Session Speakers and Abstracts

Speaker abstracts and pen profiles

Hassan Dahdouh

From CampusM to LSE Mobile in easy steps

With the increasing presence of smartphones on campus came a rising call for mobile applications.  LSE considered how to adapt existing web/portal delivered services for use with mobile devices.  A couple of key objectives emerged in the initial stages of planning.  Firstly, we would aim to deliver equivalent services to multiple platforms.  Secondly, although the iPhone and iPod Touch were the most popular devices on campus we would aim to deliver services to other platforms including Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry.  This presentation will take you along the route we took implementing CampusM and, hopefully, leave you with some suggestions on how you can approach introducing mobile applications at your institution.

Hassan holds a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a PGCE in Secondary education.  Starting as a teacher of IT and Maths, he moved into IT development.  He then moved on through dynamic website development and became a DBA.  He spent four years as Systems Manager at Bracknell Council.  Hassan has been with the LSE as Database Services Manager and Change Manager since 2008.  Hassan is an Oracle Certified Professional and a member of the BCS.

Michael Farthing

Higher education: finding the future

Indications are that higher education in the UK will change more in the next 5 years than it has in the last 50 years.  The immediate challenge is to develop a strategy to protect the welcomed expansion of higher education through a period of financial downturn.  Universities will need to find a balance between the maintenance of traditional values, including academic freedom and the economic imperatives for universities to be a major driver to economic recovery.  How will we continue to ensure high quality in teaching and research in a highly competitive, marketised, global economy?  How will the UK value higher education in the future?

The University of Sussex is rising to these challenges but does not necessarily have all of the answers!

Professor Michael Farthing has been Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Medicine at the University of Sussex since 2007.  Previously, he was Principal of St George’s and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Medicine at the University of London.  His research into gastrointestinal infections has taken him into a number of regions in the developing world.  He has major interest in research and publication integrity which developed during his time as editor of the medical journal Gut.

Paul Featonby and Emerson Osmond

UCAS future strategy

In this presentation we will be talking about how UCAS uses social media to engage their customers through the application process and about some of the pitfalls that we encountered along the way.  It also explores the nature of interfacing with a young and vibrant audience using a brand that is known for its authority and advice (but maybe not it's street credibility).  We feel that we have a unique story to tell and one that we hope the HEI community will be interested in and can hopefully learn from.  The key is to find the best use of Social Media for your brand and company and our presentation tells the story of how UCAS did it.  It will also feature on what is next for UCAS in the development of their applicant products.

Paul Featonby works in the Information Services department which is responsible for all technology development, delivery and support in UCAS.  Paul also heads up the technology programme and project management areas of UCAS and is responsible for business continuity management for the Company. 

Paul has championed and managed the transition from a paper based application service to one that is now fully electronic.  Paul managed the creation and development of the UCAS web portal to becoming the primary and most popular education website in the UK.  He steered the development of an online applications system to the level of 99% of all applications received today.

Emerson Osmond has worked within UCAS Media since 2001; coming from a Dot com business, Emerson has worked on everything from direct mail through to website advertising.

In April 2007, Emerson and team launched yougofurther.co.uk a student only networking site that truly embraces web 2.0 and social media.  In 2008, yougofurther.co.uk’s target audience was widened to include pre-applicant students, Now Yougofurther.co.uk offers universities and colleges unique opportunities to communicate directly with their key audiences.

Heidi Fraser-Krauss

Things that were, things that are, and things that might yet come to pass

As Woodrow Wilson wryly commented “If you want to make enemies, try to change something!”  But, what has actually changed in the world of the HE CIS professional in the last 10 or years?  Can what has happened in the past be any predictor of the future?  In what will, hopefully, be an entertaining and informative talk Heidi Fraser-Krauss will use data from the CISG Survey, together with a healthy  amount of anecdote and good old common sense, to outline what she thinks the world of CIS will be like in 2020.

Heidi Fraser-Krauss is the Director of Business Improvements at the University of St Andrews, a unit that incorporates corporate information system’s support, business process reengineering and management of the University's web presence.

Heidi is passionate about bridging the divide between central and local administrative support and the appropriate use of technology to solve administrative problems.

Wilbert Kraan

Navigating the path to achieving flexible service delivery 

The JISC Flexible Service Delivery programme is undertaking activities designed to help over 40 universities and colleges navigate through the steps needed to improve their IT service delivery in a bid to make efficiency savings, improve service quality and improve overall agility.  Steps include improving business processes, better understanding system architectures and IT g governance structures, and becoming better prepared overall to exploit new business models for the delivery of administrative and other corporate information functions, including cloud based shared service delivery options. 

This session will offer an introduction and update to the Flexible Service Delivery programme, past, present and future. A panel discussion will then take place based upon short presentations from a number of "early adopter" projects who are taking the necessary steps to improve their IT service provisions. 

Angela Lamont

How to save money, save time, save the planet, improve your sex life, lose 10lbs, get whiter teeth and get to the top in three easy steps...

The title of this keynote may seem to threaten to over promise just a teensy weensy bit but, believe it or not, it really is all covered.

Angela Lamont, technology broadcaster and writer takes a tongue in cheek (and yet uncannily true) look at the pressures of delivering and managing information systems in 2010 and considers the bigger picture.

