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Proposal Cover Sheet JISC Grant Funding 05/10
Cover Sheet for Proposals
(All sections must be completed)
Please Indicate which strand your
are applying for
C
Name of Lead Institution:
Roehampton University
Name of Proposed Project:
Project Cumulus
Name(s) of Project Partners(s)
Christ Church Canterbury University
De Montfort University
University of Lincoln
University of Nottingham
(except commercial sector – see below)
This project involves one or more
Name of any commercial partner company
commercial sector partners
Unit4 Business Software Ltd (formerly Agresso)
YES
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name:
Mr Mike Hall
Position: Director, ITMS, Roehampton University
Email:
[email protected]
Tel:
0208 392 3446
Address: Digby Stuart College, Roehampton Lane, London , SW15 5SZ
Length of Project:
10 Months
Project Start Date:
1 August 2010
Project End date:
Total Funding Requested from JISC:
£170,000
Total Institutional Contributions:
£42,891
31 May 2011
Outline Project Description
This project takes the work of projects HILDA and MUSIC, the work of Duke and Jordan and the
Flexible Service Delivery Programme to a logical next step. It will demonstrate how a large ERP
system can be disaggregated to allow modular functionality from that system to be offered and
supported within the “cloud”.
The cloud deployment approach will be supported by a Service Oriented Architecture which will
enable integration, interoperability and workflows within the module to be achieved using Web
Services.
The project will explore the issues of deployment in such an environment and the modular, cloud
based approach will be tested at 4 different Universities.
The project, therefore, directly addresses the issues of gaining Modularity which places it firmly in
Strand C. However, the elements of Shared Services and Cloud Computing mean that the project
also covers large aspects of Strand A of the 05/10 call.
I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix B
and included an FOI form in this bid
YES (delete as appropriate)
I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms and
Conditions of Grant at Appendix C
YES (delete as appropriate)
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Page : 1
1. Appropriateness of Fit to Programme Objectives and overall Value to the JISC
Community
Project Cumulus will demonstrate that it is possible and productive to develop a modular approach
to systems architecture and to deliver “services” for the HE Sector from the “cloud”. This will
significantly change the current common implementation situation where one supplier and one
large system (or ERP installation) attempts to satisfy the requirements of an increasingly volatile and
complex HE business landscape in each individual institution. The project will demonstrate that it is
possible to work with suppliers to develop new methods of product development and deployment.
These new methods must satisfy the requirements of the institutions for agility, flexibility and cost
effectiveness and the requirements of the suppliers for a revenue stream which will enable research
and development and software supportability.
This project builds on a significant body of work within the JISC e-Framework. Projects HILDA (High
Level Domain Architecture) and MUSIC (Measuring and Understanding the Systems Integration
Challenge) were followed closely by the work of Duke and Jordan on Shared Services
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/jos/sharedservicesreport1.pdf). The Duke
and Jordan work, focussing on the huge importance of systems integration, highlighted that the
complexity of integration was indeed a huge disincentive in the move towards a more modular
provision of systems and services. This was followed by projects under the JISC Institution
Exemplars and Innovation Programmes which showed that a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
approach was an important way forward in achieving effective integration especially when used with
an Enterprise Architecture Framework. The Flexible Service Delivery Programme takes this a step
further, exploring, in one supported project for example, the integration of data in 2 Universities
linked through Enterprise Service Bus technology. This bid will build on all of this work by
developing an independent business module, hosting it in the cloud and providing integration and
workflows using Web Services and principles of SOA.
1.1
The Consortium Members
Roehampton University has already worked in this context with the JISC funded Project Cairo which
explored the relevance of an Enterprise Architecture Framework (TOGAF 8) and Service Oriented
Architecture to the development of a strategic, governed approach to enabling business
requirement to lead a flexible and agile IT function. The University has its own Development
Roadmap for the next 5 years and is strategically committed to working towards the development of
a Service Oriented Architecture approach to data integration, using Open Standards, and eventually
shared and flexibly delivered services.
