Heres's a few random snippets from the rest of the efficiency conference today.
University of London has 300 organisations subscribing to their shared services, including 2.5 m students from 150 registered on their shared hosted Moodle platform.
Have achieved big carbon reductions through replacing kit, culture change and recycling. To raise awareness of sustainability they have beehives on top of one of their buildings and sell the honey in university shop.
Deficit in funding of research is increasing. For every £1 that comes in, we spend nearly half as much again, so we need to be more efficient in terms of equipment sharing and cost sharing groups.
HEFCE ask for Value for Money reports, but only get them from 60% of sector.
Over last 3 years sector has delivered over £1bn of savings, mainly in procurement, IT and Estates.
The HE is estate worth about 60bn. Need to drive value out of it. 2 main ways:
Reduce total cost of ownership.
Invest, and maximise return on investment
80% of students say that quality of estate affects their decision to choose a particular university and 30% have turned down a place because of the quality of the faculties. As a sector we've improved space utilisation in many areas, apart from space for academics!
Leicester university has a project called Flattening the Hierarchy, where managers and students work together to share information, learn together and improve the student experience.
Keele University has an avatar called Sam to answer student queries. You can ask him a question here.
Next years 18 yr olds were born in the first year of Blair government, 1997. They were 5 when 9/11 happened
Witnessed rapid change in technology, and have a different view of products and services to us.
For them, going to university is a social transaction, not a financial one. They don't want a consumer environment, but a personalised one.
Consumer implies consumer rights and consumer choice. Which they are not driving.
Grown up in a world moulded around them, and they want a highly personalised service.
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Showing posts with label uuk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uuk. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Innovations in TEL
Interesting to go to a session on innovations in technology enhanced learning, to people who aren't technologists. It was about how to get TEL embedded in the institution.
Our academic staff have to contend with many innovations, but many don't become embedded, even though some are technically simple.
One of big things students complain about is inconsistent practices. Some modules use technology, some don't. Want a consistent approach.
Also complain about very simple, basic things not being right.
How do we get better benefits from our investments in technology enhanced learning?
Align TEL with strategic goals.
Such as NSS, employability, efficiency etc.
Support senior managers in digital leadership.
Measure impact of TEL.
There are efficiency gains from things like on-line submission, on-line marking.
Innovation overload.
In manufacturing they have processes to bring things from R and D to production. Do we?
Need a more orchestrated approach to innovation.
Need to work systematically with departmental heads to show how they can take ownership of technology to help them meet their goals.
Academic staff believe that technology always burns up time. Need to address this to get better embedding.
How much is carrot, how much stick? Dictate from top or bottom up? Work with departments so they understand benefits of TEL.
Use innovative staff/student partnerships to drive change. Students make good change agents and leaders. Extend these partnerships to include employers.
Barriers to adoption: Digital literacy of staff. Confidence with using technology. Workload. - TEL can take more time than traditional methods. There's also a perception that our systems aren't reliable so staff are wary of using them. Learning technologists like working with innovators. Have to have coaching skills to work with people who aren't as confident.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Our academic staff have to contend with many innovations, but many don't become embedded, even though some are technically simple.
One of big things students complain about is inconsistent practices. Some modules use technology, some don't. Want a consistent approach.
Also complain about very simple, basic things not being right.
How do we get better benefits from our investments in technology enhanced learning?
Align TEL with strategic goals.
Such as NSS, employability, efficiency etc.
Support senior managers in digital leadership.
Measure impact of TEL.
There are efficiency gains from things like on-line submission, on-line marking.
Innovation overload.
In manufacturing they have processes to bring things from R and D to production. Do we?
Need a more orchestrated approach to innovation.
Need to work systematically with departmental heads to show how they can take ownership of technology to help them meet their goals.
Academic staff believe that technology always burns up time. Need to address this to get better embedding.
How much is carrot, how much stick? Dictate from top or bottom up? Work with departments so they understand benefits of TEL.
Use innovative staff/student partnerships to drive change. Students make good change agents and leaders. Extend these partnerships to include employers.
Barriers to adoption: Digital literacy of staff. Confidence with using technology. Workload. - TEL can take more time than traditional methods. There's also a perception that our systems aren't reliable so staff are wary of using them. Learning technologists like working with innovators. Have to have coaching skills to work with people who aren't as confident.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Efficiency in Higher Education
Today I'm at Universities UK for the 4th Annual Efficiency in Higher Education Conference.
First speaker is Professor Ian Diamond, who is chair of the UUK Efficiency and Modernisation Task Group. Back in 2011 I was on this group which produced an Initial report, and now a second report, phase two, has been published.
Started with some information about the economic impact of higher education in the UK, which I might have shared before, but no harm in doing it again.
