Monday 16 June 2008

Don't mention the war...

Programme Board today - progress on all of our projects looked at and commented on, and as usual, the main issue was how we resource them all as well as continue to support existing services. A couple of new projects were approved. One was to look at scanning technology - initially we need to gather user requirements for a scanning solution across the University. We already know of specific areas where such a solution is needed – Livelink, SAP and Academic Departments where storage spaces is limited. We also need to draw up guidelines for the use of a scanning solution based in part on user requirements, and partly on best practice drawn from across the document management sector, both inside and outside HE. this part of the project is about to start, and then we aim to evaluate the leading scanning solutions and draw up a shortlist. However, this can only be done when we have available resources.

The second project we approved today is an evaluation of a 'Pay on the Day" parking permit scheme to replace the current situation where staff pay for a parking permit for unlimited use throughout the year. It's hoped that this scheme will incentivise people to leave their car at home occasionally if they only pay for actual usage of the car parks. Of course, in a University like ours, with many car parks, many of them small areas behind buildings, this will pose a number of challenges! There's a number of areas where we'll have to carry out some work - finding the most appropriate mechanism to charge people in controlled and uncontrolled, car parks, collecting the data collected from barriers, informing staff of what use they've made of the car parks, and charging them direct from the payroll. This proposal is still being discussed with the appropriate bodies in the University, but we need to start doing the evaluation work now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you should consider implementing a home working policy or encouraging the City Council to make public transport a cheaper, faster alternative. I don't think a pay on the day system would work. It certainly wouldn't with me! I'd still come in by car every day as I live too far away to cycle or walk...and travel by bus extends my journey time by 45 minutes each way.

Anonymous said...

I agree a better way to reduce car usage is to help staff to work from any location they choose, be it in an office or at home. The potential benefits for staff in an improved work-life balance would be immense as would the environmental impact of reducing the number of car journeys required due to commuting.