Roehampton has been closely involved with the development of flexible service delivery as a major
activity within the JISC. The university was one of the first institutions to explore the relevance of
TOGAF and has consistently participated and presented in benefits realisation activities, from
theoretical approaches to EA to presenting the results of detailed work using modelling techniques
on major university business processes. The University is a “Solutions” member of the JISC Flexible
Services Delivery Strategic Technologies Group.
Nottingham University is a member of FSD STG and a partner in the existing consortium with
Roehampton, Lincoln, CCCU and Unit4 in the EWES project. The FSD approach is at the heart of the
Universities programme to re-engineer its existing Student Management System. Nottingham has
been evaluating, with Unit4, the use of its curriculum management software as a loosely coupled
component through SOA. The limitation of the existing “service layer” provided by the Unit4
software is a barrier to achieving the level of integration required to unlock the architecture of the
existing Student Management System. Strategically this project is important to Nottingham as it will
put in place “services” that enable the deployment of the product in such a way it integrates with
the workflow of other components using XCRI and other standards through SOA.
Nottingham has a development team in place already exploring this space with Roehampton,
Lincoln, CCCU and Unit4. Nottingham, as part of the consortia, will provide expertise in XCRI and
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Page : 2
other relevant interoperability standards from the Centre for International ePortfolio Development
(CIePD). This unit has significant successful experience of delivering JISC funded projects in the areas
of streamlining data flow through use of open standards. They are currently delivering a Leap2A and
XCRI mini-pilot for JISC, and are behind 6 linked XCRI initiatives placing the East Midlands at the
forefront of national XCRI implementation. Their SAMSON lifelong learning and workforce
development project is developing web services infrastructure to present a platform for users and
service providers to collaborate securely and dynamically through hosted services.
Lincoln University is also a partner in the existing consortium with Roehampton, Nottingham, CCCU
and Unit4 on the EWES project. FSD principles are at the heart of the University’s IT Strategy, which
recognises that continued concentration on best of breed business systems, implemented within
each institution and connected by bespoke legacy interfaces, is simply not sustainable in the long
term (a recognition which is clearly heightened in the current economic climate). However, the
strategy also acknowledges that key enablers need to be in place to allow a substantial sector-wide
move towards more flexible corporate solution delivery and towards all that a move would imply,
including enabling shared service.
Chief amongst these enablers are sector capability, standards (like XCRI) and supplier
engagement/support – all areas that this new bid will help unlock. At the same time, replacing
existing best of breed solutions lock, stock and barrel is unlikely to be an affordable option for
Universities and Lincoln is also working on the transition process to achieve a more application
independent environment, against a broad roadmap consisting of overlapping phases covering
optimisation/consolidation of existing applications; building/encouraging internal and supplier
capability; exploiting capability and lining the institution up to take advantage of enterprise level
shared-service, ‘as a service’ and outsourcing models.
De Montfort University has FDS as a key component of the institution’s IT strategy. It has already
embarked on a number of initiatives to both explore and embrace SOA and aims to use this
approach as part of its medium and long term programme to replace its best of breed business
applications. The University has been a partner with UNIT4 since 1997 and has a history of joint
development projects (including the original development of the Academic Curriculum Management
System) that have resulted in the application and the company becoming market leaders in HE.
The university has already placed its student email and calendars into the cloud with Google, and has
written internal applications using web services developed by UNIT4. It is about to upgrade to the
latest curriculum management system during the next 12 months, and information gained from this
project will prove invaluable in determining the approach for the implementation of future
standalone modules and integrating with cloud solutions.
In addition, to the above, formal members of the Consortium, Christ Church Canterbury University
is maintaining an active interest in the project and will work alongside existing members. Currently,
funding within CCCU precludes them from taking part in the formal bid but the Consortium
welcomes their interest and support.
