Section A – Institution Exemplar – TOGAF, SOA and Shared Services Cover Sheet for Proposals (All sections must be completed) Capital Programme Name of Capital Initiative: Institution Exemplar – TOGAF, SOA and Shared Services Name of Lead Institution: Roehampton University Name of Proposed Project: Project CAIRO Name(s) of Project Partner(s): Full Contact Details for Primary Contact: Name: Mr. Mike Hall Position: Director of Information Technology and Media Services Email: [email protected] Address: Roehampton University Digby Stuart Learning Resources Centre Roehampton Lane London SW 15 5SZ Tel: 0208 392 3446 Fax: 0208 392 3026 Length of Project: Stages 1, 2 and 3 18 Months Project Start Date: June 2008 Project End Date:Sta Stages 1 and 2 - June 09 Total Funding Requested from JISC: £300,000 Funding Broken Down over Financial Years (Apr–Mar): Aug 2008 – Mar 2009 Apr2009 – June 2009 £125,000 £180,000 Total Institutional Contributions: £1,306,067 Outline Project Description : Corporate Applications Independence Roehampton (CAIRO) Through use of the TOGAF 8 framework, this project seeks to define an Enterprise Architecture for Roehampton University and to develop a Services Orientated approach to the integration of corporate information systems. The project will be part of a staged process with the strategic aim being the development of an applications independent architecture. Ultimately, it is envisaged that business processes will simply consume data services and application systems will become replaceable modular components. Consequently, institutions will have greater opportunities and flexibility in renewing systems or moving to new business paradigms such as hosted Shared Services. The project builds on the work of HILDA and MUSIC and follows directly from the findings of the Duke & Jordon study into shared services. The project will apply open standards in a context of market leading, best of breed application systems and therefore its outputs will have a direct relevance to the wider HE & FE communities. I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix A and included an FOI form in the attached bid (Tick Box) I have read the Circular and associated Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B (Tick Box) YES YES Section B – FOI Tick List FOI Withheld Information Form We would like JISC to consider withholding the following sections or paragraphs from disclosure, should the contents of this proposal be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, or if we are successful in our bid for funding and our project proposal is made available on JISC’s website. We acknowledge that the FOI Withheld Information Form is of indicative value only and that JISC may nevertheless be obliged to disclose this information in accordance with the requirements of the Act. We acknowledge that the final decision on disclosure rests with JISC. Section / Paragraph No. None Relevant exemption disclosure under FOI None from Justification None Section C D1. Appropriateness of fit to programme objectives and overall value to the JISC Community Through use of TOGAF 8, BizzDesign and ArchiMate, this project seeks to define an enterprise architecture focused on the business processes that integrate core corporate systems. The aim will be to define and develop a Services Orientated layer between the business processes and the application systems such that information content and transfer can be standardised and systems can be replaced (or hosted) more straightforwardly TOGAF and Service Oriented Architecture – Conceptual Framework Local Applications / Reports Enterprise Bus - SOA Layer - Data Transformation Application 1 Unified Business And Information Systems architecture Application 2 TOGAF Framework Process Requirements Technical Requirements 3A 3R Business Architecture Info Systems Architecture D1.1 The Duke & Jordon reports on Shared Services (JISC Study of Shared Services in UK Further and Higher Education : Report 1: the current landscape of shared systems implementation and planning for administrative systems in UK FE and HE: April 2008. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/jos/sharedservicesreport1.pdf) identified a landscape of best of breed corporate systems with a high degree of complex, bespoke integration. Report 1 states that “It is clear that systems integration is a more pressing issue to most institutions than are shared services.“ The premise of this project is that, rather than an issue of relative priorities, the Duke & Jordon statement belies a cause and effect i.e. the complexity of systems integration is a significant barrier to systems replacement and therefore to the adoption of shared services. As Duke and Jordan also state “Pursuing a business process analysis and engineering agenda with institutions would enable service sharing and service integration as well as yield knowledge of service costs. It would also facilitate institutional agility: an improved capability to respond to new challenges.” And again “Business process alignment between partners will carry with it economic benefits…..”