Supporting and Enabling External Engagement

T: 0191 222 5000E: enquiries@netskills.ac.ukwww.netskills.ac.ukBusiness as Usual?Supporting and enabling external engagementStories from the project, BCE Awareness and Education for the Wider JISC Community funded by the JISC BCE Programme

Contents Welcome to Supporting and Enabling BCE The current and future climate for higher & further education means that engagement and partnerships are going to be increasingly important to the success of both individual institutions and the sector as a whole. 04 “Is engagement activity ‘business as usual’ where Naturally there is a good deal of focus on the external facing aspects of engagement (often with specialist roles you work?” identified for those taking part), but not everyone experiences engagement this way. This can be particularly true What is BCE - definitions and terminology and dimensions. for the internal support and enabling functions within those institutions, where engagement may not always be 08 Opening up strict institutional ICT viewed as part of their business as usual. In 2006 Erik Bohemia and Ben Lovett started a project From 2008-2010, our JISC-funded project, Awareness and Education in Business and Community Engagement (BCE) which, four years later, led to an institution-wide roll-out of for the Wider JISC Community, examined the nature of external engagement within universities and colleges. The open source software and web 2.0 communication tools. focus for the project was on how increased engagement activity might impact on the ability of the internal They told us how. functions of an institution to support it effectively and consistently. 10 Professionally managed relationships are the key 08 We ran and took part in around 25 direct consultations and workshops, with individuals and groups representing There are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions the range of support and enabling functions found in UK universities and colleges. Staff from over 75 universities about customer relationship management systems in and colleges attended project events to share their experience, helping us build a picture of the landscape for an academic environment. Karen Race from Teesside support and management of BCE activities; both locally and more broadly across the sector. University, helped us to try and set a few of them straight. We also engaged with professional bodies such as UCISA, SCONUL and the AUA to explore the engagement-driven 14 Big strategic leaps for BCE activity taking place right across the HE and FE sectors, with the aim to find out the context in which it was being During the last few years, BCE has taken huge steps in experienced by key support staff working in IT, libraries and administration. becoming an integrated part of educational institutions’ strategies. John Burke, Senior Adviser at JISC InfoNet, has During that time we accumulated a lot of rich material on the project blog, wrote a report of our findings and been in the front seat for the ride. experience and shortened the project name (to simply BCE A&E). This 05 publication is an attempt to present those findings in a more relevant pre 16 Technology won’t solve all the problems in access and easily digestible way. management – the power is in the hands of people now The ’big white licensing elephant’ doesn’t necessarily exist As well as explaining how an why the term BCE is being used to and anymore, Mark Williams, Access management co-ordinator describe activities taking place in and around your organisation, we pla at JISC Collections, says. have highlighted five comm issues that cropped up during the common project and then spoken in depth with the people involved in key d 20 Institutional ICT doesn’t have to exclude external work taking place to address them. partners Loughborough University’s Network and Security Manager Also included is an overview of the wider JISC Business Matthew Cook talked us through the process of turning and Community Engagement (BCE) programme from the ad hoc queries into external engagement being part of programme manager Simon Whittemore, plus anSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 “business as usual” 16 in introduction to the JISC Advance BCE team, who provide a useful first point of 22“Skillful BCE practitioners are like match-makers” contact for all matters BCE. The core skills needed in successful external engagement Supporting and Enabling BCE staff are skills in relationship building, says Helen Blanchett, Editor-in-Chief: Chris Young the project manager for project set out to create a national Chief reporter: Hanna Miettinen Chris Young skills framework for BCE. Contributors: Rob Allen, Caroline Ingram, Marc Dobson Editor-in-Chief Publisher: JISC Netskills, Newcastle upon Tyne 0191 222 5000, enquiries@netskills.ac.uk 2 3