1.2
The Project
Roehampton University is currently working successfully in a consortium with 4 other Universities
and the Systems Supplier, Unit4, to take the Cairo outcomes to the next level with the existing JISC
funded Project EWES (Exploiting Web Services). Project EWES will explore and document the
standards used in the Suppliers “Service Layer” and will use web services at the 4 different University
sites to explore the real accessibility of data through the re-usable and loosely coupled aspects of
this architecture. Project EWES will explore the efficacy of a “Service Layer” on a module which
remains within the structure of a large, monolithic systems architecture.
This new project (Cumulus) is designed to enable the Consortium of Universities to work with Unit4,
the supplier, to break the link between a significant business module (Curriculum Management
(ACMS)) and the major systems software of which it is a part. This will allow the module to exist as
a “service” carrying out a particular function, using data inputs, communicating with the “student
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Page : 3
System” and supplying data and reporting outputs in a Service Oriented Architecture. It will
therefore prove the concept of modularisation as a vital part of a flexible service delivery and in
addition, and equally importantly, will explore the issues of providing the module “services” from
within the “cloud” thus breaking the formal link with the large ERP type solutions concept. The
Project, therefore, clearly overlaps and combines 2 of the 4 strands of the 05/10 call;
Modularisation/Proof of Concept and “Shared Services and Cloud Computing” pilots.
An important aspect of ensuring the interoperability of the curriculum software is the work flow
with other components using recognised standards. XCRI is a key standard in this area as a large part
of curriculum management is about course information with work flow between other components
handling course catalogues, prospectuses, student enrolment, module registration, award
calculation, etc. It is therefore important that the “service layer” be XCRI enabled.
Figure 1 shows what the project intends to accomplish
Figure 1
Curriculum Management Module as part of Unit4 Student Record System
UCAS
admissions
Management
Curriculum
Management
System
Student
Registration
Other System Modules
Curriculum Management Module in the Cloud
Curriculum
Management
System
Unit4 Student
System
XCRI
standards
Other Supplier
Student System
Currently the Agresso Curriculum Management System (ACMS) exists as a module within the
Agresso Business World (ABW) Framework. This is represented by the upper part of Figure 1. The
module is purchased and supported as part of the ABW Framework, is dependent upon the
Framework, exchanges data within the Framework with other relevant modules and with the
outside world. This project will remove the module from the ABW Framework dependencies and
place it in the cloud. It will be, in effect, a standalone module capable of communicating with the
“outside world” through web services and Enterprise Service Bus technology. This type of
application deployment will raise new issues relating to the storing of User Accounts and Passwords,
integration with enterprise directories and with identity management systems on different
platforms and from different suppliers. The project will explore the impact of these issues within the
context of a modular, cloud based application deployment.
The proof of concept activities of this project will, if successful, show that it is no longer necessary
for institutions to implement inappropriate systems software. The simplification of integration
around a set of effective standards will make it possible for institutions to use only those modules of
a set of system software which are relevant to their business. It will enable institutions to choose
between suppliers at an appropriate level of granularity. This will introduce greater IT agility,
greater value for money and will change the landscape of the provision and management of
administrative and student services.
It will facilitate the implementation of safe, supported
software which is more closely aligned to business requirements.
In effect, success of this project will show the way forward towards the exploitation of
modularisation and cloud computing, built around EA and SOA principles, enabling the selection of
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Page : 4
“Best of Breed” options at a level more closely focussed to the business need. The project will
inform the development of relatively low level “services”, a step towards achieving a truly “service”
oriented architecture (software as a service) based on increased levels of data shareability and
integration.
1.3
Value to the JISC Community
The project will contain a set of specific deliverables or outputs. These are explored in greater detail
in the next section. There will also be a number of significant outcomes which will be of enormous
value to the JISC community and to the movement towards modularisation, shared services and
cloud computing within the HE Sector. The project will provide evidence of how the barriers to
integration can be overcome, how it is possible to work with suppliers towards the specific
objectives of modularisation and cloud computing solutions. It will enable an exploration of what
deployment in the cloud will mean for cost of provision, licensing arrangements, support and new
business models both for supplier and customer. It will illuminate, although not necessarily solve,
“hidden” problems within this method of service delivery.