. D1.2 Furthermore, the inertia in systems renewal has led to complacency amongst suppliers. All the while institutions are unable or unwilling to flex procurement muscle, suppliers will remain unresponsive to changing demands. To bring about systems improvements, business efficiencies and competitive prices, the sector must first catalyse market momentum and one way of achieving this is to simplify the renewal and replacement of systems. D1.3 Currently, the most significant way to achieve this is through the implementation of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Despite large scale adoption in industry and other public sectors, SOA has yet to gain significant penetration in HE. If successful, this project will provide a lingua franca for defining systems interfaces and pave the way for a dialogue with suppliers over future development of their systems using a services orientated approach. Duke and Jordan once more “While Service Oriented Architectures are new and largely untried (in HE), they appear to offer considerable potential as a means of allowing considerable numbers of applications to interoperate in a manageable way. SOAs impose no architectural barrier……….They therefore appear to be a powerful means of facilitating both integration and service sharing.” D1.4 This project will build on the work of HILDA (High Level Domain Architecture) and MUSIC (Measuring and Understanding the Systems Integration Challenge) and it links directly to the programmes on the E-Framework and Enterprise Architectures. It will also inform the JISC and HEFCE Shared Services initiatives as well as aid the on-going dialogue with suppliers over development of standards. D1.5 Importantly, the project also has significant synergy with existing cross institutional projects at Roehampton University: “Project 3R” will define an “As Is” and a “To Be” for the University’s Corporate Systems architecture and “Project 3A” seeks to define the business processes that are devolved to Schools and departments and their interaction with central departments and systems. Both these projects already have the backing of the University’s Executive Management Team and Senate and tie closely to several of the University’s key strategic objectives. D1.6 Roehampton University is a relatively small institution and benefits from centralised, agile decision making and a focus on efficiency (typical of that described by Duke and Jordon as an institution who stands to gain the most from shared services). The University already has successful shared services with the University of Surrey for procurement, internal audit and application hosting for the University’s virtual learning environment. D1.7 Roehampton University has an excellent IT and Media Services department with staff experienced in TOGAF and SOA albeit in an industry context. The systems in use are a typical portfolio of industry standard, best-of-breed applications representative of the heterogeneity in the sector. D2. Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan D2.1 Using a Prince 2 approach, the CAIRO project will commence with 2 parallel strands expanding the scope of 2 existing projects that are already underway at Roehampton (Projects 3R and 3A). Stage 2 of the project will be to develop “Services” based integration between some of the key application systems. Collectively, these 3 work packages equate with the TOGAF Information Systems Architecture analysis, the Business Architecture analysis and the development of architectural building blocks. STAGE 1 Project 3R Systems Architecture Analysis STAGE 2 SOA Development Architectural building blocks Project 3A Business Architecture Analysis D2.2 Sub-Project 3R is assessing the fitness for purpose of Roehampton’s corporate information systems, managing student, staff and financial data and underpinning the University’s administrative operations and strategic planning. This Information Systems Architecture phase will review and map out the purpose of each system and pay particular attention to the connecting data interfaces. The project will recommend revisions, re-implementations or replacement as necessary (the 3R’s). Expanding the scope of this project under CAIRO will ensure that the analysis will be supported by the use of business analysis tools (Archimate), will conform to TOGAF ADM standards and methodology and will have significant input from the Business Architecture phase. D2.3 Sub-Project 3R is being undertaken by an already designated small team of system experts drawn from the University’s Planning and Business Analysis Teams. Each of the system review teams is being led by Team Leaders within Registry, Finance, Property and FM and HR Departments. The review teams will draw on significant user representation and, under CAIRO, each team will additionally be supported by expertise in the Business Analysis applications BizzDesign and Archimate so that the University achieves a focus and a consistency of output from these teams which will support analysis using the TOGAF framework. D2.4 Sub-Project 3A, aims to review the devolved administrative activities in Schools and Departments within the University to identify processes which can be improved or discontinued and whether new technologies and approaches, e.g. Web 