It is important to remind ourselves how much of an impact HE has on the economy - locally, regionally and nationally.
In the last five years:
Cuts to capital funding, but continued investment needed
Erosion of the value of the tuition fee in England and Wales, efficiency and cost saving mandated in other parts of the UK
Science and research budget reduced in real terms
HE focus on efficiency, first report published in 2011. Been looking at efficiency for some time, but not necessarily getting the message out.
Universities have collectively reported surpluses, which could be interpreted as making a profit. But, in turnover terms they are not huge, and they are being used to fund investment, which is needed.
There is a funding challenge. There are pressures on public funding, and the next government will have tough choices to make. The UK needs a world class HE system, which is an integral part of economic recovery.
HE therefore needs to make a robust case for investment.
To do that, we need to demonstrate that we are efficient, and that we are taking improvements in efficiency seriously.
The latest report identifies 6 key work streams which will help us to do this:
Excellence, reward and the higher education workforce. This is our biggest asset.
Delivering value from the HE estate. We have a huge estate. 26m square metres, 7 times bigger than Tesco.
A world class and sustainable research base.
Harnessing the benefits of asset sharing
Unlocking value from higher education data
Evidence, oversight and sharing good practice. We need to be better about measuring what we do, spreading information and sharing through things like the efficiency exchange.
The report is well worth reading, it's available here.
This was followed from a talk from an economist, who looked at how we measure efficiency.
He demonstrated that universities operate at a higher level of efficiency than other sectors, including banking etc. Older Universites are less efficient, because we're looking after heritage assists. Also, specialist institutions eg for the Arts are also less efficient because of for example the amount of space needed for students.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
First speaker is Professor Ian Diamond, who is chair of the UUK Efficiency and Modernisation Task Group. Back in 2011 I was on this group which produced an Initial report, and now a second report, phase two, has been published.
Started with some information about the economic impact of higher education in the UK, which I might have shared before, but no harm in doing it again.
It is important to remind ourselves how much of an impact HE has on the economy - locally, regionally and nationally.
In the last five years:
Cuts to capital funding, but continued investment needed
Erosion of the value of the tuition fee in England and Wales, efficiency and cost saving mandated in other parts of the UK
Science and research budget reduced in real terms
HE focus on efficiency, first report published in 2011. Been looking at efficiency for some time, but not necessarily getting the message out.
Universities have collectively reported surpluses, which could be interpreted as making a profit. But, in turnover terms they are not huge, and they are being used to fund investment, which is needed.
There is a funding challenge. There are pressures on public funding, and the next government will have tough choices to make. The UK needs a world class HE system, which is an integral part of economic recovery.
HE therefore needs to make a robust case for investment.
To do that, we need to demonstrate that we are efficient, and that we are taking improvements in efficiency seriously.
The latest report identifies 6 key work streams which will help us to do this:
Excellence, reward and the higher education workforce. This is our biggest asset.
Delivering value from the HE estate. We have a huge estate. 26m square metres, 7 times bigger than Tesco.
A world class and sustainable research base.
Harnessing the benefits of asset sharing
Unlocking value from higher education data
Evidence, oversight and sharing good practice. We need to be better about measuring what we do, spreading information and sharing through things like the efficiency exchange.
The report is well worth reading, it's available here.
This was followed from a talk from an economist, who looked at how we measure efficiency.
He demonstrated that universities operate at a higher level of efficiency than other sectors, including banking etc. Older Universites are less efficient, because we're looking after heritage assists. Also, specialist institutions eg for the Arts are also less efficient because of for example the amount of space needed for students.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, 12 December 2011
The Price is Right
Last Friday I was speaking at a UCISA event on What Price Your Service, which covered a number of aspects of pricing and costing services.
First up was Andrew McConnell who is chair of the British University Finance Directors Group, and has also sat with me on the UUK Group looking at Modernisation and Efficiency. Andrew gave a good overview of the financial environment and the challenges facing HE. Continuous change and uncertainty, cuts in resource, competition for student numbers, inflationary pressures on pay and non pay costs, the impact of spending on the REF and cash flow changes all contribute to a difficult picture. Although the viability of institutions does not seem to be an issue at the moment, we are operating on very fine margins, and many institutions are not generating enough surplus. So, we need to have entrepreneurial leadership and generate income from diverse sources, have robust financial, institutional and growth strategies and take the efficiency agenda seriously. I've written before about the UUK report (commonly being referred to as the Diamond report), and of the 17 recommendations, 11 touch on IT. Andrew called for better collaboration between UCISA and BUFDG, and between Finance and IT generally, working together and overcoming the language barrier that sometimes exists between us. He reminded us what Ian Watmore had said at the launch of the Diamond report - we used to say we had to spend to save, now we have to save to spend.