“Is engagement activity business as usual where you work?” This was one of the first questions we asked during the BCE A&E project and it highlighted some early stumbling blocks of identification, definition and terminology. “How is engagement at your institution impacting on the What’s in a name? Enter… BCE work you do?” As well as introducing more jargon to the already rich lexicon of UK “Are you able to consistently higher and further education, the diversity of descriptors for engagement activity (and the differences in their application) makes it difficult Business and Community Engagement (BCE) is being used by JISC, HEFCE and support it?” for support staff to consistently understand exactly what it is they are others to describe, more holistically, supporting. the relationships academic institutions create with external organisations and Over the lifetime of the BCE A&E Use of Customer Relationship traditionally given a wide berth by This is exacerbated when comparing between institutions; exchanging individuals. project, five recurrent themes Management (CRM) systems and many. practice and experience externally can be difficult if you can’t easily emerged in response to these two processes identify equivalent activities. As one attendee remarked, while At its heart are four dimensions, which questions. A combination of revised policy, open reflecting on the differences between institutional descriptions of ac- can be used as to group together types of Often seen as a potential panacea for practice and improvements in the tivities, “one organisation’s ‘employer-engagement’ is another’s identifiable activity. These typically relate The issues they typically encompass struggling engagement activities, the communication of strategy is now ‘life-long learning’”. to the relationships most people are not restricted to specific audience implementation of any CRM process helping to resolve the difficulties that recognise as existing at their institution. types or staff from any one particular represents a big change to working can arise here. Examining the types of activity actually taking place and their role. practice in most institutions. relationship to the ‘core’ business of a university or college can help. CPD, reward and recognition Employer Engagement broadly Access to online resources and man- Understanding the specific describes the activities people tend to If supporting and enabling BCE Which ones do we do? agement of identity requirements for an individual map between teaching and learning and activity to take place isn’t always institution is essential, but external organisations. The recent switch by many to the overcoming the negative perceptions indentified as part of the regular role A typical university or college could be presumed to be carrying out a UK Access Management Federation amongst staff and focusing on the for an individual, then allocating mixture of two main activities; Teaching and Learning and Research. Knowledge Transfer (and Exchange) is has made access to online resources benefits to both individuals and time and resource to developing their Even acknowledging that this is a very broad generalisation, most primarily used to refer to relationships easy for members of their institution, the institution are also vital for a capacity to do it can be difficult! people we met with could easily recognise the parts of their institution between the research funcions of institu- however extending that access successful implementation. that dealt with those two areas. tions and external organisations. The rest of this publication looks at to external partners is not as straightforward. Network access and deployment and important aspects of each of these During project consultations, most people also found it easier to map Lifelong Learning is typically used to areas, through the experiences of support of IT resources engagement-led activities originating from those two areas to either describe the interactions between Engagement with strategy those working with the JISC BCE Organisations or Individuals external to their institution. Although the teaching and learning and individuals The availability of high-quality, fast programme to help resolve them. local names for specific activities differed, the actual make up of them external to the institution. Institutions that run successful BCE and reliable IT resources is a major contained many commonly identifiable elements. activities are typically also better at advantage for the UK academic sector. Public, Community and Cultural clearly identifying, communicating These are reflected in the four dimensions of Business and Community Engagement is a broad term and embedding BCE within their However extending the use of theseSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Engagement (BCE). institutional and organisational facilities to include external partners, Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 encompassing a range of activity, usually The JISC BCE A&E Project Blog: involving individuals and wider society strategies. visitors and organisations involves http://bceawareness.jiscinvolve.org with the activities of the institution. crossing boundaries which are By identifying local activities within these dimensions (regardless of how they are referred to locally) means that advice, good practice, and calls for collaboration or funding opportunities can be accessed more quickly and effectively. 4 5

It was recognised that JISC’s work would be part of a integrated online service models. These offer long-term change programme, so working with change information and knowledge to local partners, agents and key national stakeholders was vital for the generating innovation via co-development of ideas in programme’s success. open online marketplaces.  To help embed good practice in Customer Relationship The dual aims of the programme were designed to reflect Management (CRM), online self-analysis tools are the bi-directional nature of engagement and partnerships, enabling institutions to enhance their professionalism, JISC: Supporting BCE as well as the changing HE and FE landscape:  To enhance institutions’ efficiency, effectiveness and and maturity level, by better managing relationships and the associated data and services to deliver opportunities in BCE activities; customer value.  To improve access to institutions’ knowledge and  A pioneering project to support and develop CPD Programme Manager Simon Whittemore gives us an overview of the expertise for business and community organisations. for university and college engagement (including strategic thinking underpinning the BCE programme. knowledge exchange) practitioners is working closely With these in mind, the programme structure for the with AURIL, and other key national stakeholders, to current phase has been distilled into four strategic deliver an online diagnostic tool and a catalogue of priorities: available training resources. Over the last decade, supported by government policy, a The JISC Business and Community Engagement (BCE)  Partnerships are being empowered through use cases, consensus within the UK and across Europe has emerged, programme was designed in 2007 to help UK institutions 1. Organisational capability and efficiency for BCE practical guidance and resources in the deployment of that the considerable wealth of knowledge and expertise rise to these challenges and opportunities through the online tools to facilitate better, smarter collaboration. in universities and colleges can (and should) be harnessed effective use of technology. By supporting and developing 2. Relationship Management to make a more direct contribution to the economy and strategic management of relationships with external 3. Public Value and Civic Engagement Future work society than through graduates alone. partners, institutions would then be better equipped to 4. Embedding BCE across JISC deliver efficient and effective services which benefit the Future plans continue to build on work across these At the same time, we have experienced an explosion of economy and society. themes, with a particular emphasis on three key areas: Supporting the sectors new web technologies, an increasing amount of business conducted online and a digital world where information JISC defined Business and Community Engagement as The BCE programme is also supporting the Higher and  Further Access to Resources and Open Innovation is king. But where the kingdom is inclusive, global and encompassing four dimensions - often overlapping Further Education sector in the development of economic projects, aiming to extend existing, effective models multi-faceted, and the use and context of that information institutional strategic areas: competencies along with the innovative use of technology and focus on HE-FE exchange of good practice is everything. to enable partnerships, at both at the individual and in developing integrated online services and co- Employer Engagement development of online marketplaces. institutional level. For example: In this technology-driven world, open innovation, crowd- Knowledge Transfer (and Exchange)  A series of projects on Organisational Capability for sourcing and open access to research are among the  Via a portfolio of Access to Resources and Open key areas of innovation creating new opportunities for Lifelong Learning BCE, with partnering institutions (HE or FE) asked to Innovation demonstrator projects, HEIs and FECs are choose two areas in which to enhance good practice universities and businesses alike. Public, Cultural and Community Engagement taking a leading role in facilitating innovation via through exchange and development. Example areas include business intelligence, information and knowledge management to support BCE, or reward, recognition and incentivising of staff. Good practice to be shared via ‘Just Enough’ information sheets for each area.  A portfolio of collaborative projects (supported by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement) on BCE and Enterprise in Support of the Research Excel- lence Framework (REF) and Impact Agenda. These are aimed at helping institutions prepare for the REF by deploying expert engagement professionals from other institutions to identify impact and benefits to external parties. Partner institutions are expected to embed an ongoing process and culture change, identify potential benefits and beneficiaries and to articulate impact on research users. Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Simon Whittemore, JISC BCE Programme Manager The JISC BCE Programme: Programme Manager Simon Whittemore (left) with members of the JISC Advance BCE team and project managers. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/bce6 7

