an evolving document which will enable a high-quality improved final report to be produced (for further consultation) hopefully with no surprises.

The ICT Strategy programme takes communication and consultation extremely seriously. It has, to date, reported to around 15 distinct groups, including divisional heads and IT user groups. Consultations continue through Work Tasks B and D. Another form of communication will be a series of informal seminars next term to raise awareness about new ICT initiatives within the University. More on this later in this newsletter.

I have been impressed by the level of engagement in this programme by University members, especially academics and IT Support Staff. I believe we shall produce an excellent ICT Strategy that will help to maintain our place as a world-leading University well into the future.

Paul Jeffreys

Acting ICT Director

2. Priorities

Current WT priorities include:

Identify major ICT investments over the next five years (Work Task H)
Establish requirements through consultations across collegiate University (Work Task D)
Develop initial straw-man Strategic Plan to encourage discussion on Strategy (Work Task J)
Develop five-year ICT Financial Model for Collegiate University (Work Task I)

3. Future Meetings

Meetings of the ICT Strategy Steering Group will take place at the Saïd Business School, at 2pm:

Wednesday 8 February 2006
Tuesday 11 April 2006

4. Membership Update

The Conference of Colleges has nominated two College IT Managers, Mr John Ireland (Jesus, Secretary of the College IT Officers' Forum) and Mr Jonathan Marks (Exeter), as additional representatives on the Steering Committee in addition to the Master of St Peter's.

5. Steering Group

The ICT Strategy Steering Group (ICT-SSG) met on 25 Nov 2005 at the Saïd Business School. Three substantive items were discussed: a report of overall progress; an update from selected WTs; and an item relating to communications. The agenda and minutes are available on the ICT Strategy website. Highlights from the minutes include:

5.1. Progress

- The focus of the Work Tasks (WT) had shifted from establishment to delivery; a link had been made, principally via WTG F, with the ECE consultants, whose work was well under way; the University at large was becoming increasingly engaged, in particular through the efforts of WT B; and the project was proceeding broadly in line with the timetable but without stifling discussion at the WTs and elsewhere.

5.2. 'Straw man' strategy

- The paper from Professor Giles offered some useful thoughts on the development of a ‘straw man’ strategy. It was important to convey the message that day-to-day IT support would continue to be provided locally.
- It was suggested that the slogan ‘globally-agreed standards implemented locally’ should include reference to ‘central co-ordination’ and ‘open’ standards; alternatively, it was suggested that the slogan risked overlooking the federated nature of the University and the need to be user-driven.

5.3. Next meeting

All WTs (except J) should aim to complete their activities by the time of the next meeting.

The 'straw man' policy would need to show how principles could be translated into practice.

6. Learning from others

Work Task G is organising a workshop which will bring together ICT directors and CIOs from Chicago, Manchester and Warwick to share their institutional experience of ICT governance and strategic planning. The morning session will comprise presentations open to all members of the ICT-SSG whilst the afternoon will be a round-table discussion focusing on Oxford's requirements.

The workshop will be held on 25 January 2006 at St Catherine's College. Please visit the website at: http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/strategy/events

to register for this and other ICT Strategy Programme events (Available for booking from 13 December 2005).

7. Gartner ECE Models

Gartner, who are undertaking the consultancy for the Enhanced Computing Environment (ECE) Project, will present their findings and a series of 'architecture' options for the ECE at an event to be held on 30 January 2006 (afternoon). The presentation is aimed primarily at members of the ICT-SSG and staff within the participating units. Other interested parties are also welcome to attend. Spaces are limited so registration will be required. Please email ict@ox.ac.uk.

8. ICT Seminar Series

A series of lunchtime presentations is being organised under the aegis of the ICT Strategy Programme to highlight new or forthcoming ICT services which will have an impact across the wider University. The programme is yet to be finalised but will include presentations on:

Oxford Wireless Lan (OWL) and the FroDo Project
OxGrid: the Oxford campus grid
The Research Discovery Service Project
Managing Research in Oxford (Matrix)

Presentations will take place every Wednesday at 1230-1330, at OUCS (Lecture Room 1) from 18 January to 8 March 2006.

9. Presentation to ITSS

A large consultation meeting about the ICT Strategy Programme was held at the Computing Laboratory at the request of the IT Support Staff Group on 5 December 2005. Over 100 IT Support Staff attended to hear about and discuss the ICT Strategy programme. The morning included an update by Lou Burnard on the development of the Enhanced Computing Environment (ECE) Project.

The presentation, given by Paul Jeffreys, commenced with a request to the audience to indicate what should be changed about the current ICT structures. Responses included:

Developing an over-arching context for communication in which common ICT efforts can be co-ordinated.
Defining what areas of IT provision are best centrally provided and which best handled by individual units.
Gaining a clearer idea about how users with multiple roles interact with IT to help ensure a joined-up approach to IT provision.
Delivering a greater degree of information about the scale of and investment in ICT within the collegiate University.
Making available a knowledge base to assist IT support staff undertaking common procedures or solving common problems.

Later in the presentation, IT support staff were given an opportunity to ask questions and to suggest areas of priority on which the ICT Strategy should focus. Comments included:

The resulting ICT structure should enable the development of key performance indicators or equivalent to measure improvements to ICT provision.
The ICT Strategy encompasses the collegiate University and it is important to ensure what belongs to the 'colleges' and what belongs to the 'centre' is properly defined.
The ICT Strategy needs to integrate with other activities underpinned by ICT, including any emerging information strategy.
Consider formalising the role of the IT Support Staff Group with terms of reference, reporting lines and a budget.
Encourage local growth of an IT support staff structure to enable resilience and the potential for support staff to contribute effort to local and central initiatives.
Communications might be improved by encouraging IT support staff to attend each others' IT committees.

Members of the audience were encouraged to provide feedback to the ITSS representatives on the Steering Group for compilation into a submission to the strategy process from the IT Support Staff community.

Both presentations are available via the notes linked from the events page at: http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/strategy/events

10. Further Information

For all correspondence regarding the ICT Strategy Programme including this newsletter please email ict@ox.ac.uk.

The ICT Strategy Programme website is at:

http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/strategy/.

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