Next up was the University of Oxford, who have been looking at how their services are costed. Originally they worked on a simple basis, allocating expenditure to different cost centres, but more recently have been adopting the TRAC approach, and looking in detail at all aspects of expenditure including power, space, overheads, dependencies on other services etc. They received funding from the JISC, and have produced a toolkit for costing IT services, available here. They've found this model to be extremely useful in looking at how much services actually cost, especially in departments. For example they found a small department running their own exchange server instead of making use of the central one, who insisted it didn't cost anything. However, it actually cost twice as much as the central one.
Then I spoke about the work we've been doing at looking at where our expenditure actually goes, rather than how much things actually cost. We've changed our accounting structure to match our seven service areas, but this year manually allocated all expenditure - staff, non staff and capital, as well as expenditure in those areas which generate income - to those areas. So, using expenditure as a proxy for activity, we get the following results:
Then each of the service areas can be broken down, and we can see where the expenditure is coming from - is it mainly staff, capital etc. There's loads of information, and it's thrown up some interesting questions, as well as highlighting some issues. If you're really interested in seeing the results, and how and why we did it, you can see the talk here. All of the talks given on the day are here, and you will need Silverlight to view them.
First up was Andrew McConnell who is chair of the British University Finance Directors Group, and has also sat with me on the UUK Group looking at Modernisation and Efficiency. Andrew gave a good overview of the financial environment and the challenges facing HE. Continuous change and uncertainty, cuts in resource, competition for student numbers, inflationary pressures on pay and non pay costs, the impact of spending on the REF and cash flow changes all contribute to a difficult picture. Although the viability of institutions does not seem to be an issue at the moment, we are operating on very fine margins, and many institutions are not generating enough surplus. So, we need to have entrepreneurial leadership and generate income from diverse sources, have robust financial, institutional and growth strategies and take the efficiency agenda seriously. I've written before about the UUK report (commonly being referred to as the Diamond report), and of the 17 recommendations, 11 touch on IT. Andrew called for better collaboration between UCISA and BUFDG, and between Finance and IT generally, working together and overcoming the language barrier that sometimes exists between us. He reminded us what Ian Watmore had said at the launch of the Diamond report - we used to say we had to spend to save, now we have to save to spend.
Next up was the University of Oxford, who have been looking at how their services are costed. Originally they worked on a simple basis, allocating expenditure to different cost centres, but more recently have been adopting the TRAC approach, and looking in detail at all aspects of expenditure including power, space, overheads, dependencies on other services etc. They received funding from the JISC, and have produced a toolkit for costing IT services, available here. They've found this model to be extremely useful in looking at how much services actually cost, especially in departments. For example they found a small department running their own exchange server instead of making use of the central one, who insisted it didn't cost anything. However, it actually cost twice as much as the central one.
Then I spoke about the work we've been doing at looking at where our expenditure actually goes, rather than how much things actually cost. We've changed our accounting structure to match our seven service areas, but this year manually allocated all expenditure - staff, non staff and capital, as well as expenditure in those areas which generate income - to those areas. So, using expenditure as a proxy for activity, we get the following results:
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Meeting the Challenge
Panel on Delivering Efficiency and Improving Quality.
Ewart Woolridge leadership foundation:
Difficulties of working in a sector where no clear mandate for change. Will never happen with 160 autonomous institutions, in competition. Need other ways to generate energy for change and keep it going.
Need to look at core business of universities, ie academic area. Has to be about whole institution, not just operational.
Change is about transition. Sector transition, institutional transition, and personal transition.
Leadership foundation and HEFCE innovation and transformation fund announced today. £1m for innovative ways of improving efficiency in Universities. More information here.
Richard Barrett, Deloittes
Look closely at processes. Don't make efficiencies in one area and move inefficiency to another. That's where LEAN comes in.
Universities need to manage processes as one holistic activity, not piecemeal. Can see dependencies and risks, and single line of communication if looked at holistically.
Have clear view of benefits.
Involve all staff in process, they have the ideas.
Tim Marshall, JANET
Passionate about shared services and synergy. JANET is a mature shared service, funded on a model that may not continue. But need to retain some top slice for universality. JANET brokerage just been set up. Lots of autonomous institutions, but lot of collaboration. How can we build on this? Answer is trust. Also, Why do we take so long to do things in our sector? Need to be able to move quicker and make decisions better. How are we going to implement report because we have to. Need more passion about service. Lot of passion in sector about academia but not about service.
Will this be the driver for efficiency in Universities? One in 5 unis are in deficit .
Not just an urgency to deliver this report, but a compulsion. It is non negotiable. Alternative is imposition from government.
