Open Source for Higher Education – how to improve institutional performance under the Comprehensive Spending Review

Introduction: Facing up to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)

The Comprehensive Spending Review challenges the Higher Education (HE) sector to improve. For the innovative, research-led institution the challenge is to develop new and rewarding research partnerships. For the excellent teaching-led institution the challenge is to develop innovative new courses and teaching. For both types of organisation the focus of resources is the front line operations – research and teaching – the call is to do more with less from the support and back office activities. Over the last decade institutions have made significant investments in back office systems and processes, to support transactional services such finance, student enrolment and the Virtual Learning Environment.

As HE institutions face up to the changes from the CSR the savvy organisations have two commercial priorities: to decrease costs and to increase income. Decreasing costs, “bottom line” measures in other industries focus on reducing inventory, outsourcing non-essential services and increasing efficiency & productivity. Increasing income, “top line” measures in other industries focus on new products, new markets and new partnerships.

However in comparison with other industries the investment in the HE sector in content management and support for Knowledge Workers is limited. In the 90’s leading research led industries such as Pharmaceuticals made significant investment in Document and Content management systems to support core Intellectual Property [IP] processes. In the 00’s this investment was mirrored in cost led industries such as Publishing and Manufacturing to manage the ad-hoc process in and around their transactional processes.

In this white paper, the first of a series, we examine the immediate challenges to the institution and we recognise the importance of content to current survival and future prosperity. We outline a strategic response which meets short term tactical requirements with long term needs for sustainability. We identify new institutional facilities, new ways of delivering services and new ways of designing systems in the response to the challenge ahead.

The Challenge Ahead

The Bare Facts

Figure 1 – The Funding Challenge

Taking the lead from other industries, an organisation would be looking to decrease costs by improving efficiency and increase income by improving effectiveness.

Costs: The Efficiency Challenge

The resource picture in the HE sector is dominated by staff costs, the HEFCE guidance sets the threshold at 60% of revenue costs and, typically, capital investment stands at 5% of revenue expenditure. Capital expenditure has been subject to cuts across the board and, in some institutions, restructuring is in place to reduce staff costs to below 60%. Compared with other sectors human staff resources are abundant.

Many institutions used the last decade for the first wave of institutional investment directed at the back office and transactional systems. This delivered effective systems and financial returns whilst at the same time delivering a reduction in institutional risk.

However across the sector there has been little focused investment or strategies directed at supporting staff activity, the so-called Knowledge Worker systems common in other industry sectors. Basic activities such as finding information, sharing information, publishing information and collaboration are poorly served with an over-reliance on email and shared network drives. It is the exception to find simple support elements such as common content indexing, support for ad-hoc workflow, automated content conversion, protection for IP and systems to exploit institutional knowledge. All these activities exist in abundance in all institutions but are carried out by inefficient and often ineffective laborious processes.

With this ‘cottage industry’ of dispersed activity it is difficult to understand the full economic potential for improvement and savings. Data from staff in other sectors engaged in similar methods of working has been highlighted from research conducted by Accenture; these typical difficulties can be quantified as follows:

• Can’t Find Documents: 45% of Users find gathering information about another part of the organisation a challenge, Managers spend up to two hours a day searching for information
• Can’t Find the Right Version: 42% of users accidentally use the wrong information at least once per week
• Often Information is not Valuable: More than 50 percent of the information they obtain has no value to them
• Information is not Distributed in Time to be Useful: 59% miss valuable information everyday due to poor distribution

The impact of these difficulties can be considerable: from wasted effort, to a high dependency on individuals who know where to look to re-invention of content. In a recent study one institution offered 81 different Masters level Modules in Research Methods – surely a case for rationalisation?