UNIT4 has agreed to provide development resource at the significantly discounted development rate
of £500 per day (their standard development rate is £850 per day) in recognition of the partnership
approach of this bid. Although this is essentially a proof of concept project the value of the
investment by the JISC lies in the potential of a production system, with a set of re-usable,
interoperable web services which have been defined by the consortium to meet the needs of the HE
marketplace. The cloud environment would allow institutions to take and share benefit without the
normal infrastructure costs borne by each individual implementation. Unit4 estimates that there
will be considerable savings to be made through deployment in the cloud, specifically on hardware,
maintenance and support costs. The company estimates that these saving could amount to £50,000
per institutions which indicates that the sector would benefit financially overall with as few as 3 or 4
sales of the production application.
In turn, the Consortium firmly believes that this project is making an investment on behalf of the
sector to produce a flexible business solution which is in line with the JISC aims and objectives in this
arena.
2. Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan
2.1
Deliverables
The project will produce the following deliverables : A standalone business module, with a specific set of business processes, available in the
Cloud
 A set of web services which enable data to be imported and exported from the module
XCRI/Unit 4 mapping Document
 Report on XCRI 1.1 suitability and recommendations
 A set of standards for web services which facilitate interoperability especially with XCRI
 A set of web services facilitating links to business processes and workflows within other
system
 An exploration of the issues which impact on this type of deployment with suggested
solutions
The project will be run by a consortium of Universities which have experience of working together
on a current similar JISC funded project and a systems supplier which has many years experience in
the HE marketplace and a strong developmental roadmap of its own. The project will run for a
period of 10 months until May 2011 and will employ systems developers located in the Supplier
headquarters in Swansea and Bristol, thus able to work closely with existing Supplier staff. Project
management will be provided jointly by the lead institution and the supplier. The Project Managers
will report monthly to a Project Team consisting of representatives from all involved parties. Each
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representative will report back into the existing Project Governance of the individual institutions and
supplier, based universally on Prince2 methodology.
In Roehampton University the project manager will report to the University’s Project
Implementation Board, the Prince2 based governance for all IT projects in the University chaired by
the Pro Vice Chancellor. Project Sponsor at Roehampton is the University’s Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Paul O’Prey.
At Nottingham University this project will be governed as part of the Student Management Systems
Programme whose sponsor is the Registrar and Pro-VC responsible for efficiency gains and cost
savings.
Lincoln University will include this project within its formal corporate solutions optimisation
initiatives, sponsored by the University Registrar, Director of Finance and University Librarian and
overseen by the University’s Resources Committee chaired by the Vice Chancellor.
At De Montfort University, this work will be carried out as part of the strategic review of the
university’s business systems architecture, and will be sponsored by the Academic Registrar and the
PVC responsible for Information Services and Systems.
The project will deploy an external restricted website to facilitate communication between
consortium members and the JISC and an open external site to communicate progress to the wider
community. A potential set of workpackages are described below.
2.2
Workpackages
Work Packages
Project Management
Appointment of Systems Developer(s)
Baselining ACMS
Implementation of ACMS in the cloud
Development of Web Services integration
Mapping XCRI 1.1 to Unit4 elements
Documentation of issues
Pilot / Beta test
Dissemination
Month
1
X
X
X
X
2 3
X X
X
X X
X
X
X X
4 5
X X
6 7
X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
8
X
9 10
X X
X
X
X
X X
X X
X X
2.3
Success Measures
The project will be deemed fully successful if :
 The ACMS module is accessible within the cloud
 The web services, conforming to clearly specified standards, enable the importing and
exporting of data to and from the module
 Interoperability is achieved through XCRI compatible web services
 The module, in the cloud, carries out the business functions correctly
 Issues which impact the deployment in the cloud and operability with web services are
thoroughly documented
 The ACMS module passes the pilot testing and could go to production
Each of these success measures represents a degree of success within the project. Additionally the
project will be deemed a success if it fails to implement in the cloud using web services but
demonstrates clear documentation and understanding of the issues which have prevented
implementation.