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Ewart Woolridge leadership foundation:
Difficulties of working in a sector where no clear mandate for change. Will never happen with 160 autonomous institutions, in competition. Need other ways to generate energy for change and keep it going.
Need to look at core business of universities, ie academic area. Has to be about whole institution, not just operational.
Change is about transition. Sector transition, institutional transition, and personal transition.
Leadership foundation and HEFCE innovation and transformation fund announced today. £1m for innovative ways of improving efficiency in Universities. More information here.
Richard Barrett, Deloittes
Look closely at processes. Don't make efficiencies in one area and move inefficiency to another. That's where LEAN comes in.
Universities need to manage processes as one holistic activity, not piecemeal. Can see dependencies and risks, and single line of communication if looked at holistically.
Have clear view of benefits.
Involve all staff in process, they have the ideas.
Tim Marshall, JANET
Passionate about shared services and synergy. JANET is a mature shared service, funded on a model that may not continue. But need to retain some top slice for universality. JANET brokerage just been set up. Lots of autonomous institutions, but lot of collaboration. How can we build on this? Answer is trust. Also, Why do we take so long to do things in our sector? Need to be able to move quicker and make decisions better. How are we going to implement report because we have to. Need more passion about service. Lot of passion in sector about academia but not about service.
Will this be the driver for efficiency in Universities? One in 5 unis are in deficit .
Not just an urgency to deliver this report, but a compulsion. It is non negotiable. Alternative is imposition from government.
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Watmore and Willets
Second session is from Ian Watmore, Chair of Efficiency Reform Group, Cabinet Office.
Had experience of reductions to funding, dealing with expectations, dealing with debt, and introducing efficiencies when working at Football Association. Government had similar challenges: Getting costs into line, diversification of income, paying off debt, concentrating on core business.
This government's deficit reduction plan means we're not in same position as some of other European countries. Everyone looking to what we're doing as we're on a much more positive trajectory.
Core strategy behind deficit reduction strategy, summed up in 3 slogans:
Not more for less, because less is so much less with reductions of 30%. So, better for less. Better might mean not doing it all. Could mean outsourcing, stopping, doing just good enough. Do things in a different way.
Not spend to save, but saving to spend. If you want to do something, then save more aggressively and reinvest.
Credibility begins at home. Attack waste in your area. Eg expenditure on consultancy. Reduce marketing budget. Perks of job, first class travel etc.
Not just about cost reduction but about reform. All public sector services to be delivered over web. All back office systems being re-engineered. New business models for public sector being developed, some partnerships with private sector.
Deregulation, the red tape challenge. All regulation being looked at. Will be abolished unless there's a reason to keep it
Better use of local and voluntary sectors, and also using SMEs rather than always going to big corporates.
Enjoyed this session. He'd be an interesting attendee at some of our business meetings.....
Next session from David Willetts, Minster of State for Higher Education and Science
Don't want to see return to bleak cuts environment, that his own party was associated with in late 80s with cuts to unit of resource and reductions to quality. If work we together can avoid it. Changes to funding arrangements have meant that there is a stream of cash flowing into universities. If this is taken alongside efficiency proposals, then quality of education and student experience will be higher.
Benchmarking, transparency and better data crucial. TRAC data, use it or lose it. It's either a burden and no good in which we should get rid of it, or it's a crucial part of our financial information. At moment in limbo.
Wouldn't it be good if students could use it to see where our costs fall and what we're doing to control them.
Pay and pensions. Academic pay has caught up with and in some cases overtaken other equivalent professions. How much of new fee income will be used for pay, and how much for investment in improvement in services? Should be mainly WP and improvements to infrastructure and services, as pay has caught up.
Procurement, needs to be more collaborative. Government needs to play its part. Are discussions going on re VAT and EU procurement.
Announcement today of initiative between HEFCE and Leadership foundation of £1m for innovation in delivering recommendations of the Modernisation and Efficiency Report.
Implementation up to universities, scrutiny will be as much by students and prospective students as well as BIS. Will be a challenge. Need to be open and transparent with our information on what we're spending the new fee income on. It needs to be accurate and trusted.
Keen to see more collaboration between Universities, is the opportunity for sharing of IT capacity and software developments.
Universities not part of the public sector. If we were, would be more controls and obligations. Mission of HE includes private and public benefit and this is reflected in the flow of public funds.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Had experience of reductions to funding, dealing with expectations, dealing with debt, and introducing efficiencies when working at Football Association. Government had similar challenges: Getting costs into line, diversification of income, paying off debt, concentrating on core business.
This government's deficit reduction plan means we're not in same position as some of other European countries. Everyone looking to what we're doing as we're on a much more positive trajectory.
