Presentation of the IT StrategyStephen Hunter, Director of IT Transformation

11th December 2014

Presentation Overview

• Purpose of our IT strategy

• Who designed our IT strategy?

• Why did we produce our IT strategy?

• What will implementing our IT strategy mean?

• Why fix what hasn’t been broken?

• What are the guiding principles?

• How will our IT services be delivered?

• How will our management decisions be informed?

• How will our department need to change?

• How will our infrastructure support our services?

• When will this happen?

• Questions and answers

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Purpose of our IT strategy

• Ensures relationship between investment decisions and City University London’s business strategy

• Ensures the work we ALL do helps the University achieve its goals and objectives

• Provides direction and helps clarify activities which genuinely add direct value to education and research

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Who designed our IT strategy?

Authors:

Paul Haley, Chief Information Officer

Steve Hunter, Director of IT Transformation

Key Contributors:

Istvan Boha, Head of IT Support Services

Louise Doolan, Director of Library Services

Mike Freeman, Director of IT Service

Kristen Goodrich, Head of IT Business Relationship Management

Eric McIntosh, Deputy Chief Technical Officer

Ian McKetty, Chief Technical Officer

Claire Priestley, Director of Business Management

Kevin Russell, Project Director

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Why did we produce the IT strategy?

To set the framework and guiding principles to:

• enable the University Strategic Plan which has and continues to change our focus and priorities for improving education and research

• remain competitive given the increasingly challenging and global nature of the High Education landscape

• fully professionalise our service as the bedrock for supporting the University’s strategic objectives

• continually review service demands and our capacity to deliver

• benefit from the trends across the sector for using technologies to extend the reach of HE, to personalise education and to engender collaboration

• benefit from emerging technology innovations, such as cloud sourcing which challenge conventional methods of service delivery

• respond to pressures requiring Professional Service departments to do more with less

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What will implementing our strategy mean?

We have already addressed:

• IT Governance

• Stakeholder Engagement

We have started to address:• Our services

• The way we market them• The methods of delivery• The service quality and performance

• Our staffing organisation• The structure• The roles and responsibilities• The skills and capabilities

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Why fix what isn’t broken?

We have achieved a lot over the last 3 years:• Stabilised and significantly improved the

infrastructure

• Implemented Office365

• Significantly enhanced services

• Reduced operational overheads by £1.4m

• Innovated with Optometry, TV Studios

• Spectacular NSS scores

• Positive feedback at all levels

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Why fix what isn’t broken?

However, to ensure things remain fixed we need to:

• Embed a culture of continual service improvement

• Ensure IS continue to deliver and are agile to changing demands

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What are the guiding principles?

Refocus efforts from operational commodity IT to strategic value-adding IT, examples are:

• TV and Radio Studios for Journalism

• Spectacle Dispensing Clinic in Optometry

• TeleHealth

• High Performance Computing

• Office365

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What are the guiding principles?

Release our resources by:• reducing complexity in our technological

infrastructure• implementing a homogeneous “core” of

enterprise systems• support standardised business processes

with “sector average” investment.

This enables:• the support of a heterogeneous “edge”• access to our services from a wide range

of end user devices.

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What are the guiding principles?

• Fully exploit our investment in the existing infrastructure and applications

• “Buy” rather than “build” wherever practically possible and exploit the functionality of our packaged applications

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What are the guiding principles?

Implement a Sourcing Strategy using 3rd parties, where value can be demonstrated for:

• Educational and Research excellence• Cost of service delivery• Quality of service delivery• Availability of resources• System reliability• Business continuity• Security• Functionality• Flexibility

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How will IT services be delivered?

• Unambiguously

• On demand

• Ubiquitously

• Consistently

• Customer driven

• Securely

• Inconspicuously

• Innovatively

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What are the guidelines which will inform management decisions?Emphasis on:

• Customer focus

• Best Value

• Mainstream products

• Simplicity

• Practicality

• Innovation

• Electronic Alliances

• Competitive awareness

Avoid:

• Vendor dependence

• Staff dependence

• Obsolescence

• Lockout

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How will our department need to change?

End User

Support

Application Management,

Development, Maintenance

Testing &

Quality Assurance

Data Centre &

Network Operations

Telecommunications &

Network Infrastructure

ICT Strategy

& Innovation

Business Relationship

Management

Service Improvement,

Business Analytics

Portfolio, Project

Planning & Delivery

Service Management

Infrastructure Management

Core IT Capabilities

Major enablers of strategy and innovationCompetitive Differentiation

Non-Core IT

CapabilitiesNot a differentiator

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Potentially more3rd Party Support

Potentially moreIn-house focus

How will our infrastructure support our services?

“Sector Leading” technologies to support Education and Research

• Moodle

• Office365 including SharePoint

• Audio Visual

Learning environment compatible with the modern world of personalisation, ubiquity and self service

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How will our infrastructure support our services?

Supporting Research through:• City Research Online digital

repository

• High performance computing

• Long term digital preservation

• Technical support and advice for our researchers

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When will this happen?

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Our transformation is already underway and has been since 2012:

• Data Centre migration• Office365 implementation• PSR – new IS Directorate, BRMs, Management

Structure

Currently in progress are:• Website hosting• SAP migration to VMware• Managed Print Service

Each Director will discuss the complete transformation schedule with you.

Questions and answers

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• Purpose of our IT strategy• Who designed our IT strategy?• Why did we produce our IT strategy?• What will implementing our IT strategy mean?• Why fix what hasn’t been broken?• What are the guiding principles?• How will our IT services be delivered?• How will our management decisions be informed?• How will our department need to change?• How will our infrastructure support our services?• When will this happen?