2.4
Risk Assessment
Risk
Recruitment of project staff delays project
progress
Mitigation
Recruited staff will be used to backfill for staff
involved with the project. Early work in the
project involves deployment of the module “in
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Lack of agreement on decision making and rights
with partners
Value from project outputs are not realised post
project
Project costs exceed budget
External dependencies - other system suppliers
unable to benefit from developments
Hidden legal issues such as Data Protection
the cloud” using existing staff.
Ensure consortium agreement is in place.
Ensure sustainability plan is in place.
Fixed price agreement with Unit4 on costs
Development to approved standards and
schemas especially XCRI
Does not impact on the proof of concept
Unit4 is aware of the crucial nature of its involvement in this project and is aware that there is
interest from elsewhere in working with them. The company has stated that as the ACMS module is
written in the ABW framework, it is supported by a company resource pool that could work on the
project as well as staff specific to the education market. They state that as they, Unit4, are working
on this project in partnership with the HE and JISC communities, they would guarantee that the
required resources would be ring fenced to make this project a success.
2.5
Intellectual Property Rights
The IPR of all deliverables from the project itself will be held by the sector. However, where IPR
already exists, it will remain with the vendor. The IPR for any re-engineering carried out to the
vendor software, its “Service Layer” or vendor originated documentation will remain with the
Vendor Company.
3. Engagement with the Community
3.1
Consortium Experience
The Consortium will work closely with the JISC Programme Manager and fully understands the
importance of the Flexible Services Delivery Programme to the JISC and to the HE Sector. The lead
institution on the project, Roehampton University, has fully participated in the EA/SOA and FSD
initiatives. The university has its own strong strategic thread which coincides with these programme
developments from the JISC which, in turn, are part of a strong and seminal movement in the
marketplace. Roehampton has fully and actively contributed at all stages in the development of
these programmes, through the EA Practice Group and through its “solutions” level membership of
the Flexible Service Delivery Programme Strategic Technologies Group.
Similarly, through its Project Executive, Roehampton is well placed to feed the project outputs to key
dissemination fora e.g. BUFDG, AHUA and HEFCE.
For Nottingham University this is an important strategic project which will support the reengineering of its student management system. The project will provide a case study deployment
which can be provided to other institutions. Value will also be gained in other institutions wishing to
use the Unit4 software. They will find integration easier through the new “service layer” and
incorporation of XCRI standards. Mapping Unit4 data objects to XCRI 1.1 will represent early work to
engage large vendors in the JISC-developed interoperability standard. Standardised curriculum
management modules will act as a further driver for other institutions to adopt the standard thereby
benefitting the national community at large.
Recommendations on XCRI extension and vocabularies from the mapping process will be fed back to
the JISC XCRI Support Project Team to inform XCRI 1.2 and the XCRI community as a whole.
Nottingham University will manage the project as part of its Student Management Systems
programme in conjunction with the Centre for International ePortfolio Development which is well
placed to disseminate findings through Regional HE/FEI Lifelong Learning Network contacts and the
regional XCRI community, supported by the JISCmail XCRI-East-Midlands List. Additionally, the JISC
Regional Support Centre for the East Midlands is starting up an East Midlands MIS Manager group
for FEIs.
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Page : 7
DMU recognises the importance and is fully supportive of the Flexible Service Delivery programme,
and was recently involved in a joint project (STEP-C) with Southampton Solent University. This
project formed part of its own SOA IT Strategy and its technical learning programme in the use of
SOA and Enterprise Service Bus technologies to investigate and prove the concept of delivering a
modular integrated solution linking multiple applications. The university sees this bid as a logical
extension of that project in expanding its SOA knowledge to support its transition towards a more
flexible business systems environment.