Core strategy behind deficit reduction strategy, summed up in 3 slogans:
Not more for less, because less is so much less with reductions of 30%. So, better for less. Better might mean not doing it all. Could mean outsourcing, stopping, doing just good enough. Do things in a different way.
Not spend to save, but saving to spend. If you want to do something, then save more aggressively and reinvest.
Credibility begins at home. Attack waste in your area. Eg expenditure on consultancy. Reduce marketing budget. Perks of job, first class travel etc.
Not just about cost reduction but about reform. All public sector services to be delivered over web. All back office systems being re-engineered. New business models for public sector being developed, some partnerships with private sector.
Deregulation, the red tape challenge. All regulation being looked at. Will be abolished unless there's a reason to keep it
Better use of local and voluntary sectors, and also using SMEs rather than always going to big corporates.
Enjoyed this session. He'd be an interesting attendee at some of our business meetings.....
Next session from David Willetts, Minster of State for Higher Education and Science
Don't want to see return to bleak cuts environment, that his own party was associated with in late 80s with cuts to unit of resource and reductions to quality. If work we together can avoid it. Changes to funding arrangements have meant that there is a stream of cash flowing into universities. If this is taken alongside efficiency proposals, then quality of education and student experience will be higher.
Benchmarking, transparency and better data crucial. TRAC data, use it or lose it. It's either a burden and no good in which we should get rid of it, or it's a crucial part of our financial information. At moment in limbo.
Wouldn't it be good if students could use it to see where our costs fall and what we're doing to control them.
Pay and pensions. Academic pay has caught up with and in some cases overtaken other equivalent professions. How much of new fee income will be used for pay, and how much for investment in improvement in services? Should be mainly WP and improvements to infrastructure and services, as pay has caught up.
Procurement, needs to be more collaborative. Government needs to play its part. Are discussions going on re VAT and EU procurement.
Announcement today of initiative between HEFCE and Leadership foundation of £1m for innovation in delivering recommendations of the Modernisation and Efficiency Report.
Implementation up to universities, scrutiny will be as much by students and prospective students as well as BIS. Will be a challenge. Need to be open and transparent with our information on what we're spending the new fee income on. It needs to be accurate and trusted.
Keen to see more collaboration between Universities, is the opportunity for sharing of IT capacity and software developments.
Universities not part of the public sector. If we were, would be more controls and obligations. Mission of HE includes private and public benefit and this is reflected in the flow of public funds.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Modernisation and Efficiency Conference
At the UUK launch of the Efficiency and Modernisation Report. Will try and keep blogging fairly up to date, but will probably be in note form.
Opening introduction from Nichola Dandridge. In current climate, Universities have to be as lean and efficient as possible, whilst maintaining quality. Following today's conference, action plan will be drawn up for implementation by Universities.
Ian Diamond, Chair of Task Force. Economic context: we face difficult financial times with pressure of public finances and a new way of funding HE. There's a political imperative for universities to be seen to be making efficiencies, but it also important to improve student experience and research output. Not a piece of work just about reducing costs. UK HE is one of UKs biggest success stories. Have to maintain this quality. So, quality is as important as efficiency.
This report is about operational efficiency. Most of spend in Universities is on academic area, so feel that there's a need for a further task force to look at efficiency in that area.
As a sector we have to work together and co-regulate to make efficiencies. Also need to provide a framework for action.
Findings:
Acute understanding of need to act
Much good practice already in the sector. But sometimes we're poor at communicating them
Not complacent about challenges, are barriers and constraints to further progress.
Need better data and to get serious about benchmarking.
As a sector, proud to be transparent.
Lack of clear understanding and data on operational costs.
Benchmarking is piecemeal and fragmented
Must improve streamlining of our own processes. Simplification and improving internal processes is essential.
More can be done on shared services but VAT remains a barrier. First must share services internally before can share them with each other.
Potential for outsourcing and shared services, including with private and rest of public sector.
Procurement not always seen a strategic part of HE but should be. There's significant potential for collaborative procurement across sector
Areas where regulation could be simplified and costs savings achieved, eg FoI and EU procurement.
Recommendations
Interventions should fit longer term strategic aims rather than short term
Cost reduction activities should be clear on savings
Concentrate on leaner, better processes
Better data on operational costs is needed
Set of benchmarks should be produced for sector
Advice on implications of competition law should be developed
Models for developing shared services should be disseminated
HEIs should look to exploit existing services with a track record of excellence
Government should implement mandatory VAT exemption o shared services across public sector
I light of new funding arrangements, procurement regulation relating to EU should be looked at
Better understanding of FoI costs should be developed, and sector should engage with the post legislative review
Body to lead procurement in England should be developed
Real savings to be made in IT, eg outsourcing to cloud, shared IT advice services etc.
