Spotlight on: IT

Over the past 18 months, Martin Bellamy (pictured below) has been leading one of the most significant transformations of Cambridge’s IT services for the past two decades or more.

The task: to take four specialist and highly independent providers – the University Computing Service, the Management Information Services Division, the High Performance Computing Service, and the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies – and mould them into a single organisation capable of providing outstanding support for the University’s research, teaching and administration.

Dr Bellamy describes precisely and persuasively why the merger was necessary, what the benefits are, and what the future for IT at the University might entail.

The last of those points, what he calls “the art of the possible”, would, to lay ears, sound the most exciting. The talk here is of contributing to the University’s future success, responding to the famously fast-moving IT and digital industries, and creating a suite of compelling services for collegiate Cambridge.

But first, there is the important work of building a new team, understanding and responding to a range of institutional needs, developing an effective governance framework, and enhancing, where possible, existing services.

To do this, Dr Bellamy – who took up his post as Director of Information Services in March 2014 – has been guided by the recommendations made in the Joint Report of the Council and General Board on IT infrastructure and support, the final version of which was published to the University in March 2013. But he has also spotted other opportunities for service enhancement that have the potential to forge productive interactions with the wider IT and academic community.

“A key opportunity is the potential to harness the innovation that goes on in individual research projects, as well as those using technology for teaching and learning,” he says.

“We would like to create a climate where those innovations are more readily discoverable and sharable with others.”

Collaborative culture

This, he explains, is worth pursuing because a collaborative culture brings benefits all round. It can benefit not only the group of people doing the innovation (if UIS were to provide tools and resources to facilitate that) but also other areas of the University (if newly discovered processes were then taken up and applied elsewhere).

One initiative that Dr Bellamy hopes will stimulate this kind of exchange is a new shared information services catalogue for use by institutions across the University, a version of which was trialled in the School of Arts and Humanities.

The catalogue describes, and gives access to, IT services offered by the School and its faculties, as well as those managed by UIS. The hope is that it will provide a platform where academics, and those such as computer officers who support academics, can offer information on what is being done locally so that others might benefit.

“That won’t necessarily mean that things done locally will be seen as pan-University services,” he adds. “But if you can help in the first stage of the process by making them discoverable, that’s a useful starting point.”

Much of the work UIS has focused on over the past 18 months has been about establishing core capability. This has fallen into two key categories: first, establishing a governance framework; and second, developing the people and structure within UIS.

On the former, the provision of IT at the University is now overseen by the Information Services Committee (ISC), which is chaired by the Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor. The committee has a broad membership, including, but not limited to, three Heads of Schools, two senior College representatives, the Librarian, three members nominated by Council including the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, the Registrary, two student representatives and two external members.

Reporting to the ISC are a number of subcommittees that cover teaching and learning, research computing, business systems, networks, security management, and user needs (via engagement with users and University institutions).

This broad and deep governance base has helped the new organisation consult widely and systematically, and get support for decisions and forward planning.

Institutional experts

The design and restructure of UIS itself is now complete, although some recruitment is still underway. A significant and notable investment has gone into the formation of two outward-facing teams, each of which will deploy Relationship Managers to work with different areas of the University.

The idea is that each represented area feels that it has its own virtual information services organisation, with an expert and advocate who can bring their needs back to UIS and the people who provide central IT services and systems.

“Essentially we want those institutional groupings that rely on us for their services to feel that they’ve got someone who stands for them, and who is able to get things done for them,” Dr Bellamy adds.

That emphasis on user needs is another feature of the new culture of information services that Dr Bellamy, his colleagues and the ISC are trying to instil. But University institutions aside, why should, say, an individual academic or administrator care that the University is reorganising its IT?

Dr Bellamy again: “I would say that this is the digital era, that IT is increasingly pervasive in all walks of life, and whatever the discipline it is important to be able to access, analyse, visualise, share and communicate information. And this is one of the areas in which universities are investing.

“The internet is also a tool that helps researchers create impact, share their work with others, collaborate, and network with academics on a global scale. All of these things can be enhanced by the right information services.”

It is theoretically possible, he adds, for academics to access most of these services themselves – via the cloud, for example.

“The challenge then is that the breadth and diversity of what is out there is substantial and changing rapidly. It is ever more challenging and time-consuming for any one individual to really understand all of this, and brigade the tools and resources to support a particular field of study.

“What UIS will be doing is helping members of the University do that more quickly, making information services available in a richer, broader, more coherent, more secure, more usable and cost-effective way than any one individual could do themselves.”

Microsoft agreement

The nuts and bolts of how UIS will deliver this through various ‘service lines’ is detailed and complex. However, a recent focus has been on a number of select service enhancements, including an enterprise agreement with Microsoft to provide Microsoft Office software to staff and students free of charge on up to five devices at home and work. It also provides access to other services for departments, institutions and the 26 Colleges that took advantage of the agreement.

Other areas of focus include digital education, security management and data storage.

Dr Bellamy is also keen to better understand the needs of Cambridge computer officers – those who deliver IT services to faculties and departments. This will be an important piece of work for 2016, and will aim to develop a more cohesive and collaborative community of IT professionals, one that promotes mobility between institutions and looks at how career prospects may be improved.

Related to this is a drive to put in place channels of communication that allow UIS to gather detailed insight into user requirements – especially in relation to central IT systems.

Viewed holistically, the work delivered over the past 18 months, and continuing into 2016, will mean that the collegiate University will be in a position to develop a cohesive strategy and vision for the longer term. A strategy that genuinely supports the University’s mission, and creates services, systems and teams that give Cambridge a leading edge.