Frequently asked questions

Question:

Is there a standard template for an EDRM Statement Of Requirements that I can use?

Answer:

Not that we are aware of and it would be very difficult to produce as every education organisation's requirements will vary at the detail level just as their current IT infrastructure varies significantly. To help we have produced a high level template based on this stage which is attached and can be freely used by project teams. (LINK to ITT TEMPLATE)

Question:

How much detail should we provide in our Statement of Requirements?

Answer:

Within certain limits as much as possible. It is quite difficult for a supplier/systems integrator to understand your requirements. Unless you have visited all the suppliers beforehand this might be their first point of contact with you. Hence you should provide as much background data as you can in section two or at least provide links to documents on your Web site that provide that detail. You also need to provide a detailed set of functional requirements in section three if you are expecting the supplier to provide a fixed price bid for phases one to three and indicative costs for the roll out phases as well. If you do not provide a lot of detail then you will receive a lot of awkward clarification questions so at some point you will need to do the work. It is generally best to do the hard work at the start.

Question:

How do we gather accurate data on volumes of documents etc across a large education organisation?

Answer:

This is difficult and labour intensive. If you follow the DIRKS based information gathering methodology in stage three then you should gather most of the volumetric data you need. To back this up you should also be able to get figures on the volume of e-mails and electronic documents held from your ICT department if they have monitoring tools.

Question:

Where can we obtain assistance in writing a Statement of Requirements?

Answer:

This toolkit aims to provide you with advice and guidance on completing an SOR for an EDRM solution and provides a high level template. Your education organisation may have a standard template that is used for specifying IT solutions. Otherwise you are advised to call in an impartial consultancy who have experience of supporting EDRM procurements and a knowledge of the education community.