University of Birmingham PEPC 2003 Birds of a Feather Session UoB Portal Project David R Supple University of Birmingham Starting Line Strategies

University of Birmingham Birds of a Feather Session Overview Look at some of the work UoB focused on as prerequisites to its Portal strategy Look at some of UoB’s key internal and external drivers Examine some common technology drivers Examine common University content structures Look at some of the benefits of Portal delivery How we justified the project Data integration Process engineering How we costed the project – tech and HR Examine our planning and implementation structures and timetable

University of Birmingham Birmingham’s Path of Prerequisites Web Strategy Content Strategy Portal Strategy

University of Birmingham Key Strategic Prerequisites to Avoid Failure 20-30% of portals fail predominantly due to “empty portal” syndrome: source Gartner 2003 Emptiness also extends to relevance: irrelevant content may as well not exist Relevance requires engagement of all aspects of University life If you have no relevant web relationships, why will you have relevant portal relationships?

University of Birmingham UoB Web Strategy: Gaining the high ground. Strategies to take control Birmingham’s External Strategic Web Review c1999: –Developing the product –Developing the service –“Selling the solution” –Developing an edge to edge strategy for web –Taking leadership –Balancing user focus with provider driven technology –Developing best of breed “Ally” sites –Developing a community –Leveraging legal and commercial issues to tackle difficult “sales”

University of Birmingham Levelling the ground: Content Strategy Stop playing “catch-up” Develop strategies that tame the big picture: Birmingham’s Web Enabled Campus Vision Understand common needs in content generation areas Lack of time Lack of funding Ease of technology rather than content focus Develop your strategies around content value Prioritize and protect your key content assets Integrate content focused training into all your technical training.

University of Birmingham Rebuilding the ground: Portal Strategy Taking the content further – developing more relationships with content creators and consumers A focus on business process review, making the business an e-business from the ground up Data simplification not just integration Technologies to remove data noise through personalised environments Integrated e-learning environment to deliver MLE

University of Birmingham MLE – JISC Definition

University of Birmingham Key External Drivers for Portal Increased competition within HEI sector Increase in University enterprise activity Changes in student profiles – time and geographical access Increased focus on accessibility Portals to be offered by many if not most HEI’s Enterprise vendorware will provide web front ends Portal interoperability drivers – interaction with key external agencies through Portal

University of Birmingham Key Internal Drivers for Portal Increasing academic time and workload burden Research Teaching and Learning Marketing Quality Assurance Commercial context Administrative efficiency gains

University of Birmingham Technology Drivers for Portal Development

University of Birmingham Portal Information Structure Development

University of Birmingham Portal Module Architecture

University of Birmingham CMS as a Strategic Content Driver

University of Birmingham Many Benefits of Portal Teaching and Learning and Administration: –A single location to register for courses, view and choose modules –A single location to access course material round the clock –Consolidated financial relationship –Added value online information to help tutors –Improved access to interact with student data –Facility to integrate custom school data requirements into portal –Building community and relationships with students and other users Currently 40 planned portal services for students and staff including WebCT as the VLE

University of Birmingham Portal: Content Management key to Personalised Delivery Provision of personalised content streams is a cornerstone of Portal technology – build relevance to users But not at the expense of increasing: Costs per digital asset Administrative burden Academic Burden Data barricades You must tackle the demons of managing: Content ownership Content Classification

University of Birmingham Justifying the change: engagement, savings and promises

University of Birmingham Indirect Justifications: non financial Service, Service, Service: Customer Expectations Ability to re-task data Ability to develop data relationships with 3 rd parties: HEFCE? HESA? Research Councils? Regional Agencies? UCAS? Service, Service, Service: Customer Expectations

University of Birmingham IRR Calculations: Justifying the solution UoB Lifecycle costing approach –Focus on 3 key administrative services Module registration savings Student record management savings Student Timetabling –and content publication: 500+ content authors 300+ web servers Reduction in software Capitalisation of multi-use assets IRR of 11+% as a Student and Staff Portal / CMS enabled environment

University of Birmingham Data Integration Strategy: Reducing Data TCO Sure the technology can integrate, but… Wouldn’t it make sense if we changed the business processes first rather than rely upon the technology to bridge them? Data Range principle to harness central and added value data Simplify the data, make your portal interoperable

University of Birmingham How? Process Re-engineering Strategy of re-processing portal systems New service delivery, new administrative cost saving processes Working with key areas – e.g. Academic Office and Process Champions Tools and skill set provided by Process Re- engineering Specialist Modular approach to match modular Portal nature Data unification principle to draw school specific data into portal

University of Birmingham Process Champion Work Methodology

University of Birmingham UoB Portal Project Interaction Data set mapping with central and distributed data – ‘Data Range’ Portal service planning through project board and school / dept. interaction. Process review mechanisms to simplify administrative workflow developed with users “Town hall” meetings to engage and inform users Focus groups of end users for functionality and interfaces: »Students »Staff »Alumni etc. Interactive Portal and e-Strategy planning website

University of Birmingham Iterative Communications Focus+ Ongoing interaction with School Managers and Web Coordinators based around core Focus Group findings

University of Birmingham UoB Interaction Project Planning Mechanism Academic Representation, Head of School

University of Birmingham Proposed phased roll out over 2 year cycle Budget’s commence for Phase 1 August 2003

University of Birmingham Questions