Ian Diamond's personal 3 most important things in report:
Getting one version of the truth in organisations
Improving collaborative procurement
Improving IT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Opening introduction from Nichola Dandridge. In current climate, Universities have to be as lean and efficient as possible, whilst maintaining quality. Following today's conference, action plan will be drawn up for implementation by Universities.
Ian Diamond, Chair of Task Force. Economic context: we face difficult financial times with pressure of public finances and a new way of funding HE. There's a political imperative for universities to be seen to be making efficiencies, but it also important to improve student experience and research output. Not a piece of work just about reducing costs. UK HE is one of UKs biggest success stories. Have to maintain this quality. So, quality is as important as efficiency.
This report is about operational efficiency. Most of spend in Universities is on academic area, so feel that there's a need for a further task force to look at efficiency in that area.
As a sector we have to work together and co-regulate to make efficiencies. Also need to provide a framework for action.
Findings:
Acute understanding of need to act
Much good practice already in the sector. But sometimes we're poor at communicating them
Not complacent about challenges, are barriers and constraints to further progress.
Need better data and to get serious about benchmarking.
As a sector, proud to be transparent.
Lack of clear understanding and data on operational costs.
Benchmarking is piecemeal and fragmented
Must improve streamlining of our own processes. Simplification and improving internal processes is essential.
More can be done on shared services but VAT remains a barrier. First must share services internally before can share them with each other.
Potential for outsourcing and shared services, including with private and rest of public sector.
Procurement not always seen a strategic part of HE but should be. There's significant potential for collaborative procurement across sector
Areas where regulation could be simplified and costs savings achieved, eg FoI and EU procurement.
Recommendations
Interventions should fit longer term strategic aims rather than short term
Cost reduction activities should be clear on savings
Concentrate on leaner, better processes
Better data on operational costs is needed
Set of benchmarks should be produced for sector
Advice on implications of competition law should be developed
Models for developing shared services should be disseminated
HEIs should look to exploit existing services with a track record of excellence
Government should implement mandatory VAT exemption o shared services across public sector
I light of new funding arrangements, procurement regulation relating to EU should be looked at
Better understanding of FoI costs should be developed, and sector should engage with the post legislative review
Body to lead procurement in England should be developed
Real savings to be made in IT, eg outsourcing to cloud, shared IT advice services etc.
Ian Diamond's personal 3 most important things in report:
Getting one version of the truth in organisations
Improving collaborative procurement
Improving IT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Efficiency and Effectiveness in Universities
For the last few months I've been a member of the UniversitiesUK Task Force on Modernisation and Efficiency, and our report has been published today. You can find it here. I think it's a good report, (well I would, wouldn't I?). The press release below summarises the key findings well:
Efficiency and effectiveness are key priorities for the UK higher education sector, but universities must continue to demonstrate good value for money in the new funding environment. These are the findings of a new report published today (Thursday) by Universities UK.
The report acknowledges the efficiencies already achieved by universities, while continuing to provide high quality teaching and research, but says there is substantial scope to do more. It highlights that the higher education sector is doing this against a backdrop of public teaching funding reductions, alongside the introduction of the new graduate contribution system and the resulting rise in student expectations.
The report focuses on identifying how universities can work across the sector more effectively to overcome duplication or fragmentation, and how this can be brought about through strengthened leadership, both at institutional and sector level.
Its key findings and recommendations include:
“But universities have recognised for quite some time now that their future success, and by turn, that of our economy relies on increasing our efficiency and effectiveness, especially in the changing funding environment. Our report today shows that there are many excellent examples of universities improving their operational effectiveness, but we need to get better at sharing how we do it.
“Our aim is not to identify how universities can save money in the short-term. We want to show that it is better for students, universities and our economy if universities place efficiency at the heart of their long-term plans, so we can continue to enjoy an autonomous and diverse sector made up of effective universities providing the high quality teaching and research we have come to expect.”
Professor Eric Thomas, President of Universities UK, said: “This is a thorough report from Professor Ian Diamond and it's important that we take forward its recommendations.
“Universities have already made significant progress in terms of efficiency, but with a new funding environment and enhanced student expectations, it's more important than ever that we demonstrate good value for money.”
We've already started discussing how we can take forward the recommendations and work already in progress towards them, and I'll write more about that later.
Efficiency and effectiveness are key priorities for the UK higher education sector, but universities must continue to demonstrate good value for money in the new funding environment. These are the findings of a new report published today (Thursday) by Universities UK.