The project will, of course, support a website to disseminate activities and experience. The
Consortium will host and contribute at seminars and other sharing activities, will take a full and
active role in the benefits realisation programme associated with the bid and will report back
directly to the JISC at regular intervals through the FSD STG agenda. The Consortium is very aware of
the complex nature of this area and has a joint depth of experience to ensure that the project is
successful.
Consortium members, including the Supplier, Unit4, 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, the EA Practice Group and the FSD STG, 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 initiative.
3.2
Stakeholder Analysis
Level of Interest High / Power Low – JISC FSD Community
Level of Interest Low / Power High - Other HE sector institutions (not yet part of FSD programme)
Other FE Institutions (not yet part of FSD Programme)
Level of Interest High / Power High - JISC programme manager / HEFCE Universities / Project Sponsors
It will be vital to the project to maintain the high interest of the stakeholders with the highest power
and those with high interest but lower power. This will be achieved by the consortium reporting
regularly on progress to the FSD STG and through this medium, to the rest of the FSD Community.
The Programme Manager will be invited to sit on the Project Board if this is deemed appropriate
meeting by meeting. Within each University the project will become a standard item on the internal
project board which exercises governance over IT projects. The Pro Vice-Chancellor of Roehampton
University will appraise HEFCE of progress
The project will support an external website which will inform stakeholders in the low interest / low
power area. The consortium will actively seek the opportunity to present the concepts and findings
of the project to those stakeholders whose level of interest is low but whose power within the sector
is high, this clearly including the many institutions which are currently aware of and watching the
FSD developments.
4. Budget
Directly Incurred
Staff
Post, Grade, No. Hours & % FTE
April 10 – March
11
£
April 11 – May
11
£
TOTAL £
Etc.
£
£
£
Etc.
£
£
£
Total Directly Incurred Staff (A)
£
£
£
Non-Staff
April 10 – March
April 11 – May
TOTAL £
£
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Page : 8
Travel and expenses
11
£7060.80
11
£1765.20
£8826
Hardware/software
£
£
£
Dissemination
£
£
£
Evaluation
£
£
£
Other - We have included Unit4 staff
under directly allocated staff costs
however they may placed as non staff
incurred costs as they are being bought
into the project
Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B)
£
£
£
£7060.80
£1765.20
£8826
Directly Incurred Total (C)
(A+B=C)
£7060.80
£1765.20
£8826
Directly Allocated
April 10 – March
11
£15,798.62
April 11 – May
11
£3949.66
TOTAL £
Estates for Roehampton University
£1,653.67
£413.42
£2,067.09
Staff- University of Nottingham 5 Staff
including estates and indirect costs. PM,
Head of SMS, Analyst, Technical
Consultant(XCRI), Administrator
£25,978.40
£6,494.60
£32,473
Staff- Lincoln University 4 Staff including
estates and indirect costs. Project
Sponsor, PM, Technical Analyst, Project
Co-ordinator
£18,571.20
£4,642.80
£23,214
Staff- De Montfort University 3 Staff
including estates and indirect costs. PM,
Project Sponsor, Technical Analyst,
£18,617.60
£4,654.40
£23,272
Unit 4 Staff Costs (inclusive of VAT) 4
Staff – PM 40 days £23500; Systems
Analyst 50days £29,375; Technical
Consultant 50 days £29,375; Technical
Author 20days £11,750
£75,200
£18,800
£94,000
Other
£
£
£
Directly Allocated Total (D)
£155,819.50
£38,954.87
£194,774.37
Indirect Costs (E)
£7416.83
£1854.21
£9271.04
Total Project Cost (C+D+E)
£170.297.13
£42,547.28
£212,871.41
Amount Requested from JISC
£136,000
£34,000
£170,000
Staff – Roehampton University 5 Staff
(PM, Technical Consultant, Tester,
Sponsor, Project Exec Team Member)
£19,748.28
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Institutional Contributions
£34,297.13
£8,574.28
£42,871.41
Percentage Contributions over the life of
the project
JISC
80 %
Partners
20 %
Total
100%
No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and
estates charges, and staff included
No FTEs
Partner universities included estates and
indirect costs as part of staff costs so this
has not been broken down. Staff involved in
the project are as follows:
Roehampton University – John King, Hiren
Patel, George Zhou, Paul O’Prey(VC), Mike
Hall.