2.0 and mashups, can be used to improve the student and staff experience and reduce costs. This Business Architecture phase builds on the 2007 SUMS review on Academic Workload Analysis and devolved Administration Report (Report 1044/07) as well as the domain mapping work of HILDA. This project is being executed in parallel with sub-project 3R and it is intended that the 2 sub-projects are seen as being conjoined and will be stage-reviewed at the same time. D2.5 The project will involve data gathering from Schools and Departments by interview and survey methods. Under the CAIRO project, the investigative team will be supported by expertise in BizzDesign and Archimate and will conform to TOGAF ADM standards and methodology. The team will also have significant input from the Information Systems Architecture phase. Sub-project 3A is being undertaken by a small team of systems experts drawn from the Central Support Services led by the Pro Vice-Chancellor. D2.6 It has always been intended to bring these 2 enabling projects together but, under the umbrella of the CAIRO Project, they will be taken to a greater breadth and depth and follow the TOGAF approach more methodically. The outputs will also be presented in a more generic form which can be translated across the sector e.g. in the form described in the HILDA Project. D2.7 The second stage of the CAIRO Project involves the selection and re-engineering of particular data integration pinch-points within an SOA context e.g. the interface between Finance and HR systems and the interface between the Student Records and Timetabling systems. These equate with the concept of TOGAF architectural building blocks, at this stage concentrating on the interface standards, data content and formats, protocols, APIs. Successful conclusion of this aspect of the project will be the integration of the selected systems based on acceptable SOA principles. D2.8 The Sponsor for the CAIRO Project is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, who will report to the Project Executive Team consisting of senior managers within the University, as well as to the Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Board and to the University Senate. D2.9 It is important that the outcomes of these 3 strategic and conjoined work-packages are interpreted within the overall context of the TOGAF 8 Framework. The work of the 3R Review Teams and the 3A project investigative team will be applied in a TOGAF framework by a TOGAF 8 Certified Practitioner. D3. Project Outcomes D3.1 The outcomes of these 2 initial sub-projects (3R and 3A) will be to qualify and quantify the “as is” and “to be” situations in the Business and Information Systems Architectures of the University. The TOGAF framework will be used to ensure that the University uses these projects in a productive and structured context, with baseline and target architectures and associated Gap Analyses, which can contribute directly to the evaluation of the framework as a productive paradigm for HE institutions. D3.2 The BizzDesign software and the Archimate modeling language will be used to support and guide the review team’s work using the TOGAF Architectural Development Method (ADM). The design of the ADM allows for iteration around the Business and Information Systems Architectures and crucially guides the development of Requirements Management which feeds into the business needs for interfaces (SOA in its first manifestation) between the corporate systems. D3.3 Significant outcomes from the project up to the completion of stage 2 (Internal SOA) will be : A website detailing progress and work outputs  Standard Schemas and diagrams for the business and systems architecture based on sector standard systems in widespread use  Pilot code for 2 or 3 critical system data interfaces using SOA  Dissemination of experience at sector conferences and seminars e.g. JISC, UCISA, Open Group  Contribution directly from experience into the JISC Enterprise Architectures, E-Framework and Shared Services initiatives  Interim and final reports and final dissemination workshop  Hosting training for other HE institutions  An effective study on Return on Investment for SOA used in this context D3.4 The work to this point then, positions the University to move further towards the concept of applications independence and the flexibility of moving towards shared services, as the Roehampton Shared Services Roadmap makes clear (see diagram). Application Independent Environment 54 Months Offer and use SOA based shared services for buisiness applications Roehampton University London 36 Months Shared Services Road Map Develop systems based on shared service Togaf/SOA Model with external partners O 18 Months Business Led Pr o je ct C AI R Redevelop internal systems based on shared service SOA Model Technology Led Process Led Map Systems Processes (3R Project) Map Business Processes (3A Project) SOA Prince 2 Togaf D3.5 The CAIRO Project will enable Roehampton University to explore the value and relevance of the TOGAF 8 ADM in an HE context in a review of its architecture to which the University is already committed. It will enable the University to : leverage the project