Taking data from a typical teaching institution [Figure 2] it is clear that there is a significant requirement and potential for improving and automating processes. Measures aimed at addressing the worst of the inefficient Knowledge Worker activities:-

Figure 2 – Efficiency Improvements

Content: The Effectiveness Challenge

Historically software has been good at automating standard processes. As the McKinsey research shows, the biggest opportunity today is in improving internal collaboration with social process product oriented community micro sites [portals] that present the core research and teaching activities, not just the institution.

Many Universities struggle to provide appropriate, modern or friendly facilities for research and innovation. Instead the core Intellectual Property, that of which the academics are most proud, is managed privately and away from the institution. A recent THES article summed up the challenge:-

Other sectors would not allow individuals to assert their rights above that of the institution for whom they work and with IP audits developing as the method for REF assessments, amongst other, new thinking and new facilities are required. The institution has to be the partner and provider of choice – both in resources and technology.

The lead from other sectors is to invest in Social Software which focuses on the individual and their colleagues through a Social Graph. Institutional participation demands involvement with this ‘Social Graph’. It needs to manage:

People

• What are similar people with similar roles thinking?
• What are similar people working on similar projects doing?
• Who are the experts and what are they thinking?
• What are similar people and experts outside of my institution thinking?

Projects

• What are similar useful projects?
• What are similar projects outside of my company?

Content

• Where is similar useful content?
• Where is similar useful content outside of my institution?
• What is the security and lifecycle of my content?

   

  Restructuring

   

With the size and pace of the anticipated budget cuts, institutions will have to move quickly, but safely. There will be no time available for large systems changes, or elaborate cross training of staff. Instead quick moves will have to rely upon readily available solutions, instantly installed, easily scalable and with low or zero training & familiarisation.

Moving Quickly

Figure 3 – Moving quickly, acting safely

Figure 3 illustrates the nature of the challenge (with the size of the bubbles reflecting the potential size of the savings), although innovation and big systems changes can deliver big changes the results are in years to come. Big systems changes are limited to the summer vacation to prevent disruption or in some cases constrained by continuing student cohorts. Generally the only candidates for cost reduction within a single academic year are to focus on the project portfolio and reducing staff across the institution.

Any rapid response will be constrained:

• There will be a shortage of internal effort for the traditional project activities of specification, implementation and training
• There will be a need to bring facilities to production quickly
• There may be capacity limits, and discontinuities, in the existing facilities. In particular old-infrastructures may not have the headroom or cost envelope to see massive expansion
• There may be a shortage, or complete absence, of key skills to help make the transition. In particular staff on notice may be helpful but only for a strictly limited time
• There may be a need to deal with the transfer of processes, systems or skills to new individuals and teams.

   

  Designing a Fast and Immediate Response

   

Based on sector experience we present a plausible timetable to respond to these HE funding cuts. We expect three immediate imperatives:-

• To secure the knowledge assets from departing staff
• To integrate & protect legacy systems on the path to retirement
• To enable an improved ‘Knowledge Worker’ environment to boost productivity to compensate for the reduced resources available

Later entrepreneurial and forward thinking institutions will seek new revenue streams and may embark upon a new, lower cost, systems architecture. However in the 6-12 month timeframe there will be more immediate priorities and concerns.

Figure 4 – Immediate Timeline in response to CSR

Recognising the scale of the people challenges, and the possible effect of a severance scheme, the challenge is to ask what can the institution do to reduce the risk and maintain the services as headcount is reduced and key people leave?

More from less?

In the recent past the sector has invested in the transactional systems to automate the operational, high volume, activities and processes. However unlike other industries with a high contribution of ‘knowledge work’ [for example Legal Services or Industrial Research] investment in Knowledge Worker system has been limited. As the sector starts to demand ‘more for less’ across all processes, transactional or knowledge based, it requires an appropriate level of automation.

Based on activity analysis for a typical teaching University figure 4 presents the proportion of professional activity supported by transactional systems [in red] or the typical ‘Knowledge Worker’ systems such as email and file stores [or blue]. It also shows likely achievable savings in effort by the use of technology to support knowledge work – time saved in finding, sharing, editing and composing information.

