Last Friday was we had the first business meeting of our new Service Strategy Board, having had a preliminary one a few weeks ago. We discussed the membership of our Service Advisory Groups, and received a report from our 7 service mangers about developments, service levels, issues and concerns in each area. We also looked at project reports from all of our project managers. A very busy meeting with a lot to discuss. Still some reiteration to do on our service catalogue, making sure we get things in the right place, and think about services, not systems. This is particularly important in the teaching and learning and research areas for example, where systems which are usually considered to be part of MIS, actually provide a service supporting teaching or research. It's important that we consider the services as a whole. After all, that's how they appear to students and staff.
As well as highlighting all of our achievements and developments over the summer, and there have been plenty, most blogged about, we also looked at where we can improve things, particularly in relation to incidents. I have to say, as I sit and type this I can't remember a worse start to the academic year for a long time, but maybe that's just my memory! Don't get me wrong, I have a great department and a great team of staff who work flat out to deliver the best service to the University that they can. When our email system failed a few weeks ago they pulled together, and fixed stuff. This week and last are our busiest period of the year as the new students arrive, and due to problems with some of our systems, I've got staff who today have worked their 16th day without a break, with most of them also working long hours. To make matters worse, we have a timetabling problem in some departments. Of course, all of these things cause problems for our customers, both staff and students. We don't like it, we don't do it on purpose, and we work really hard to put things right. We rely heavily on our staff, and on the spirit of teamwork and cooperation across departments. So, thanks everyone.
As my favourite physicist once said, things can only get better.....
3 comments:
So he is a Blairite too?
The system problems and delays impacted registering Freshers but most returning students avoided registration queues this year thanks to the introduction of online self-registration.
Since we already have the technical capability to handle self-registration presumably this could be extended to new starters in future such that only the minimum checks need to be done in person?
Similarly we had registration problems the first year the ID card system was introduced as students queued to have their photo taken and card printed. Now this is done in advance for the vast majority sparing them the delay.
It seems to me that you guys seem to manage the "downs" pretty well and create plenty of "ups" by having a risk appetite which helps the rest of us from time to time (e.g. mobile). Besides there is nothing an IT person likes more than a problem to fix under pressure!
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