Opening up strict institutional ICT In 2006 Erik Bohemia and Ben Lovett started a project, which four years later led to an institution-wide roll-out of open source software and web 2.0 communication tools. They told us how. It all started when Dr Erik Bohemia various phone calls and emails, Erik joined Northumbria University in was put in touch with Ben Lovatt, a the mid 2000s. His international developer at the university’s Learning background in teaching design meant Technologies team (LTech). that he understood the huge benefits global collaboration offers for design A key relationship was established money to explore the use of open at universities across the world. students. source web 2.0 applications to “It was important to have an ‘ally’ in communicate with the international Looking back, has the project At the time, Northumbria’s IT systems the IT services”, Erik said. business and university partners. changed the organisation in any were heavily locked down. Accessing way? emails and the virtual learning “And Ben wasn’t looking at it just from “That’s when we really got the IT platform (Blackboard) at the same the technical side. He understood director on board”, Erik said. “I think we are more open to ideas”, time meant fiddling between different what we were trying to do and how Ben said. wireless networks and there was no useful it was for the students to work “He became a champion of this, internal set-up to do any external with external partners.” starting to look at all the ways the IT “I’ve always worked for IT services, Ben Lovett worked together with Erik Bohe- collaboration that required the use mia (opposite page, top) to open up institu- services can change to accommodate although on the fringes rather Directly collaborating between their Northumbria students use Web 2.0 tools to than centrally, and I think the IT of IT. tional ICT Photos by: Simon Veit-Wilson the requirements from academics.” work with international partners in design departments meant that some of the projects. Photo courtesy of The Global Studio: department is much more open to early practical steps were also much reasons – when we wanted to start The Gift project Today ideas that originally would’ve been “Of course, as an academic, you can easier to take, Ben explained. installing invasive systems, things like terrifying.” always go and set up your own Google Skype, peer-to-peer networking etc”, objectives or the ‘requirements of the The result of the project has been Docs, free wiki pages and blogs”, Erik “It’s a lot easier to set up meetings Ben said. real-world’. great. Two years later, both Skype In terms of changing perceptions and said. if you’re already working in the and Wordpress have been rolled getting people on board with new department. And then there are also “In fact we missed out on some “It’s not going to be like that in out across campus enabling much things Ben advices to proceed with “But there are problems in terms of some really trivial things, like your projects as, for example, there are industry”, Ben said. more versatile communication small steps. controlling where the data is stored swipe card letting you in the right some industry partners that won’t with external partners as well as and how to create a safe learning places.” collaborate with you if you don’t have “Students are not going to be waiting significantly streamlining the process “Take a tiny bit at a time, get environment for the students and Skype.” for two weeks to talk to someone. of creating individual websites for something to work and then go back staff, so they don’t have to worry “It was important that we spoke with They are going to need the answers different courses. to ask if you can start building up the about their work ending up on Google IT director at an early point and got The opponents of Skype argued immediately.” other little bits”, he said. search results.” him on board from the start”, Ben that it didn’t add much to the video For students, the benefits have been also pointed out. conferencing which was already The breakthrough huge. Through Erik’s Global Studio “That way I think ownership The first steps possible on campus. course (which was used as a research sometimes defers to the IT serviceSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 The first obstacle The real turning point was when site for the project) they’ve had a – without necessarily realising it, As soon as Erik Both Erik and Ben disagreed. the project team secured external chance to work in direct collaboration they’ve started to take ownership got in touch with At first, the pair encountered little funding to take things further. with international companies such as over it to the extent where you start the IT director resistance. They were given the go “To set up a video conference, you Motorola and Intel - as well as share getting emails from them suggesting Jed Woodhouse ahead to try things out with the need to contact the AV people with The JISC-funded Business and changes and new things.” things started experiences with other design teams software and hardware already in the lead time of about two weeks to Community Engagement programme happening. place to see how far that would take get everything sorted”, Erik said. Trialling of Online Collaboration Tools The reaction Read more about the BCE Collaborative Tools project and Erik and Ben’s them. for BCE project was perfect for their was The process, he said, was slow, case study at: purposes. encouraging expensive, led by academic interests http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/collaborative-tools and after “The resistance from the IT department came – and for very valid and didn’t reflect the learning Erik and Ben now had the time and http://issuu.com/jiscinfonet/docs/bcect_northumbria_case_study 8 9