through the application of TOGAF templates and concepts  begin the exploration of the concept of shared services along a defined path  contribute significantly from a point of view of experience of real implementation, to the JISC eframework community D3.6 Key Deliverables from the Project will be : Definition of Business Goals and Business Drivers  Statement of Data principles  Baseline and “to be” Business Architecture and building blocks  Baseline and “to be” Systems Architecture and building blocks  Gap Analyses in Business and Systems  Requirements Management and Issues Register  Structured Data Requirements and Flows  Implementation Plan D4. Project Management and Project Plan D4.1 At the outset of the project Roehampton will commit to work closely with the JISC to ensure the necessary JISC controls are in place for the governance, management and funding of the project. D4.2 Within Roehampton, the Project will be controlled through a Project Board comprising the main sponsor (Pro Vice-Chancellor) as the Executive, with representation from the Senior User (Director of Recruitment and Student Records) and the Senior Supplier (Director of ITMS) along with the Project Manager. The Project Board will define its Project Groups for Assurance and Support to provide the necessary user and supplier experience into the project. The Project Manager for this project will be a Prince2 Certified Practitioner. D4.3 Each of the 3R Review Teams will be chaired by a senior person within the relevant business area, will report to the Project Board and will be supported in their analysis by an expert in Archimate. The Review process will also be guided by a certified TOGAF 8 Enterprise Architect. D4.4 The project will be divided into stages and there will be clear break points between the stages to enable the outputs to be clearly reviewed and risks continually assessed. The break points will assist in the clarity of the timescales and be useful points at which to feedback progress to the JISC and the wider community. The first stage comprises the parallel 3R and 3A sub-projects, the second stage is the development of internal SOA to support internal data utilisation and exploitation. The third stage will draw on stages 1 to 2 to extrapolate the experience into the arena of SOA on a wider scale and into the area of fully shared services in the HE environment. D4.5 The quality of the outputs will be the responsibility of the Project Board, whose role is to ensure that the work is on schedule, that progress is satisfactory and that the deliverables are being produced and of a satisfactory quality. It will be the responsibility of the Project Board to ensure also that the outputs conform to TOGAF standards so that the contribution to the wider assessment of the TOGAF 8 framework can be made. The project will use the JISC guidelines on quality assurance, project management and open source software development. A Gantt chart attached to this bid displays the timing of the first 2 stages of the project. The main elements of the plan are shown below. Task Start End Milestone PID approvals Project 3A Business Architecture Project 3R Information Systems Architecture B.A. Gap Analysis available I.S. Gap Analysis available 1st Architectural building blocks – SAO coded interfaces May 2008 July 2008 May 2008 Nov 2008 Approved Administrative “As Is” and “To Be” defined May 2008 Nov 2008 I.S. “As Is” and “To Be” defined Feb 2009 Apr 2009 June 2009 Documented Documented Code available and testing commenced Training staff on BizzDesign and Archimate July 2008 Sept 2008 Staff trained E. Risk Analysis E1. Risks to the project will be identified early and plans will be maintained to mitigate them as far as possible. The Project Board will maintain the Risk Register through the regular agenda. The staged nature of the project makes it easier to identify and mitigate the risks. Risks so far identified are shown below. Risk Staffing problems (inability to attract and retain staff with appropriate skills and experience Probability Severity Score 3 4 12 Difficulties getting staff to buy into the change process 2 3 6 Complete solution cannot be devised within the project timescales 2 3 6 Action to Prevent / Manage risk  The key significant staff are already employed within Roehampton  Wide spread of input from Administrative units  Analysis of business functions carried out using business tools assists standard approach and interoperability  Wide inclusion of staff from across the business units reduces the impact of loss in a particular area and facilitates substitution of skills  Full and consistent approach to documentation and version control  Ensure use of Business Tool is seen as supportive not threatening through how it is implemented  Ensure staff analysing situation are working in their area of expertise  Offer support from the centre and commitment from senior management highly visible  Publicise and communicate successful analyses during the project  Approach solutions iteratively and bit by bit  Hold regular open forums on progress  Absence of a complete solution is not a failure anyway  All data, all requirements etc help to build the “building blocks” in