Figure 5 – Activity analysis & Savings opportunities

Managing Risk

Restructuring an organisation introduces risk: in order to benefit from cost reductions and to manage the process of downsizing various schemes are used. Voluntary severance brings the risk of losing valuable staff and the loss or organisational control over who stays and who leaves. Compulsory redundancy brings the risk of non-cooperation with the process and the souring of staff relations.

As staff depart, so does their expertise. In the case of support staff this may be their knowledge of key processes; it may be their access to key information and their effort available for key activities. In the case of academic staff there is the added danger that key research material also leaves with the individual – particularly crucial with the coming impact of REF and the loss of important trails to institution developed IP.

As with all risk management there are three actions to mitigate risk: to maximise the upside, lower the probability of the downside and reduce the consequences of the downside. For staff departures the upside is determined by the HR practices, that departures are managed to reduce front line impact and sustain vital operations wherever possible.

In the case of staff leaving the losses are of irreplaceable and valuable knowledge. It is the consequence of files and information rendered unavailable, of processes that stop once key people are missing, of systems that break and of IP that is lost. Content management addresses many of these risks preserving content, making it available and providing the platform for effective operations. It also provides the platform for renovation and growth by maximising the accessibility and use of institutional assets.

The Specific IT Challenge

Every HE establishment will face changing its funding profile midyear and the obvious first point of call will be to cut headcount in the back office. Although IT underpins the operational day to day activities of a HE establishment and should be seen as an enabler of change, departments will be asked to cut costs and heads in line with all departments.

In responding to this challenge IT will be asked to meet 2 critical demands:-

• Reduce costs: To reduce its own cost of operation: retiring legacy systems, reducing headcount,
• To support productive innovation and change within the institution: helping others reduce headcount, migrating information, increasing productivity

Stretched in this way and being asked to do much more, often with less, the IT team needs to be confident that these short term contingencies do not become long term liabilities. With Open Source, Alfresco and Ixxus, short term immediate fixes are delivered which also build the platform for strategic change.

Conclusion

• Institutions will have to act quickly to reduce costs in time for the next financial year.
• In the HE sector staff are a critical resource and critical liability – they are the main focus of production and the focus of cuts.
• Most HE institutions will favour a voluntary severance scheme, this will result in the loss of key individuals and the need to provide cover from the remaining staff.
• Much of the value of the institution is carried in the heads of these knowledge workers and their familiarity with ad-hoc processes, in the period of staff departures a wise organisation will make an attempt to capture this knowledge.
• Following staff reductions wise institutions need to invest in facilities to improve knowledge worker productivity.

Already experience from institutions which have restructured suggests that:

• Many critical activities surrounding the transactional systems need support for collaboration, collections, version management and publishing (for example producing the student prospectus)
• When key staff depart a greater need for content protection, dossier collections (such as papers for committee), search and content use
• There is an insatiable demand for workflows replacing the individuals who knew how, or knew who to ask

The challenge for the institution is to deliver new capabilities and capture content in the very short timescales for action. The challenge for the IT team is to do so in a responsive, sustainable and strategic way.

Implementing Content Management

Open Source, Alfresco & Ixxus

In seeking strategic options to the immediate CSR challenge, institutions are advised to consider novel approaches. Open source can expedite the procurement process and reduce the costs of ownership, Alfresco provides a long term platform for content that is scalable and affordable and Ixxus delivers the confidence, assurance and experience for sustainability.

Ixxus are developing their HE sector offering as the Ixxus University Content Architecture. Designed around the three layers of content management it integrates and includes generic capability such as content lifecycle management with sector specific requirements to interface to HE systems with the ability to integrate the rare and specific institutional content collections.

The Ixxus University Content Architecture [IUCA]

Audience communities: enable the institutional assets to be readily, but safely, available to communities in the institution and outside helping the Universities’ systems

Infrastructure Interfaces: allow new capabilities to be introduced progressively, with minimal training and which preserve legacy assets

Collaboration services: integrate the many disparate information sources into a coherent whole so knowing is not limited to having to look.