“One of the things that make cross- where their business is paying us for “At Teesside, we’ve got really great institution collaboration difficult services.” marketing for student recruitment, is that academic schools are quite a massive database and fantastic siloed.” To get the most for their money, Karen information management about our also recommends other academic students and established quality “Then there are issues around work- institutions also look at wider issues processes in place” loading, reasons for staff to do work around CRM as part of the implemen- Professionally managed relationships other than teaching, as well as issues around career structures.” tation process. “We took three projects forward at the “In fact, what we’ve been putting in place for business customers are are the key... and CRM is essential an extension of processes which More than a record of contacts same time; implementing a physical are already part of the institutional CRM database, introducing quality culture.” According to Karen, one of the keys standards for our employer work and to success is not to think about the producing management information There are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions about customer CRM system as just a way to create a for performance management”, she relationship management (CRM) systems in an academic environment. record of contacts. said. Karen Race, Deputy Director of the Department of Academic Enterprise at However, Karen says, one mistake that “I think they all need to be done Teesside University, helped us to try and set a few of them straight. some universities make is to think too together, you can’t just put in the CRM big about what information the CRM ‘system’ without addressing the other needs to hold. two.” A CRM is a process that helps a university or college without a CRM”, “The Academic Enterprise Department business to manage their customer- she said. has had to create new posts, tackle “To successfully implement a CRM, Karen thinks some universities facing activities. It’s a way to keep traditional conceptions and undertake it’s important to be really clear what aren’t too far behind commercial records of contacts, contracts and “Universities are in the business of a huge training process.” is it that you want organisations when it comes to CRM. sales leads – essentially all aspects building long-term relationships with the system to do.” of interaction that the company has key customers for mutual benefit.” “If you think about it, universities with its customers. A good CRM is a “For Teesside, are already behaving in a more combination of practice, policy and “So with that in mind, it’s absolutely the scope was businesslike manner towards their technnology. essential to have a rich seam of about business students”, she said. detailed information about your key customers – Teesside University has been running customers.” Microsoft Dynamics across the institution for almost two years and To Karen, the economic climate isn’t an argument against CRMs according to Karen Race, the system either – quite the contrary as now, Tips for success has been invaluable. is the perfect time to make sure you “The fact that there is a CRM system take the best possible care of your Karen listed some of the things that could help institutions in the has made everybody working with business customers. implementation process of a CRM system. businesses talk and interact a lot  Include the right people in the specification process. To get the best more and has really brought added “We’re getting to the point where possible spec, run a system for a while, talk to people. Look at the value to what they can offer to their we’re going to be asking employers things they are already doing. own contacts.” to pay more and more, so you’ve got to be really slick about the way Building long-term relationships you deal with businesses if you’re  Make sure the implementation process is not done in isolation. Let expecting them to pay for the full cost people who have experience of business processes lead the project. At At a time of cross-sector cuts and of delivery.” Teesside, the Department of Academic Enterprise owned the project, financial uncertainty, implementing a the IT department supported it. new and expensive system, might not Time, effort and money be high on an institutions’ agenda.  Don’t test in a sterile environment. This can lead to problems when The CRM implementation process, going live through a university’s heavy firewall systems. However, as part of its mission, which started in 2007, hasn’t been all Teesside is striving to be the “leading  Be careful when defining a scope for your CRM project. Don’t trySupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 plain sailing. University for working with business“ and get all the contacts in. For Teesside, the scope was about paying and in 2008, took a step further by “It’s been a big job which has taken business customers or potential future customers. applying for the Customer First time, effort, determination and has national quality standard. cost money”, Karen explained.  Don’t think a database is going to solve all your problems. As part of the implementation project, make sure to look at your business After that, the strategic decision about processes and information management on a more general level. implementing a CRM system was a Karen has just started a new project, working with no-brainer as Karen explained. the University of Huddersfield to create a handbook of best practice on CRM implementation. Find out  Never underestimate the time and effort that will go into training “You would never expect to see a more at: http://crmhandbook.wordpress.com/ people. Make sure continuous support is available in addition to the business with a turnover similar to a official training sessions. This might mean setting up a new post to handle this.10 11