an iterative framework  All experience gained is a bonus  Celebrate achievements in subsets of the big picture  Allow for subsets as milestones in the project plan and recognise as achievements  Proof of concept does not require full completion of project Failure to meet project milestones 2 3 6 Objectives extend beyond the life of the funded project 4 4 16 Complexity of project 4 4 16 Different approaches adopted to analysis by different teams 1 3 3  Progress will always be made more surely in some areas than others so project can continue  Interrelationship of business units does not need to be disabling – approximation at this stage would be acceptable  Nevertheless plan will be continuously monitored and support applied where necessary  Ensure attitude to the project is correct – the direction is the correct one  University is committed to the concept and will carry the principles on  Appropriate scoping at commencement of project  Project Planning to identify significant milestones  Identification of success factors at subset level  Project complexity layered to assist in identifying vision and path with significant milestones  Support from the JISC community and interworking with the successful EA bidding Universities through existing networks  Application of TOGAF templates in the analysis phase controlled by trained team and using Business Analysis s/w F. Engagement with the Community F1.1 Despite not receiving JISC funding, Roehampton is fully engaged in the Enterprise Architecture (EA) programme. Staff from the University have attended the training from Architecting the Enterprise and are certified in the TOGAF 8 methodology. Probably more importantly, the networks of communication have been established with those institutions which were successful in the original EA bid and Roehampton has fully participated in this ongoing programme. The University finds itself now in the unique position of having set out, strategically, on a significant review of its Business and Systems Architecture at a time when it is possible to enable this activity to contribute in a very direct way to a major JISC initiative, where that initiative is part of a strong and seminal movement in the marketplace. F1.2 Roehampton, therefore, fully comprehends the need to be part of this movement and wishes to contribute experience whenever possible to the EA project and through this to the community as a whole. Similarly, through its Project Executive, Roehampton is well placed to feed the project outputs to key dissemination fora e.g. BUFDG, AHUA and HEFCE and is particularly well placed to inform the initiatives on Shared Services. F1.3 The project will, of course, support a website to disseminate activities and experience, the University will host and contribute at seminars and other sharing activities and will report back directly to the JISC at regular intervals. Roehampton is very aware of the complex nature of this area and will seek partner institutions for the later stages of the overall project as the roadmap shows. It is the University’s intention, as the above list of outcomes and deliverables shows, to publish fully documentation, schemas, software and not least, experience as the project progresses. F1.4 Roehampton staff are proactive members of UCISA and will use this organisation to assist in dissemination of findings from the project through conferences and mailbases. The University will make full use of the JISC and the JISC Services such as Techwatch, the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS) as well as The Open Group to interface with organisations and people who are interested in or can contribute directly to the furtherance of this project. G. Budget Directly Incurred Staff FTE, 18 months Project Manager Project Assistant Senior Business Analyst Business Analyst X2 Developers X2 (12months) Total Directly Incurred Staff (A) Aug 08 to March 09 £150,000 April 09 to Jan 10 £315,000 TOTAL £ £150,000 £315,000 £465,000 Non-Staff April 09 to Jan 10 £4,000 £3,000 £5,000 £ TOTAL £ Travel and expenses Hardware/software Dissemination Evaluation Aug 08 to March 09 £2,000 £3,000 £3,000 £ Other £ £ £ Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B) £8,000 £12,000 £20,000 Directly Incurred Total (A+B=C) (C) £158,000 £327,000 £485,000 Directly Allocated Aug 08 - March 09 April 09 – Jan 10 TOTAL £ £20,000 £15,000 £20,000 £10,000 £20,000 £20,000 £10,000 £20,000 £30,000 £25,000 £25,000 £15,000 £25,000 £25,000 £15,000 £25,000 £50,000 £40,000 £45,000 £25,000 £45,000 £45,000 £25,000 £45,000 Estates Other Pro rata overheads Directly Allocated Total (D) £68,916 £86,140 £155,056 £203,916 £271,140 £475,056 Indirect Costs (E) £289,338 £361,673 £651,011 Total Project Cost (C+D+E) £651,254 £959,813 £1,611,067 Amount Requested from JISC £125,000 £180,000 £305,000 Institutional Contributions £526,254 £779,813 £1,306,067 Percentage Contributions over the life of the project JISC 23% Partners 77% Total 100% Staff PVC Director of ITMS Technical Management Technical support MIS Support Web Management Web Technical Senior Business Analyst £465,000 £6,000 £6,000 £8,000 £ Appendix 1 – Project CAIRO - Gantt Chart Appendix 2 – Key Roehampton