Nottingham: Richard McKenna, Stuart
Wood, Kirstie Coolin, Carina Neil, Technical
Analyst, Tec Consultant
Lincoln University: Mike Day, Allister Homes,
Technical Analyst, Project Co-ordinator
De Montfort University – Mike Robinson,
John Shelton; Navinder Kaur
Unit 4: Caroline Drew, Tim Strong, Peter
Brown, Technical Author
5. Previous Experience of the Project Team
5.1
University of Lincoln
Mike Day (Head of ICT at University of Lincoln). Mike is a very experienced IT director, with over 20
years working in IT, mainly in the public sector. He is both a PRINCE2 and MSP certified practitioner
and has led large projects and programmes at Government Department level. He has a strong
background in Business Systems, Business Intelligence and Data Modelling, including experience of a
SOA-based integration of a learning environment, student information system and corporate web
site for National College of School Leadership (using Oracle Enterprise Service Bus). He is very
experienced in systems design, requirements specification and software development, which he has
previously taught to MSc level at the Royal Military College of Science.
Allister Homes (Title) with a primarily technical IT background, Allister is part of Project Services in
the ICT department. Allister has managed projects to implement Unit4's Research Database,
upgrade a CRM system and introduce a disability management system, as well as taking the
technical lead in other projects . Current projects include a curriculum management system and an
alumni system. Prior to this Allister worked for the Ministry of Defence most recently as the Mission
System Software Manager for a new £1bn airborne intelligence and surveillance asset, earlier
heading IT development at an RAF station which included managing and taking part in the full
systems life-cycle and having in-depth experience of server, systems and SAN administration.
Allister is a Chartered IT Professional with 10 years’ of IT experience, and is currently studying for a
master’s degree in computer science.
5.2
University of Nottingham
Richard McKenna (Head of Student Management Systems, University of Nottingham).
Richard has 18 years experience of IT within the university sector, 5 of which was working for JISC as
a Programme Manager and as Director of Programme Management. Richard has a wide breath of
knowledge and exposure to the range of JISC innovation activity and services. Amongst which
Richard was the programme manager responsible for establishing the original XCRI project. Richard’s
present role as Head of Student Management Systems at the University of Nottingham is responsible
for leading a 5 year University wide programme which includes campuses in China and Malaysia in
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Page : 10
the re-engineering of the student management systems and academic business process over the
next 5 years.
Stuart Wood (MSc)
Stuart is Applications Developer for the CIePD, working primarily on the JISC-funded SAMSON
project developing web services to join data sources using open standards, as well as on the PIOP3
ePortfolio Interoperability project, further developing the Leap2A standard and implementing with
oAuth for seamless data transfer and ROBOT-XCRI. Stuart is delivering XCRI expertise to East
Midlands HE/FEIs and has been key in implementing XCRI with LLN partners and Area Prospectuses
through 2 LLN XCRI projects, XCRI 14-19 and XCRI-X-Border. He is advising on use of the standard
and on processes and vocabularies to inform XCRI v1.2, developing XCRI web services and informing
recommendations to the JISC XCRI Support Team.
Kirstie Coolin (BA, HND)
Kirstie is the eBusiness Analyst for the CIePD, project managing on the JISC-funded projects
SAMSON, PIOP3 and ROBOT-XCRI. Over the last 2 years she has managed the successful delivery of
various interoperability projects, including Leap2A, XCRI 14-19, XCRI-X-Border and XCRI
implementation for two lifelong learning networks. Her background is in applications development
in HE/FE with experience in project managing/developing eLearning systems, Intranets, websites and
business support systems as well as team management. Kirstie’s technical skills mainly centre on
analysis, web and database applications in .NET, XML and SQL Server with some experience in PHP
and mySQL.