The framework, developed by the “It cannot be overstated enough The organisational changes brought People, processes and technology University of Nottingham as a JISC- funded project in 2008, contains that CRM is not just about a system, but also about people, culture and on by the current economic climate have been so many that introducing guides, insights and tools to help processes. Understanding how these yet another one with CRM could prove institutions consider their approach to components interact takes time, but a difficult. Customer Relationship Management technical implementation should not For help in improving their business processes educational institutions (CRM) processes and tools. and cannot take place until the To get started, Sharon’s advice is not can turn to a self-analysis framework launched by JISC CETIS (Centre for preparatory steps have been to think about the technology at the The framework is in the process of beginning. Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards). being extended and it has recently completed.” been piloted by 13 institutions, The report also recommends that “Don’t make the process or the people including 12 universities and one FE the framework shouldn’t be used in fit the technology (if you’re buying a College. isolation – to maximise its usefulness CRM system)”, she said. it should be supported with guidance According to the feedback, the from CRM experts and champions “Ensure you know how your piloting institutions found working with previous experience of processes work and make any with the framework a “positive and implementing a CRM. improvements. Make sure staff helpful experience”. understand why CRM is important Don’t make people fit the and what benefits it can bring them “Whilst gaps and inconsistencies have technology to ensure their buy-in.” been identified, on the whole the SAF [self analysis framework] was found According to Sharon, CRM is likely to to be useful to all the institutions become increasingly important as involved by guiding them through the the higher education sector becomes process of analysis prior to selecting a more business-oriented. CRM systems, and thus avoiding some of the many possible pitfalls”, says “Information streams will need to Sharon Perry, Learning Technology be joined up in order to provide Advisor at JISC CETIS, writing in the customers (students/business/ project report. community etc.) with a higher level of service. This means improving During the pilot projects, some key current processes and ensuring that improvements were identified. Work staff share in their institution’s vision is currently underway to amend the on relationship management” she framework to address them as part of said. another JISC-funded project run jointly by the University of Huddersfield and As one of the challenges institutions Teesside University. might need to tackle, Sharon mentions ‘change fatigue’. People before technology One of the key findings in the piloting stage was that there are three JISC CETIS is supporting the current round (phase 2) of JISC key interdependencies of any funded Relationship Management Projects. approach to CRM:Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 These are split into three strands: Good Practice in CRM; Stu- Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011  People dent Progression, Retention and Non-Completion; and Alumni  Processes Engagement.  Technology For further details, see the relevant sections on: “Whilst processes need to be carefully http://jisc.cetis.ac.uk/support/relationship-management documented, it is the ‘people’ aspect, which is critical to the success of Phase 1 projects and case studies are also listed here: CRM”, the report reads. http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Funded_RM_Projects12 13

“Strategy is everything” Shrewsbury College was one of the institutions that took part in the Embedding BCE project. Ian Jervis, Head of Business Development at the college, stresses that it’s absolutely essential that external engagement is recognised in the institution’s core strategy. “If it is not embedded in the core organisation strategy it will not be seen as a key strategic objective and will remain marginalised within that organisation.” One of the next key steps, according to Ian, is to get the support from the Big strategic leaps for BCE people that are going to be doing the actual work. “Once we had identified a clear strategy, this was communicated through the organisation and worked back from this start point – staff were During the last few years, Business and Community Engagement engaged from the writing of the strategy through to the implementation so they had buy-in.” has become an increasingly integral part of many educational institutions’ strategies. John Burke, Senior Adviser at JISC InfoNet, The right person for the job has been in the front seat for the ride. In terms of the practicalities of getting started, Ian advises institutions to choose carefully the right person to carry out the self-analysis process used in the Embedding BCE project, as it’s essential to get all staff involved in it. As a project manager of the Embedding Business a process of self-evaluation and planning. and Community Engagement project, John has seen “This is a thorough process to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses the encouraging change within institutions in the In the beginning, the project had to tackle numerous which requires staff to get involved”, he said. awareness and appreciation of external activities. instances of negative perceptions of external engagement including attitudes such as “applied “It’s therefore important that the person carrying out the meeting evalu- “In a time of financial pressure, activity that generates research is not ‘proper’ research”. ations is competent and experienced in this area because, initially, staff income gains priority”, he said. members can be sceptical of why they are involved as they may not see Three years later, John is pleased to see real progress in their role as being involved with BCE.” “We have seen evidence that strategic leaders in addressing these misperceptions. institutions are pushing this message down through Ian also reminded us that the post-evaluation process should not be their organisation.” During the last year, he has been running a neglected. continuation project, which has enabled him to revisit And while the obvious attraction might be income the original project partners. “Remember this is an evaluation tool, it does not give you solutions”, he generation, John also pointed out that there’s more to said. BCE than just money. According to John, the follow-up has demonstrated the real impact, which is still being felt at institutions. “You need post-evaluation to follow up on implementing the changes “There are many instances of BCE activity that do not needed to embed BCE. The follow up meeting can help keep this on track necessarily bring in income, but instead are aimed at “As the ongoing implementation of developments are generating impact in communities, advancing public being delivered on the back of greater understanding Be clear about your definitions understanding of what universities and colleges do and on the part of staff at all levels, this will continue for raising aspirations in areas where traditionally take-up some time”, John said. Another institution that took part in the project was Newcastle University. of post-16 education has been low“, he said. “We have also gained Zoe Bright from the School of Education Communication and Language “At a time when student fee levels and value for money new knowledge into Sciences was the project manager and, like Ian, she encourages other are on the agenda, public perception of the sector will how large-scale cross- institutions to embed BCE firmly within their strategies. ling BCE uly 2011Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 be critical.” organisational developments were authorised, According to Zoe, it’s essential to get the fundamentals right. Suppo tin and abl g BC Ju Real progress in tackling misperceptions financed, driven and sponsored at a senior “It’s important to have clear systems and processes for monitoring and g BC The original project kicked off in 2008, the same time level and implemented recording engagement activities, however, these are difficult to create that the recession hit the UK. at ground level.” without a definition of engagement”, she said. b John worked with five institutions assessing how they John Burke has seen great Explore the InfoKit created from the Embedding BCE “There needs to be a distinction between financial impact and value added, n were embedding BCE in their business processes and progress in embedding BCE project and find the individual institutional case studies at: and recognition for the importance of both.”Suppor in upp n within institutional institutional strategy and helping them to go through strategies. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/embedding-bce p14 15