Staff involved in Project Cairo, Sub-projects 3R and 3A Chris Cobb (project sponsor) is a Pro Vice-Chancellor at Roehampton University with responsibility for Information Technology and Media Services, Library and Learning Services, Property and Facilities Management (including, commercial services), Human Resources and Business Process Re-Engineering. Within this role he has developed and led strategies on campus re-development, value for money, carbon reduction and major investment programmes in classroom, Library and IT Infrastructure. Chris has also managed significant organisational restructuring, process improvements and led negotiations on the harmonisation of pay and conditions. Chris chaired the UCISA CISG (2003-2005) and the UCAS working group on part-time admissions (2006-2007). He is a member of the JISC Organisational Support Committee, the HEFCE Shared Services Working Group and is an active member of the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA) and HUMANE (the panEuropean equivalent of the AHUA). Recent consultancy work includes advising on the merger of four institutions in Strasburg, development of an IT Strategy at Dublin College University and JISC sponsored research on the top concerns of Chinese IT managers. Chris also teaches the IT Management strand on the annual ESMU-HUMANE Winter School in Barcelona. Chris was previously the Director of Business Systems & Services at the London School of Economics where he was involved in a number of JISC sponsored projects such as PERSEUS and SeCURE. He has previously chaired the UCISA Corporate Information Systems Group and been a member of Universities UK, SCOP & DfES Information Management Taskforce and the DfES HE Institutions Consultative Committee. In these roles he has become a key liaison point for the consultation on the MIAP initiative and development of the Unique Learner Number. Chris is a seasoned Oracle professional with over 22 years in higher education and is a regular speaker at sector conferences. He was the senior manager responsible for the implementation of 'LSE For You', the institutional information portal which won the UCISA and EUNIS awards for best practice and was short-listed for the 2002 Computer Industry Awards. Michael Barham (Dean of the School of Human and Life Sciences at the Roehampton University). Michael is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. Michael has over twenty-eight years’ experience in the field of personal growth and development and nearly thirty years’ experience in education, drama and theatre, having worked with emotional and physical expression with children, adolescents and adults in therapeutic, educational and artistic contexts. He is a state registered dramatherapist, a body-psychotherapist and a registered process supervisor who has worked throughout the UK and the Middle East. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In the early to mid ‘90’s he was Chair of the professional association (BADth) and until it became the Health Professions Council (HPC), was the ViceChair of the Arts Therapies Board with the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM). In 2001 he was invited by UK Health Ministers to be one of the two representatives of the Arts Therapies involved in creating this new regulatory body. In 2003 he was awarded an NHS Excellence Award. Reggie Blennerhassett (Director of Finance at Roehampton University). Reggie is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. Reggie has been working in Finance since graduating in 1982. He has been involved in implementing 3 finance systems with particular emphasis on process and reporting structures. In his previous role at the Royal Veterinary College, Reggie was a member of the IT Strategy Group and part of the team that developed the IT Strategy for the College. Currently, Reggie is the project sponsor for our Hat-Trick! Agresso re-implementation project at Roehampton, Phase 1 of which goes live on 1 August 2008. He is also currently the vice chair of the London Region British University Finance Directors Group and also a member of the national executive. Sue Clegg (University Librarian and Director of Learning Services at Roehampton University). Sue is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. Sue leads Library and eLearning Services as well as innovative learning and teaching spaces within the University. Former posts included roles at South Bank University and Birmingham Polytechnic. Sue is actively involved in SCONUL and its predecessor, COPOL, taking on committee roles, such as Secretary of the SCONUL Staffing Working Group and leadership roles in coordinating annual meetings of Deputy Librarians in SCONUL. She has also been Chair of the University, Colleges and Research Libraries (London) Group (UC&R). Prior sector involvement includes international work with IAML. Sue has presented papers at many sector events, published articles/chapters in books and edited publications. Sue managed Roehampton’s exemplar funding for the JISC Information Strategies work. From 1997 – 2006 Sue was Director of Information Services at Roehampton, running IT, MIS and Media as well as Libraries. During