The report acknowledges the efficiencies already achieved by universities, while continuing to provide high quality teaching and research, but says there is substantial scope to do more. It highlights that the higher education sector is doing this against a backdrop of public teaching funding reductions, alongside the introduction of the new graduate contribution system and the resulting rise in student expectations.
The report focuses on identifying how universities can work across the sector more effectively to overcome duplication or fragmentation, and how this can be brought about through strengthened leadership, both at institutional and sector level.
Its key findings and recommendations include:
- Information on the costs of operational activities within higher education needs strengthening, to help demonstrate how they are ensuring value for money in these areas
- Benchmarking is vital to increasing efficiency, but currently its practice is piecemeal and fragmented and would benefit from more effective sector wide coordination
- Shared services are often viewed as an ‘off the shelf’ solution, but simplifying, streamlining and improving internal processes must be a priority in order to realise its benefits fully
- There is potential for outsourcing and the development of strategic relationships with the private sector to deliver services
- The sector is not yet making full use of its size and purchasing power to generate additional savings, particularly in England. A more strategic coordination of higher education procurement is proposed, along with challenging targets
“But universities have recognised for quite some time now that their future success, and by turn, that of our economy relies on increasing our efficiency and effectiveness, especially in the changing funding environment. Our report today shows that there are many excellent examples of universities improving their operational effectiveness, but we need to get better at sharing how we do it.
“Our aim is not to identify how universities can save money in the short-term. We want to show that it is better for students, universities and our economy if universities place efficiency at the heart of their long-term plans, so we can continue to enjoy an autonomous and diverse sector made up of effective universities providing the high quality teaching and research we have come to expect.”
Professor Eric Thomas, President of Universities UK, said: “This is a thorough report from Professor Ian Diamond and it's important that we take forward its recommendations.
“Universities have already made significant progress in terms of efficiency, but with a new funding environment and enhanced student expectations, it's more important than ever that we demonstrate good value for money.”
We've already started discussing how we can take forward the recommendations and work already in progress towards them, and I'll write more about that later.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
IT and Efficiency
Yesterday's meeting on modernisation and efficiency in Universities and the role that IT and IT departments can play was very productive. I was with Peter Tinson from UCISA to input into the Universities UK review, and the report that they will publish soon. A number of areas are being looked at in depth including Procurement and Estates & Facilities, as well as more generic process and organisational issues.
We discussed a number of areas, and concluded that IT departments in general have a good understanding of the area and the issues involved, and are positioned well to take a lead. We have a history of collaboration and sharing, and some of the best used and most cost effective shared services are in our area including JANET. Skills found in IT departments are not just technical, but are transferable to many other areas including project management, benefits realisation, business process review & analysis and service management. Many of these skills are already being spread from IT departments across the University.
Recent developments over the last few years include the setting up of special process review sections, including LEAN Units, and the development of more shared services including the NORMAN out of hours helpline and the Shared Information Security Service, ESISS. Improvements in the way services are delivered to staff and students have included self-service, web based transactions and paperless processes. Printing has been reduced, and managed staff print systems have meant that where printing has to happen it's done in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way.
In many cases the driver for these changes has not been cost savings, but a better quality of service. Where staff time has been saved this is usually directed to supporting services which add value such as learning and teaching and research. This has been a particular driver for outsourcing projects, such as the move of many of our services to a free provider such as Google. Other drivers for outsourcing include lack of skills in house, the provision of 24/7 cover, and the transfer of risk.
Organisational and structural changes have brought efficiencies, particularly the bringing together of local and central IT support staff. An improved level of service, efficiencies in procurement, space utilisation and economies of scale have been achieved in many places.
We managed to provide a really comprehensive list of how IT has driven some real efficiencies, and it is particularly galling to know that it is still the view in government that nothing is happening in the sector. We need to celebrate and publicise our successes more.
Of course there are some barriers which have to be overcome including more standardisation within our institutions so that we can start sharing more services and processes, a recognition that some efficiency projects will need some initial investment, and last but certainly not least, a change in culture!
EDIT: When I wrote this early this morning, I hadn't realised that Peter Tinson had written an excellent report of the same meeting, or I could have just linked to his post here. :-)
We discussed a number of areas, and concluded that IT departments in general have a good understanding of the area and the issues involved, and are positioned well to take a lead. We have a history of collaboration and sharing, and some of the best used and most cost effective shared services are in our area including JANET. Skills found in IT departments are not just technical, but are transferable to many other areas including project management, benefits realisation, business process review & analysis and service management. Many of these skills are already being spread from IT departments across the University.
Recent developments over the last few years include the setting up of special process review sections, including LEAN Units, and the development of more shared services including the NORMAN out of hours helpline and the Shared Information Security Service, ESISS. Improvements in the way services are delivered to staff and students have included self-service, web based transactions and paperless processes. Printing has been reduced, and managed staff print systems have meant that where printing has to happen it's done in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way.