Technology won’t solve all the problems in access management – the power is in the hands of people now The growing amount of external activities academic institutions engage in has made access management perhaps more relevant than ever. But the ‘big white licensing elephant’ doesn’t necessarily exist anymore, as Mark Williams, Access management co-ordinator at JISC Collections, told us. According to Mark, the technical side “But you’ve also got to have the hu- As a result, JISC Collections were John Paschoud has just finished the newest of things has been addressed. Now it’s man side of it to work out who they funded to produce a guide, under the JISC guide, which helps institutions to deal with access management issues. time to turn the focus on people and are, why they are in those groups and same name, offering practical help for start a conversation leading to early what is their relationship with the universities and colleges to deal with identification and tackling of access institution?” the issues they might encounter. “And a lot of the people they deal with “So we’re producing this report, hope- “It was an IT area and it was a management issues. in BCE fall into these categories.” fully in time to help them do that.” librarian area.” Practical help from a new guide “The new guide is a set of case study “I think 90% of it is about people”, he and use scenario driven guidelines According to John, the new guide will Conversation the key “Traditionally those two groups said. JISC Collections acts on behalf of the on how to divide your users up”, John help institutions to identify and haven’t crossed over too much in the education community in procuring Paschoud, a consultant on the project, classify the BCE activities they are Mark described the process as past, and this time they needed to.” “The tools are there to do it. But then content and brokering access to working with the Department of already undertaking or considering implementing an identity ‘audit’ and you have the interpretations - how do content - the JISC Model Licence Management at the London School of pointed out that none of these issues “JISC has brokered a lot of discussion you define your ‘staff and ‘students’, forms a UK-wide foundation for most Economics & Political Science, said. They will then be able to match those is usually solved by one individual on between those two groups and this how do you actually perceive them as resource licensing. to similar activities happening in their own. time it’s up to the institutions and ‘an institution’.” Headache from the ‘odd’ people other institutions, which may be a the management to ensure that the The JISC BCE programme initially ran bit further on in tackling some of the “In order to define a user group, you’re discussion continues.” “For example at a technical level, an independent scoping study on John has been working closely with access management issues associated probably going to have to talk to your if you are using federated access Extending Access Management into JISC Collections to look at where these with them. IT people. If you need them to access management, you can identify any Business and Community two activities - BCE and identity and a particular resource, you might have group by adding an affiliation or role Engagement. access management - coincide and Potential looming problems to talk to the library people attribute.” sometimes trip over each other, he about the licence”, he said. explained. One of the main purposes of the guide is to get institutions to recognise the “So any way you can facilitate “One thing we identified early on was potential issues early on. that communication makes that universities and colleges cope you more likely to succeed.” fairly well with the people they are “The key message we’re trying to get set out to cater for, such as students across, is that all of the activities that “It does echo back to theSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 in student registries and staff on the an institution is doing under this quite original issues we had with payroll system”, he said. broad heading ‘BCE’, are quite access and identity manage- desirable and often have a strong ment and the federation “One frequently found gap was that business case... perhaps a stronger rollout.” they don’t cope with the ‘odd’ sorts business case than they initially of people with whom they don’t have think”, John explained. those mainstream relationships. “ To access the Extending Access Management into Business and “But there are potential looming Community Engagement (EAM2BCE) Guide, along with the full JISC problems if they don’t tackle the Identity Management Toolkit, visit http://www.Identity-Project.org Mark Williams talking at a BCE event last access and identity management year. issues.”16 17

Start from the use cases To initially implement Grouper, the university bid for a JISC-funded project. “We’d always wanted to employ Groups make access management easy Grouper and that paid for the initial spin off cost for us”, Cal said. In the actual implementation process, use cases were at the heart of things for Cal and his team. Over the last three years, the group management tool Grouper has become To avoid introducing new technologies a cornerstone of Newcastle University’s access management systems. just for the sake of it, Cal suggests starting by thinking, “what System Architecture Team Leader Caleb Racey and Infrastructure Systems problems does the tool solve for the Administrator Richard James told us why it’s so great and what it took to institution?” get it into place. “Right from the start of the project we decided to take an approach of establishig the use-cases first and then using them to shape what we Grouper is a piece of software that of- gap in the architecture they currently “That makes it hard to delegate developed. This proved to be quite fers a flexible and easy way to create had in place. control over to people who need it.” successful.” different access groups. There were several situations Grouper has much simpler web-based According to Richard, it’s also been a As with other similar tools, these where there was need to give more user interface which anyone can get useful way of introducing the tool to groups can be based on institutional control over access management to grips with after a quick demo and new users. data such as staff/student registries to individual staff. This was one of brief trial. or different corporate data feeds. Grouper’s biggest selling points. According to Cal, the response to “Having the use-cases has also helped Grouper’s power, however, comes Examples of how Grouper is now Grouper has been great across us when we’re talking to different necessarily require external funding “And that’s actually the role of these from the flexible way it allows you being used at Newcastle University campus. schools about Grouper”, he said. to justify the time and resources types of JISC projects – to ease the to amend these groups, taking away include control of room-booking anymore. transition and mature the outcomes the need to keep separate complex systems and file stores, as well as the “It takes out a big administration “It’s good to have something that we can show them, so they can have a and benefits.” spreadsheets up-to-date. important job of controlling access burden”, he said. “While we’ve put a lot of effort into to files and online resources such as more practical view of how it’s being Grouper, a big chunck of that was “By and large, people don’t have to medical videos, which can only be “We have at least 20 different used instead of us just saying ‘this is to get the service matured. I think hand-maintain lists of who’s in each accessed by a small group of students applications that people have brought what it does’.” someone starting with Grouper now, teams, so the system can be scaled and staff. onboard, including timetabling has a much easier task”, Cal said. to do any kind of fine-grained access systems, VLEs and our lecture capture If the potential use-cases match the control”, Cal explained. “The issue with classic tools like LDAP service. Grouper has become a problems of your institution, Cal has directories is that because of their cornerstone in providing access to no reservations in recommending Power to the users technical nature they only tend to be those services, enabling them to do Grouper as a tool. Read more about the Grouper project and the use-case examples from looked after by technical staff,” Cal much more and enhance the user Newcastle University at:: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/grand/ Newcastle University implemented experience.” He also pointed out that the explained. Grouper in 2007 after identifying a implementation process doesn’t Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 201118 19