this period a range of information systems and technology were tendered and procured. Prior to this Sue has had a range of experiences of implementations of Library systems in different Universities. Ms. Robin Geller (University Secretary and Registrar at Roehampton University). Robin is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. Robin is an active participant in the Association of Heads of Administration (AHUA) and holds degrees in engineering and law from Canadian universities. Robin joined Roehampton in 2006 after working for 10 years at McGill University in Montreal, Canada where her roles included serving both as Secretary-General and, previously, as Registrar. During her tenure as Registrar, Robin was one of the key Project Sponsors overseeing and managing the implementation of Banner Student one of a suite of Banner modules that were implemented at McGill over a five-year period. Mike Hall (IT Services Director at Roehampton University). Mike is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. A senior IT professional with over 20 years experience in both academia and the corporate market place. Mike worked for the Thomson Corporation mainly in the scientific and healthcare divisions delivering high value content via web and other electronic media. Notable products include Web of Knowledge/science, endnote, Thomson Pharma. Mike has been involved in developing and supporting large production systems based on Intel and Sun running Windows, Solaris, Oracle, MS SQL, SOA and various web servers. Mike currently sits on the Business Development Committee of the London Metropolitan Network evaluating needs and solutions to requirements of the London academic community. Appointed to his post at Roehampton a year ago, Mike has embarked on a re-organisation of the IT and Media John King (Head of Management Information Services at Roehampton University). John brings extensive experience of Project Management and Business Systems Implementation earned in over 20 years of working in both the private and the public sector. John has lead technical and business teams in many different business environments, as both supplier and customer, to achieve significant business process change through the application of information technology. He is experienced in systems design and the development of systems requirement specifications. John has extensive experience at leading and motivating teams and managing complex projects through to successful implementation. He is a Certified TOGAF 8 Enterprise Architect. Marina Lim (Head of the Business Analysis Team at Roehampton University). Marina is an experienced IS consultant with cross-sector experience in both the private and public sectors, who delivers and leads transformational assignments enabling business process change. Using strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, Marina is able to grasp quickly the potential for process transformation and deliver change through the effective application of Information Technology. Hiren Patel (Head if Infrastructure Services at Roehampton University). Hiren has 3 years very recent experience of IT architecture development and implementation working with and managing a team of Systems Analysts responsible for designing and implementing infrastructure systems in a multi-site, international environment. He has a deep understanding of business needs through managing a Business Systems team responsible for requirements gathering, designing, implementing & supporting systems and processes for Sales & Marketing, Finance, MIS and Production functions within a multi-national environment. Hiren has experience also with modeling techniques using UML for case / scenario / prototyping. Hiren has a working experience of HP / Dell / IBM h/w and primarily of MS OS platform. Richard Salter (Head of Strategy & Project Implementation at Roehampton University). Richard is a member of the Project Executive Team for both the 3R and AAA Projects. During his time working in Higher Education, Richard has been involved in a number of business process analysis and re-engineering projects covering a wide array of activities and functions. Most notably this included taking the role of ‘Change Facilitator’ as part of a holistic review of all taught student related administration following the merger of two HEIs. The responsibilities of this role extended from a detailed review and analysis of existing practice at the precursor institutions through to developing and implementing consolidation and strategically aligned processes for the new institution. He also has experience of system implementation and development, ranging from developing the initial specification of requirements and business case through to final stage testing and project sign-off. In most cases, Richard’s system implementation experience relates to student record systems or reporting tools/data warehouses. These implementation projects have been managed using the PRINCE 2 methodology. As part of these projects and the commensurate roles, Richard has been involved with various ARC practitioner groups, primarily the ‘Administrative Systems & Processes’ and ‘Student Records’ groups.