Information Services The JCPSG case study BUFDG Full Economic Costing Seminars December 2004 / January 2005

BUFDG - fEC Seminars1 The project Development of a methodology for the treatment of Information Services costs within the Transparency Review –Project leader – Annette Haworth, Director of Information Services –Project officer – Roger Jones

BUFDG - fEC Seminars2 Approach to the study Analysis of centrally provided IS resources to identify usage patterns Total University IS resources and demand – include data from finance, facilities, HR and student services Develop allocation model(s) Assess implications & lessons for Reading

BUFDG - fEC Seminars3 Reading - Background Study based on 2002/03 data Schools - 23 in 4 Faculties Students- 11,400 FTE Academic Staff - 1,560 FTE (1,284 in Schools) Three sites in Reading with two main campuses Information Services (IS) at Reading include: - IT Services (ITS) - Library - Museums & Collections Services IS - total cost £8.9M (= 6.4% of total income) FTE (all grades)

BUFDG - fEC Seminars4 IS usage pattern School average usage per FTE student ranges widely  considerable imbalance Imbalance in availability and resources partly due to: - School/department location - Student profile (self funding; FT v PT; mix of UG, PGT, PGR) - Predominately “9-5 culture” Enabled identification of some important IS issues facing the University and its Schools

BUFDG - fEC Seminars5 Relative use of services by user type Service UGPGTPGRStaff Library: Library lending Use of e-sources ITS: s sent/received Web use server storage Home directory storage PC laboratory usage

BUFDG - fEC Seminars6 Relative IS usage by School

BUFDG - fEC Seminars7 Total University IS resource Need to understand total University resources devoted to IS, not only the ISD (Directorate) spend Considerable (but highly variable) proportion of resourcing is from School funds Analysed ‘central’ data prior to meeting with Schools

BUFDG - fEC Seminars8 Example of School summary information

BUFDG - fEC Seminars9 Development of costing models Models not directly tied to management structure: - PC labs treated separately from other ITS costs - E-source costs of library service modelled with general IT costs - Library archives & special collections included with museums 4 models – 1 for each group of services: - PC labs - General IT services (incl. e-sources) - General library service (excl. e-sources) - Museums, archives & special collections

BUFDG - fEC Seminars10 The models Alternative models considered for each – 14 for library and 12 for ITS costs Target – to match allocations to usage Allocations based on staff & student FTEs Adjusted for some elements of direct spend by Schools Constructed to enable cost of IS for staff, taught and research students for each School to be identified

BUFDG - fEC Seminars11 ITS cost models Weightings for general ITS (incl. e-sources): - UG = 1 - allocated to teaching - PGT = 3 - allocated to teaching - PGR = 8 - allocated to research - Academic staff = 11 - allocation to T, R & O based on time analysis and Schools weighted by HEFCE multiple Weighting for PC labs: - UG = 1 - allocated to teaching - PGT = allocated to teaching - PGR = 1 - allocated to research

BUFDG - fEC Seminars12 Library cost model Actual Library allotment to Schools for books (T) and journals (R) allocated direct to Schools Weightings for library (excl e-sources): - UG = 1 - allocated to teaching - PGT = allocated to teaching - PGR = allocated to research - Academic staff = allocation to T, R & O based on time analysis Low staff weighting reflects declining use of physical resource, increasing use of e-sources

BUFDG - fEC Seminars13 Allocation of museums, archives & special collections costs About 10 per cent of usage is by members of the University Analysis of usage data, combined with managers knowledge, used to allocate costs to Schools and apportion between Teaching and Research 90 per cent of costs allocated to “Other”

BUFDG - fEC Seminars14 Matching usage to cost allocations

BUFDG - fEC Seminars15 Impact of new model Change in allocation to Faculties Teaching Research Arts & Humanities-20%+15% Economic & Social Sciences-6%-3% Life Sciences-6%+17% Science-5%+38% TOTAL -10%+20% Varies from School to School within Faculties Comparison of existing & new models ExistingNew Teaching64%58% Research25%30% Other11%12%

BUFDG - fEC Seminars16 Benefits of the study Analysis identified total resource devoted to provision of IS in the University – c£12m+ v. £8.9m for transparency Has influenced allocation of resources in 2004/05 budget exercise Identified issues to be addressed in developing IS in the University –Also compared performance with other HEIs through use of SCONUL and UCISA survey data Derived detailed IS costs per FTE by School – can be used for costing research projects

BUFDG - fEC Seminars17 Average FTE costs by user type

BUFDG - fEC Seminars18 FTE research cost index by School

BUFDG - fEC Seminars19 The Future Project helped to give a better understanding of IS provision and use in the University Future planning being aided by project findings Input into 3 year planning and budget cycle Will need to re-validate the weightings at intervals Systems needed to improve collection of usage data

Information Services The JCPSG case study BUFDG Full Economic Costing Seminars December 2004 / January 2005