done on just conversing at a more the importance of talking to the IT when it comes to managing network appropriate level, before we started to department in the very early stages.” resources for external partners. successfully manage the expectations of what we can provide.“ This means more fruitful relationships “The reason the policy hasn’t been and a better experience for both sides. an obstacle for us is because we have A big helping push came when the wanted to engage with JANET(UK)”, university cited external engagement “I think we’re quite lucky that as a Matt said. Institutional ICT doesn’t have to exclude as a key area in the wider institutional strategy. department we have formed so many relationships and have a number of external contracts. Other similar “I’m sure in some other organisations it could be held up as a defence external partners “The perceptions are now changing”, Matt said. organisations maybe a little ‘tied’ in terms of having limited resources, or reason not to change the way they work – particularly if they’re struggling for time or resources.” External engagement has always been an integral part of life at To make working with JANET as Loughborough University. Network and Security Manager Matt Cook straightforward as possible, the JANET Connection Policy, and associated talked to us about how external engagement became ‘business as usual’ documents have recently been for his IT department. re-drafted. Matt describes the new versions as open and helpful, thanks to new, clearer wording and realistic Matt describes his department “For the last 12 years we’ve always of the ‘business as usual’ has been example scenarios they provide. as ‘forward thinking’. External had working relations with external just as long and challenging as you engagement has enabled his team people”, Matt told us. might expect. “It’s very brief and to the point as well to be involved in and try out new as well helping those people that are innovative and interesting things. “Currently, there are about 60 to 70 “To work with the number of people quite busy and want to just quickly key organisations that we provide IT we do, it would be impossible just to read the document.” Whilst external engagement is some- support for.” do it from an ad hoc basis, so we had thing that institutions increasingly to formalise how we provide those “The problem both within our site have to deal with, at Loughborough However, the process of moving from additional services and resources” , and with human nature in general, is it was already on the agenda before responding to ad hoc queries towards Matt explained. that busy people will just skim-read Matt joined the IT team in 1999. treating external engagement as part something”, Matt said. “We’ve had to look at writing an ITIL compliant Services Catalogue “That can be due to the pressures of covering what services we are but for us all that external work work or they may look for something providing, look at the sort of Service “One of the key drivers was the has actually generated additional that enables them to take the Level Agreements that will be required university decision to only engage staffing.” personally easy option to avoid doing for that organisation, assigning with organisations that are providing a piece of work or work in certain account managers who will make sure a real partnership – rather than It’s not just a question of resources way.” we’re providing the right services.” organisations on the fringes of though; your team also needs the business and community engagement right mindset. In order to make new Talk, talk, talk, talk “In essence we’ve set up a whole – and then looking to take advantage things work, you have to want to behind-the-scenes infrastructure from For IT departments and institutions of that partnership.” make them happen. scratch.” looking to extend their external Early communication across “At Loughborough, we also have the activity, Matt has one simple piece Changing perceptions departments sort of people that are genuinely of advice – talk to as many people as interested in doing different projects possible. However, one of the biggest chal- That strategic decision has made life and interesting new things”, Matt lenges the IT department has had to a lot easier for Matt and his team. “It’s actually been people rather than said. tackle has not been technical. Requests come in and discussion documentation that have helped us”, starts at a much earlier stage than it Policy misinterpretation he said. Changing the way people perceive the used to. department and their willingness to “Try to find events where there areSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Being involved in JANET(UK) help has been crucial. “We’re doing quite well now in getting Stakeholder groups, Matt has also had likeminded people to engage with, early notice of people’s interests and a front seat during the refinement talk to JANET(UK) themselves to get “A lot of people’s expectations when requirements”, Matt said. of their Connection Policy – often their advice and of course be prepared they first came to talk to us, were that perceived to be heavily restrictive to share your own experiences.” we would not be business focused, “Of course most organisations within we wouldn’t understand their needs”, academia are very autonomous, with Matt says. During 2010, JANET (UK) initiated a formal consultation with a view to different people working in their own addressing some of the issues concerning their Connection Policy and different ways. But we’ve managed “It was difficult to put ourselves in the impact of BCE. Find out more at: to get the majority of the staff their position and understand their http://www.ja.net/company/bce-formal-consultation-2010.html within the university on board with mindsets. There was a lot of work20 21