In many cases the driver for these changes has not been cost savings, but a better quality of service. Where staff time has been saved this is usually directed to supporting services which add value such as learning and teaching and research. This has been a particular driver for outsourcing projects, such as the move of many of our services to a free provider such as Google. Other drivers for outsourcing include lack of skills in house, the provision of 24/7 cover, and the transfer of risk.
Organisational and structural changes have brought efficiencies, particularly the bringing together of local and central IT support staff. An improved level of service, efficiencies in procurement, space utilisation and economies of scale have been achieved in many places.
We managed to provide a really comprehensive list of how IT has driven some real efficiencies, and it is particularly galling to know that it is still the view in government that nothing is happening in the sector. We need to celebrate and publicise our successes more.
Of course there are some barriers which have to be overcome including more standardisation within our institutions so that we can start sharing more services and processes, a recognition that some efficiency projects will need some initial investment, and last but certainly not least, a change in culture!
EDIT: When I wrote this early this morning, I hadn't realised that Peter Tinson had written an excellent report of the same meeting, or I could have just linked to his post here. :-)
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Efficiency and Modernisation
Last Friday I was in London for the Universities UK Task Group on Efficiency and Modernisation - made up of Vice-Chancellors, and a Director of Finance, HR, Procurement, Estates and IT (me!). It's a group set up in response to the funding cuts, and the challenge of managing efficiencies whilst charting a growth path out of the current financial position. Retaining the quality of teaching and research with fewer resources, without damaging future prospects will be a key objective. The group is looking at what drives efficiency in the sector, and then analysing whether there are specific areas in which the sector can achieve large scale savings by introducing more efficient operations, so that resources can be targeted towards supporting teaching and research.
Several areas are being looked at including Procurement, HR processes, Estates and Facilities Management (including utilities), and of course - administrative processes, back office systems and shared services. A report showing savings which had been achieved in other sectors including local authorities and the NHS was discussed - and there were some hefty savings. But, and I did make this point, these figures don't mean a lot unless you know how efficient they were to start with, and what their baseline costs were. But, these figures showing huge savings in, for example the NHS, do get bandied around government, with the implication that we can achieve similar ones.
Of course, I'm not saying there aren't efficiencies to be gained - there are. And we probably all know where they are in our own organisations! We have to start sharing services within our own institutions before we can begin to think about sharing them outside. Standardising and simplifying business processes and using the same systems are an absolute prerequisite to sharing services between institutions, or to looking at different models of service delivery. I know there are Universities still running multiple email systems for example (more than 20 in some cases) - fairly soon we won't run any, but that migration to Google was made so much easier by only having one system in place to start with.
The other thing we all have to do is understand our costs better - we need to know how much services costs, and in some cases drill down to the cost of a process - or how can we make sensible decisions about achievable savings, what services or processes might be suitable for sharing, or outsourcing.
So, an interesting meeting, and I look forward to seeing how this agenda progresses. The only thing that slightly amused me, was that the group is about modernisation, and I was the only person in the room using anything digital to read the papers - everyone else had printed copies, carefully placed in folders and labeled - by their PAs I imagine. Maybe I'll leave tackling that one till next time....
Several areas are being looked at including Procurement, HR processes, Estates and Facilities Management (including utilities), and of course - administrative processes, back office systems and shared services. A report showing savings which had been achieved in other sectors including local authorities and the NHS was discussed - and there were some hefty savings. But, and I did make this point, these figures don't mean a lot unless you know how efficient they were to start with, and what their baseline costs were. But, these figures showing huge savings in, for example the NHS, do get bandied around government, with the implication that we can achieve similar ones.
Of course, I'm not saying there aren't efficiencies to be gained - there are. And we probably all know where they are in our own organisations! We have to start sharing services within our own institutions before we can begin to think about sharing them outside. Standardising and simplifying business processes and using the same systems are an absolute prerequisite to sharing services between institutions, or to looking at different models of service delivery. I know there are Universities still running multiple email systems for example (more than 20 in some cases) - fairly soon we won't run any, but that migration to Google was made so much easier by only having one system in place to start with.
The other thing we all have to do is understand our costs better - we need to know how much services costs, and in some cases drill down to the cost of a process - or how can we make sensible decisions about achievable savings, what services or processes might be suitable for sharing, or outsourcing.
So, an interesting meeting, and I look forward to seeing how this agenda progresses. The only thing that slightly amused me, was that the group is about modernisation, and I was the only person in the room using anything digital to read the papers - everyone else had printed copies, carefully placed in folders and labeled - by their PAs I imagine. Maybe I'll leave tackling that one till next time....
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