Ranked lists of results
Directors of IT/Information Services departments in universities and colleges are asked to rank the candidate concerns from four different perspectives: issues of most importance for their institution to resolve for its strategic success; issues which are taking the most time to address; issues on which the institutions are spending the most resource (human and/or fiscal); and issues which may become more significant in the next 12 – 18 months. The results from these four perspectives are presented below along with the overall Top Twelve ranking of concerns.
Strategic importance
Respondents were requested to choose up to ten of the candidate concerns and rank these according to their importance for their institution’s strategic success. The results showing the top ten concerns are set out below.
Rank |
Concern
number |
Concern |
1 |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
2 |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
3 |
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
4 |
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
5 |
21 |
Business systems to support the institution |
6 |
17 |
Cloud, managed services and alternative service delivery models |
7 |
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
8 |
4 |
Governance of IT |
9 |
13 |
Mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working |
10 |
15 |
IT/IS service quality |
Two concerns - The carbon agenda/Green IT (concern no. 19) and the Use of technology in teaching (no. 34) - were just outside the top ten.
Using most senior IT/IS management time
Respondents were requested to choose up to ten of the candidate concerns and rank these to indicate which were using the most of their time and that of their senior IT/IS managers.
Rank |
Concern number |
Concern |
1 |
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
2= |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
2= |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
4 |
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
5 |
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
6 |
2 |
Benchmarking, costing and value for money |
7= |
15 |
IT/IS service quality |
7= |
21 |
Business systems to support the institution |
9 |
34 |
Use of technology in teaching |
10 |
27 |
The IT organisation |
Governance of IT (concern no. 4) was just outside the top ten.
Concerns consuming most resource (human and/or fiscal)
Respondents were requested to choose up to ten of the candidate concerns and rank these according to the level of resource (human and/or fiscal) that they consume.
Rank |
Concern number |
Concern |
1 |
21 |
Business systems to support the institution |
2 |
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
3 |
23 |
Integration of and interfacing between systems |
4 |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
5 |
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
6 |
15 |
IT/IS service quality |
7 |
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
8 |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
9 |
34 |
Use of technology in teaching |
10 |
12 |
Security of systems and the network |
Data Centres (concern no. 10) was just outside the top ten.
Issues likely to become concerns over the next 12 – 18 months
Respondents were requested to choose up to ten of the candidate concerns and rank these according to which they felt were going to become issues over the next twelve to eighteen months.
Rank |
Concern number |
Concern |
1 |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
2 |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
3 |
17 |
Cloud, managed services and alternative service delivery models |
4 |
2 |
Benchmarking, costing and value for money |
5 |
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
6 |
13 |
Mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working |
7 |
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
8 |
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
9 |
19 |
The carbon agenda/Green IT |
10 |
16 |
Shared services |
Three concerns - Impact of Government and agency policy on IT/IS service delivery and policy (concern no. 5), Governance of IT (no. 4) and IT/IS service quality (no. 15) - were all just outside the top ten.
The following table indicates how each of the 36 candidate concerns ranked from the four different perspectives:
Concern number |
Concern |
Strategic |
Senior time |
Resource |
Emerging |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
1 |
2= |
8 |
1 |
2 |
Benchmarking, costing and value for money |
13 |
6 |
|
4 |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
2 |
2= |
4 |
2 |
4 |
Governance of IT |
8 |
11 |
15 |
12 |
5 |
Impact of Government and agency policy on IT/IS service delivery and policy |
|
|
|
11 |
6 |
Impact of legislation on IT/IS service delivery and policy development |
|
|
|
|
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
7 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
8 |
JANET network resilience |
|
|
|
|
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
3 |
4 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
Data centres |
|
15= |
11 |
|
11 |
Access and identity management |
|
|
|
|
12 |
Security of systems and the network |
14 |
14 |
10 |
|
13 |
Mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working |
9 |
12 |
12 |
6 |
14 |
Extended hours and 24/7 support |
|
|
|
|
15 |
IT/IS service quality |
10 |
7= |
6 |
13 |
16 |
Shared services |
|
|
|
10 |
17 |
Cloud, managed services and alternative service delivery models |
6 |
|
|
3 |
18 |
Vendor/supplier management |
|
|
|
|
19 |
The carbon agenda/Green IT |
11 |
|
|
9 |
20 |
Disaster recovery and business continuity |
15 |
|
13 |
|
21 |
Business systems to support the institution |
5 |
7= |
1 |
15 |
22 |
Modularisation of applications |
|
|
|
|
23 |
Integration of and interfacing between systems |
|
|
3 |
|
24 |
Business intelligence |
|
|
|
|
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
4 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
26 |
Business and community engagement |
|
|
|
|
27 |
The IT organisation |
|
10 |
|
|
28 |
Training and development of IT staff |
|
|
|
|
29 |
Professionalism of the IT service |
|
15= |
|
|
30 |
Leadership |
|
13 |
|
|
31 |
The need for effective procurement |
|
|
|
|
32 |
Research support: High Performance Computing, data storage and curation, effective interworking with the NHS and other external bodies |
|
|
|
|
33 |
The network and international competitiveness |
|
|
|
|
34 |
Use of technology in teaching |
12 |
9 |
9 |
|
35 |
Adapting to a changing environment |
|
|
|
|
36 |
Emerging technologies/keeping up with new things |
|
|
|
|
Overall top twelve
Rank |
Concern number |
Concern |
1 |
1 |
Ongoing funding and sustainable resourcing of IT |
2 |
3 |
Delivering services under severe financial constraint |
3 |
9 |
Providing a quality, resilient service |
4 |
7 |
IT Strategy and planning |
5= |
21 |
Business systems to support the institution |
5= |
25 |
Organisational change and process improvement |
7 |
15 |
IT/IS service quality |
8= |
2 |
Benchmarking, costing and value for money |
8= |
13 |
Mobile computing, anytime, anywhere computing, home working |
10= |
17 |
Cloud, managed services and alternative service delivery models |
10= |
34 |
Use of technology in teaching |
12 |
4 |
Governance of IT |
The overall top twelve was established through a combination of the combined scores from the four perspectives and the concerns average ranking.