activities they perform as part of their As an example of good CPD that job. she would like to see more of, Helen mentions Newcastle University’s The online tool is easy to use and Communications Toolkit event. provides an easy to read profile of the areas individuals identify for This was a one-day event organised themselves, as both important and in by the Beacon North East alongside “Skillful BCE practitioners are like need of some further development. Most importantly the tool also then the local staff development unit and featured talks and practical workshops about effective communication. match-makers” offers a tailored set of links to relevant resources, training opportunities and Importantly it was available to all self-directed activities, from a range university staff, offering them a of providers – so people can start chance to network internally and The core skills needed in successful external engagement are skills in improving their skills straight away. share experiences – sending out a relationship building, says Helen Blanchett, the project manager for the message that skills development is Changes in the culture something that the institution cares Supporting & Embedding CPD for BCE project which set out to create a about and values. national skills framework for BCE as part of the JISC BCE programme. For things to move forward, two things need to happen. “If engagement is to eventually become a seamless part of all “It’s a mixture of both top-down and Continuous professional development is Helen describes Continuous development programmes – even external engagement activities and roles, that means changes in the essential to equip staff with skills needed in Professional Development (CPD) as though the appropriate opportunities use that to build on AURIL’s existing bottom-up approach”, Helen said. organisational culture”, Helen said. external engagement. essential for successful BCE. If you and resources might already exist.” knowledge transfer framework. don’t have the skills in place, you’re “In an ideal world, the strategic “To change the culture, you need to not going to do much effective “What is really crucial is to provide The result will be new national big-picture would be in place with make people feel special and raise engagement. pathways to existing development framework that will help people managers recognising the importance the profile of the CPD activities to opportunities and fill in gaps where working in those roles to identify the of BCE activities and the need to recognise their importance in A good environment for CPD shouldn’t there are specific needs. This is where skills they should be developing. support CPD for staff in this area. building capacity for change and just mean ‘training provided by a a skills framework can make all the Along side this, individuals would innovation.” staff development department’ but difference”, Helen added. Beyond the roles be actively using the framework the institution being supportive to recognise their own CPD in an individual developing their Building a framework However, early on in the project, it opportunities. skills, encouraging them to find, for became clear that it wasn’t going to example, relevant external events. A skills framework is a document be possible to create a framework or tool that outlines the skills and that covers every single role that “It’s also important to understand attributes that are required in specific could have a BCE aspect to them. that skills in BCE are often actually roles and can help individuals and There are simply too many. You can try the self-evaluation now at generic, such as negotiation, organisations to identifying the skills https://www.netskills.ac.uk/bcecpd/ communication or teamwork skills”, relevant to them or the gaps in their “As part of the project we’ve sent she said. provision or individual development. out a survey to try and map the different job roles that are involved “In fact some might argue there are The project Helen has been running in engagement. We had 250 answers no such things as definable ‘skills with AURIL (Association for University and almost all of them had different for BCE’ , and this may be why some Research and Industry Links) is trying roles”, Helen said. institutions may be finding it difficult to map the skills that are relevant for to provide specialist BCE training and people working in roles that involve “What was interesting though was when it came to the actual tasks they did in their jobs, there were more Helen Blanchett is trying to map relevant skills for BCE practitioners. commonalities than differences.” With such a diversity of roles makingSupporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 it tricky for people to identify Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 themselves on the framework, the project team decided instead to link the skills more closely with activities or tasks. Self-evaluation One of the project outputs that is available to use now is a self- evaluation tool which can be used by anyone to explore the tasks and22 23

Meet the JISC Advance BCE Team When the BCE Programme started in 2007, it was recognised that not only was BCE a new area for JISC, it also presented new opportunities and challenges for JISC Advance and its services. The JISC Advance BCE Team was established in 2008 to provide support, guidance and advice to JISC Advance, its services (including JISC Regional Support Centres) to allow them to better serve the needs of the BCE community. Our main aim is to champion and advocate the work of the JISC Advance Services in the collaborative delivery of projects and activities in Business Find out more about what the team and Community Engagement through the provision of support, knowledge are doing and other news from the and expertise in innovation-led and education-led activities within the FE/ programme on the BCE Team Blog: HE sector. http://bce.jiscinvolve.org In addition to providing support and guidance to JISC Advance Services, Additional resources can be found on our we are also now more closely involved with speciﬁc areas of the BCE YouTube channel: Programme, in particular providing support and synthesis to the portfolio http://www.youtube.com/user/JISCBCE of Open Innovation and Access to Resources projects within the programme which have recently completed. A further round of projects And on Slideshare: will be funded in 2011-12, again supported by the team. http://www.slideshare.net/jisc_bce We’re also mid way through a two year project to synthesise outputs, outcomes and lessons learned from the overall JISC BCE Programme. The aim of this is to both inform the future direction of the programme, and to provide a resource for the sector to highlight resources, tips and guidance which has arisen as a result of BCE projects since the programme started in 2007. This resource will be made available during 2011-12 and will allow JISC Advance Services to highlight and signpost their audiences to easily digestible and accessible BCE resources. Our team is made up of: (left to right) Rob Allen BCE Team Manager (Job Share)Supporting and Enabling BCE | July 2011 Andrew Stewart Information Manager Caroline Ingram BCE Team Manager (Job Share) Marc Dobson BCE Programme Liaison Manager24

Supporting and Enabling External Engagement

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