The University of Sheffield's Jisc subscription for 2020/21 cost £201,772 but resulted in savings exceeding £4.43 million annually, yielding an ROI of 1562%. Key areas of savings include purchasing and licensing (over £3.7 million), library support (4.2 FTE saved), and connectivity and cybersecurity services. The independent study highlighted the strategic value and benefits Jisc brings to the university, impacting both operational efficiency and student experience.

1. Jisc’s value to HE:
the University of
Sheffield

2. The University of Sheffield is a
successful research-intensive
university with a focus on
advanced manufacturing.
It took part in an independent study to investigate the
value it gets from its Jisc membership.
This is what it discovered.
Sheffield
2 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

3. Sheffield’s Jisc subscription
for 2020/21 is £201,772
But, through that subscription, Sheffield
saves more than £3.35m a year.
– That’s an ROI of 1562%.
Add in the optional services and
Sheffield saves more than £4.43m
Here’s how Sheffield and Jisc do it
3 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

4. Purchasing, licensing and resources – headlines
Our purchasing, licensing and resources alone save
Sheffield more than £3.7m.
How?
£2.7m
comes from the way we negotiate
better deals for the sector, above
and beyond what Sheffield alone
could likely achieve
£809,000
is from our negotiations for
software licenses specifically,
with a £463,250 saving for
Adobe ELTA
8.75 FTE
What’s more, our licence
negotiating and library/open
research tools save the university
library 8.75 FTE of effort each
year – amounting to £391,135
4 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

5. Purchasing, licensing and
resources – benefits
“Jisc builds on years of negotiating –
being in the club really matters.”
Sheffield library workshop participant
“Jisc as a non-profit supplier is a
benefit. They have a strategic, sector-
focused lens.”
Head of vendor management
5 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

6. Purchasing, licensing and resources –
benefits continued
• Our sector-wide negotiations mean Sheffield can provide more digital resources
than it otherwise would be able to – and Jisc-negotiated standards set sector
standards which drives the quality of resources for all
• We also enable funder savings and reduced average article processing costs, which
allow Sheffield’s students and researchers to access more articles
• Our Chest-negotiated software saves money, effort and hassle through negotiation,
procurement and deployment phases
• Sector alignment helps ensure agreements that improve the student and staff
experience of using curriculum-relevant software. Unlimited licences are a particular
advantage for planning flexibility
6 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

7. Library support and open research tools – headlines
Using our library support and open research tools saves Sheffield
library staff 4.2 FTE each year – that’s worth £111,857.
Product Cost avoided / FTE
Knowledge Base + £45,746 / 1.5 FTE
Library Hub Cataloguing £829 / 0.03 FTE
Library Hub Compare £38,924 / 1.8 FTE
JUSP £5,487 / 0.15 FTE
Sherpa Romeo £16,616 / 0.6 FTE
Publication Router £2,849 / 0.1 FTE
Monitor Local £1,408 / 0.05 FTE
7 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

8. Connectivity and cyber security – headline savings
Our connectivity services add significant strategic value to Sheffield: a
secure and trusted Janet Network protects the university’s staff,
students, researchers, partners and assets.
“Jisc responds
quickly and that
matters”
£89,000 a year.
In cost saving
1.25 FTE or £81,960
equivalent costs avoided –
skills and capacity that Sheffield
would otherwise struggle to find.
8 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

9. Jisc's response grows with our need
and if we didn't have the support, we'd
really notice it. It's quite a big security
blanket that doesn't exist in the private
sector and we'd have to do it ourselves.
We take comfort that Jisc will inform and
give advice against threats across the
HE sector. A shared service is the best
way to describe it. The sector expertise
and knowledge are important.
9 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

10. Cyber security – benefits
Sheffield uses a blend of cyber
security services, including Jisc
CSIRT, which it values highly. If CSIRT didn't exist, we
would need a strategic
threat intelligence partner,
and we’re not sure it's
possible to replicate what
Jisc does
Chris Willis, chief information
security officer
10 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

11. Connectivity - savings
Sheffield enjoys other connectivity-related savings:
eduroam:
£129,946 (3 FTE)
The sector-wide federated service is heavily used and
saves time and effort. It also improves the experience
of connecting to teaching, learning and research
information on and off campus (including in hospitals).
11 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

12. Trust and identity – headline savings
Single sign on, enabled by our federated access, is a vital
tool to make it as easy as possible for students and staff to
access learning resources.
It also saves money: £23,447 in total.
Here’s the breakdown:
Federated access:
library
0.28 FTE /
£15,183
Certificate service £8,264
12 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

13. Data and analytics - benefits
Our datasets are fundamentally important to
university-wide and departmental decision-making
at Sheffield.
• Key operational staff access tailored data and
intelligence to track corporate KPIs, analyse new
markets and develop new courses or pivot/halt
existing courses
• HESA datasets enable new curriculum and
income generation opportunities, helping Sheffield
to determine if there is, or is not, a market
opportunity and the size of the potential market
13 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

14. Because of Jisc we have
unprecedented access to
trusted data and without
such data there’d be
uproar from professional
services colleagues.
14 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

15. Jisc Prospects services – benefits
Jisc Prospects is the employment advisors’ favourite tool, based on the
mix of job availability insight, career and job matching tools, skills and
job profiling. It is a trusted source of information.
10,370
Sheffield students
and their career
advisors use
Prospects directly
5000
students also use
the career
planning tools and
resources
6000
receive career
opportunity
updates
15 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

16. Jisc Prospects services
– benefits continued
Prospects Luminate
methods, insight and reports
are accessible, trusted and
respected at Sheffield.
“Luminate provides a whole
and accurate picture. It
enriches what we do”
Careers information and systems
manager
16 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

17. Student and staff experience
Sheffield avoids more than £4,000 in costs by using
Jisc’s digital experience insights survey and digital
capabilities framework.
• Sheffield uses the survey to inform future learning
spaces and device ownership strategies as well as
highlighting good practice to build on
• Our digital experience insights survey also helps
Sheffield benchmark and solidify improvement plans
The survey provides
us with unique
insights that otherwise
we would not have.
Digital learning team
manager
17 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

18. Without Jisc…
“We would have to reinvent ‘a Jisc’!
Either regionally or across different
university groups.”
IT services workshop
“We would be on the back foot all of
the time and dictated to.”
Library workshop
18 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield

19. The University of Sheffield worked with
independent consultancy Hadfield Consultants
Ltd, to look at its portfolio of Jisc services and
analyse the cost savings, costs avoided and
the benefits to learners, staff and the college
as a whole.
Sheffield’s senior managers, teachers, librarians, learning resource managers, IT and
finance staff took part in workshops and post-workshop meetings to share their views.
Together they agreed the findings.
19 Jisc’s value to HE: the University of Sheffield