Birds of a Feather Sessions

Birds of a feather stick together – An opportunity to discuss topical issues with colleagues. 
Each session will be facilitated, and notes taken for wider discussion within the CIS community.

The topics for discussion this year (each session to be run twice):

How do we make our processes efficient? Use of LEAN to make improvements  (Royce Suite)
Facilitator:  Heidi Frazer-Krauss, University of St Andrews
Lean is a  change technique that originated in Japanese car production and has since been  used to great effect  in every industry from healthcare to higher  education. It is much more than a set of tools and practices, however, properly implemented  Lean brings about a deep cultural transformation that encourages everybody in the organization to think differently about their work and how they do it.

Alternative service delivery models       (Fairclough Suite)
Facilitator:  Andy Coulthard, London School of Economics
Delivery models now include shared, managed and cloud based services. What are the opportunities for efficiency, cost saving and improved services?

How can we use CRM to enhance the student experience?   (Lancaster Suite)
Facilitator:  Catherine McMillan, University of Strathclyde
We will debate/provide ideas over the three areas:

1. Why CRM?  
        a. Types of customers to target – high numbers/relatively low value (admissions, alumni, student experience); low numbers/high value (research/KE type customers) (ties in with Student Experience and Research theme)
        b. Benefits Improving customer service/decreasing costs of providing that service (ties into conference theme – on cost savings; doing more with less)
2. What cultural barriers are there to successful CRM (considering the different types of customers)?  What culture/cultural change is required? 
3. Approaches to implementation of a CRM? 
        c. What business set up – like call centre approaches, distributed approaches?
        d. Large scale projects vs. small scale.  
        e. Entire University vs. niche solutions

Research information management – how can this be used to drive research excellence?     (Derby Suite)
Facilitator:  Sam Denniss, University of Liverpool
How does your institution manage its research related data? How is the information used? Which systems support which areas?