Lifecycle Services: manage versions, updates, publishing and approval, speeding up content generation and release. Preventing accidental disclosure or wasting effort on superseded material.

Find services: integrated search and find services for all the institutional assets irrespective of format.

Repository Services: ensuring the longevity of digital assets from former projects, former students and former staff independent of the longevity of the system for which they were originally developed.

Existing Services: linking real-time and transactional information with the content heart of the institution

The introduction of secure, widely available and easily configurable content services [based on the IUCA architecture] have the potential to significantly improve the performance of key processes and the net productivity of the staff tasked with completing these processes:-

The Ixxus Approach

In working with Ixxus another big change will be evident: the ease with which new capabilities can be identified and the speed with which they are delivered. By replacing the long and laborious requirements specifications by an “Agile” process Ixxus manage development by focusing on short development cycles producing fast results and rely on user feedback drawn from the use of working systems. The modular Alfresco environment promotes agile methods and applied by experts it allows capability to be progressively and easily implemented.

For institutions having to move quickly with the minimum of resources available for new systems development the Ixxus advantage is profound: the infrastructure and storage capabilities can be switched on almost immediately (with subsequent transfer in house) and new facilities can be introduced with the minimum of staff time for specification and training (which can be later extended into a complete Knowledge Worker environment).

The Ixxus approach delivers:-

• Integration with existing systems – Standards based to connect to existing transactional systems, interfaced and integrated

• User focused – user centred design, case based, converted to working facilities
• Modularity – build as you go, paced development, as much or as fast as you can afford
• Embedded Technology Transfer –access to code and developments
• Procurement Options – Rental or Ownership

   

  The Ixxus Advantage

   

The Ixxus University Content Architecture [IUCA] is based on Open Source products accessed by an exhaustive range of interface options. Immediately this delivers the advantages of:-

• Price – Open Source means no software investment, as a modular, standard and extensible framework investment and functionality can be added opportunistically when time and budget allows. There are no discontinuities or steps in the investment, it grows only with use and as slowly as prudent purchasing allows: no upfront costs, no mid-course discontinuities no catastrophes of success.
• Scale – there are no licensing firewalls or exclusions, affiliate institutions can take advantage of the same systems and facilities as the lead institution: large and small can take advantage of the development with options of how the capability is supplied. In practical terms IUCA has no size limitations; it can hold small information collections or massive collections such as media or video libraries.
• Commodity – our technology runs on a variety of platforms including low cost commodity hardware: from commodity servers to independent ISP/cloud based services. Current investments and future costs ride the price performance curve downwards unconstrained by specific requirements or specialist, niche technologies.
• Open – the system is not just Open Source, it makes the essential content held in the IUCA available to all the leading, and many non-leading, protocols and formats. It means information collected in one system can be made available, without copying, to other systems. Core information can be safely managed and maintained independently from the ‘surface systems’ and skins used to display and consume it. It manages the expected turnover and replacement of the institutional look and feel – through generations of fashions, styles and devices – but does so without the loss of information fidelity or management.
• Purchase – the systems can be hosted on any operating system or server platform inside and outside of the Institution. Facilities can be enabled by purchase (in-house capital spend), by rental (cloud based subscription services) and migrate freely between the options. This means IUCA can be provided at a minimal pay-per-click pricing avoiding the delays and costs of an initial deployment but migrated as demonstrable success proves the case for dedicated facilities or in-house hosting.

   

  Responding Together

   

To match the unfolding requirement to introduce and exploit enterprise content management Ixxus will be presenting a number of sector specific white papers developing the technical and business case for:-

• Audit & Strategy [Planning for the future changes]
• Content loss prevention [Content capture and integration services]
• Access & locate [Integrated search and access services]
• Enable & exploit [Transformation and publishing services]
• Share & develop [Collaboration services]