5.3
Roehampton University
Mike Hall is IT and Media 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 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
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 modelling techniques using
UML for case / scenario / prototyping. Hiren has a working experience of HP / Dell / IBM h/w and
primarily of MS OS platform.
John King is Project Manager for Information technology and Media Services Department. 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. 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 and
has recently managed Project Cairo to a successful conclusion and into ongoing development work
with the JISC and The Open Group.
5.4
De Montfort University
Mike Robinson (Director of Information Services and Systems (ISAS) has recently joined De
Montfort University as Director of Information Services and Systems and is also a Director of
EMMAN. Mike is a member of the overall University Operational Management Group with
responsibility for business systems integration, technology platforms and support. A senior IT
professional qualified in PRINCE2 and ITIL, Mike has over 17 experience of leading and contributing
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to major transformation initiatives across the HE, Legal and Professional services and IT Services
sector. Mike has led strategic development and infrastructure projects and large operational teams
across a range of technologies, platforms and business applications; from HR, Finance and web
through to server virtualisation and Unified Communications.
John Shelton (ISAS - Head of Business Systems) is a senior manager at DMU and has 34 years of IT
experience, 20 years commercial and 14 years in Higher Education. He is experienced in developing
and delivering large complex IT solutions, technical strategies and initiatives within the HE sector,
including Business Systems and Business Intelligence. He has developed strong and lasting
partnerships with suppliers and other institutions, and has chaired a number of national user groups.
He has also spoken at conferences in the UK and USA.
Navinder Kaur is a senor applications developer within ISAS. She has an in depth knowledge of a
number of UNIT4 business modules, and has extensive experience of systems integration including
the development of a UKPASS application. This system links into the DMU Staff portal and Student
database system and connects to UCAS web services to exchange data on postgraduate applications.
This has made significant improvements to internal processes and procedures, allowing faculties and
the registry to make offers electronically. Navinder completed both a BSc (Hons) in Computing and
an MSc in Distributed Systems at the university. She achieved Distinction level in her MSc in 2009
and was awarded Student of the Year by the Faculty of Technology.
5.5
Unit4
Caroline Drew is Education Product Manager for Unit4. Caroline has over 15 years experience of
working for Unit4 in their Education Division. Caroline was involved with support, training and
consultancy of the Unit4 Student Administration software for a number of years prior to becoming
Product Manager. She has worked on numerous development and implementation projects for
Unit4 including managing the migration of the student system to a dotnet / web environment.
Caroline currently also manages the education portfolio of Unit4. Using strong interpersonal and
relationship management skills, and her knowledge of the sector, Caroline is able quickly to grasp
the business requirements of education establishments and match these effectively to applications
and IT processes. She is currently working with a consortium of Universities involved in the FSD
Project – Exploiting Web Services (Project EWES).
Tim Strong is UK Platform Manager for Unit4. Tim has over 14 years experience of working for Unit4
in their Education Division. Tim was responsible for the technical design and development of the
Unit4 Student Administration software along with other key supporting applications during the
migration to the .Net platform. Tim now manages the technical strategy for applications within the
Education division along with heading up a team responsible for the application platform. Tim has
strong technical skills specifically around the Microsoft development and server stack and works
closely with Microsoft on ensuring applications adhere to proven patterns and practices.
Peter Brown is the Chief Technology Officer for UNIT4 Business Software. Peter has been involved in
the Information Technology industry for 25 years and has worked on projects covering a wide range
of technology, hardware and software. Peter has worked for UNIT4 Business Software for 15 years
and has responsibility over all technology delivery related issues across all sectors of the UK
business. Peter has a wide variety of experience within UNIT4 Business Software having carried out
roles as programmer, database administrator, support consultant, implementation consultant, pre
sales consultant, customer services manager and technology manager. Peter is currently working on
projects to investigate new and better ways of delivering systems including such topics as shared
service platforms, cloud platforms, open data collaboration projects, offline and mobile capabilities.
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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 from
disclosure under FOI
None
Justification
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