University showcase abstracts

UCISA Award for Excellence sponsored by Eduserv 2010 – winner. Oxford Mobile project 
Tony Brett and Stuart Lee, University of Oxford
The development of powerful and intuitive mobile information services for the staff and students of the University as well as services for the general public in Oxford.

UCISA Staff Development Award 2010 – winner. Supplier Relationship Management. Love em! Hug em! Squeeze em!
Chris Parry, University of Nottingham
Providing high quality and cost effective services is extremely challenging in an environment of conflicting demands.  To help meet this challenge Nottingham developed a programme to train its staff on how to get the most from suppliers with the objective of improving service levels, staff engagement and value for money.

UCISA Staff Development Award 2010 – highly commended. The Aspirational Manager 
Deborah Welland, University of Exeter
A structured programme was put together for technical staff that provided a pathway through existing learning and development opportunities and, which together with other mandatory and optional activities, aimed to prepare staff for progression to management roles and help with succession planning during times of rapid change.

The Green Gown Award for ICT – PowerDown: Power-Saving for £0
Lisa Nelson, University of Liverpool
Idle computers are a major source of energy waste, which organisations may struggle to control.  PowerDown is simple software which powers computers down when not in use, significantly cutting electricity costs and CO2 emissions.
PowerDown is freely available, allowing other organisations to cut their electricity bills and carbon footprints.

Implementing online issuing and authentication of electronic documents. 
Andy Coulthard, London School of Economics
The LSE issued paper transcripts and diploma supplements to students. This issuing was a labour-intensive task and included substantial costs in stationery and postage. The objective of this project was to replace the paper system with an electronic system to improve service delivery to students and reduce the total costs involved. Final transcript and SITS diagram

HE IT management - What they don't teach you on management courses
Paul Dean, Edinburgh Napier University
Hints and tips, dos and don’ts, learnt from 20 years experience/pain of HE IT management that may help you to build beyond formal training to become a more effective HE IT manager.  The session will be interactive and attendees will be encouraged to share their own experiences.

Servers and storage re-engineering: pain points and lessons learned
John Bateman, London Metropolitan University
Massive re-engineering of London Metropolitan’s servers and storage capability was required to deal with failing infrastructure and fast delivery of significant value for money. The lessons learned from the approach taken and the partnership with Dell/EMC will be shared, including both success factors and how we’d do it differently next time.

IT Governance - How we are making it work 
Richard Eade, Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University has been implementing an IT Governance programme based on the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) model. This presentation will be an overview of why we chose the approach we did and a review of what we have been doing; what has worked and what has not.

e-Government National Award 2010 for sustainable, ‘green IT’ or ‘carbon-efficient’ services. Beyond thin-client; Green ICT at Queen Margaret University
Fraser Muir, Queen Margaret University
The new Queen Margaret University campus is one of the most environmentally efficient in the UK and ICT was embedded in this from conception. Fraser will describe how the university has developed beyond installing thin-client devices across all areas of the campus in 2007 into other areas to further reduce the environmental impact of the technology-rich buildings.

Cost of IT downtime
Peter Tinson, UCISA
UCISA commissioned a study in 2010 to identify a methodology to assess the commercial impact on an institution of the loss of their IT services. This session reports on the outputs from that study to determine the cost of IT downtime.

Institutional Strategy for Research Data Management
Mary Visser, University of Leicester
Gartner tells us that 'Information is the oil of the 21st century'.  Presumably those who mine their research data will be rich. Now that all disciplines contribute to the data deluge, and funders are exacting conditions on how this will be mined, shared and retained for the public good, Leicester has tried to develop a strategic response.

UCISA2010 poster winner CampusM at University of Sheffield
Chris Sexton and Dave Speake, University of Sheffield
CampusM is a mobile application that enables students to receive University of Sheffield information direct to their mobile phone. It gives them access to information about upcoming events; displays campus maps and lets them view their own timetable. The application features a friend locator and users can also browse their library records and look up staff and student contact details from the University directory. Students also use the application to receive the latest news and important alerts, and they can see where there are free PCs on campus.