Like life.  Your life.

How can we learn from other aspects of it to improve our information systems awareness, understanding and delivery and what can our IS function teach us to bring back to improve our life outside work?  

Angela Lamont is a technology broadcaster, presenter and writer.  Over the last fifteen years, she has presented on TV, radio, new and old media, live events, awards, conferences and even a couture fashion show.  Angela first predicted online grocery shopping back in 1993 on her ground breaking Radio 4 show The Network.  The response was hoots of derision and a groaning mailbag.  But, we all know how that one turned out and she continued the pioneering show for six more years before turning her voice to documentaries and her keyboard to blogging.  She's also managed to bag a BAFTA and two RTS awards.  Prior to becoming a broadcaster, Angela worked as an IT manager and systems analyst for several companies, including IBM and British Gas.

Will Miller

Delivering a decentralised, block structure timetable at UCL: a change management challenge

In 2006, UCL contemplated introducing a block structure timetable to facilitate interdisciplinary programmes and use the estate more efficiency.  As the timetable process is decentralised, new interdisciplinary programmes had to be negotiated sometimes over several years.  Analysis also discovered that rooms were underutilised in the mornings and late in the afternoon, and departments would request larger rooms in the event that their admissions numbers were higher than expected. In replacing the existing timetable, start of session havoc would have ensued if the departmental planners were not fully engaged.  In 2009, a new timetable was implemented, with its success largely due to change management.

Will Miller joined UCL as Director of Management Systems in 2005, and has championed the use of change management practices for many years.  The change management used at UCL evolved to deal with its heterogeneous and democratic organisation.  In his previous role as Resources Director at the Lottery distributor, the Community Fund, he introduced change management practices in preparation for the merger with the New Opportunities Fund, which became the Big Lottery Fund.  For his executive MBA at Cass Business School, his major dissertation focussed on change management.  He was also a founding Director of NESTA.

John Moe

Learning from other people’s SOA experiences

Although we learn best from our own experiences, it is less painful to learn from other people.  This presentation will take you through John Moe’s experiences with some of the early adopters of SOA, and what lessons can be learnt to help you avoid the same mistakes and understand some of the best practice developing around SOA.

John has over 25 years of experience in the analysis, design and delivery of business and IT services.  In the Eighties, he was an early adopter of CASE tools and methods, and was instrumental in developing Joint Application Design (JAD) and Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodologies.  Throughout the Nineties, he worked as a programme manager and then business manager for a series of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) projects. More recently, in senior consulting roles at Xansa and Gartner, he has provided guidance to senior executives of many organisations on IT Best Practice in BPM, SOA and Strategy Development.  John currently heads the Business Integration practice at Tori Global, and writes articles on SOA for ModernAnalyst.com and the SOA Institute.

Allan Spencer

Funding in turbulent times

Many ages feel they are at the edge of paradigm change  –  so is this really the time that it turns out to be true for HE?  With huge public sector cuts forecast to be revealed in the CSR, the Browne Review to potentially change the face of HE UG fee regimes and messages that research funding will be cut and could be concentrated, HE could be facing its biggest shakeup for a generation.  Hear a finance director’s view of what impact will these changes have on the sector and the way we fund and provide services.

Allan has been Director of Finance at Sussex since April 2005. Previously, he was Deputy Director at the University of Southampton, and for most of the 1990s was Financial Systems Accountant at the University of Bristol where he was responsible for major systems implementations.  He has represented the South West Finance Directors Group on the national BUFDG Executive and has participated in the Employers Pension Forum’s review of pension provision in HE.  Outside HE, Allan is a Director of Brighton Festival Fringe, the largest UK arts fringe festival after Edinburgh.

Julian Tenney

Xerte Online Toolkits, Xpert and Open Nottingham

Xerte Online Toolkits ( www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte ) is a server based suite of tools for content authors. E-learning materials can be authored quickly and easily using browser based tools, with no programming required.  Xerte Online Toolkits is aimed at content authors, who will assemble content using simple wizards.  Authors can then easily collaborate on projects.

The Xpert repository (www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert) and the new media search tool (www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/attribution) are new developments from the University of Nottingham, as part of its Open Nottingham strategic driver to make our services and content accessible and easily available to as many people as possible.

Julian Tenney is Project Lead Developer.  He has been developing interactive learning materials for over ten years and leads a group of e-learning developers at the University of Nottingham. Julian has developed a wide range of tools with which non-technical staff can create interactive learning materials.  Before this, he developed e-learning materials for the financial services industry.

Ed Zedlewski and Matt Johnson 

Delivering value from community clouds

A look at the value, benefits and challenges that result from the development and use of Community Clouds.  We will describe our experience of designing and operating the Government Ready Platform, a resilient multi-site virtualised platform −providing fully managed hosting and data services to central government departments.

As Eduserv’s CIO, Ed is responsible for strategic planning of IT and Research and Development.  With more than 20 years of IT experience, Ed has served on numerous IT committees.  Under his leadership, Eduserv has grown to become a major supplier of business critical IT services to the public sector.

  Matt is head of the Research and Innovation Group at Eduserv, with a remit to research solutions to the IT challenges facing the public sector and, in particular, the HE research community.   Matt was the lead architect of Eduserv's Government Ready Platform, and has previously worked at CERN in Geneva.