Business Process Management and ICT Change

Embedding effective business process review and improvement practices in a significant institutional administrative ICT change programme (which sees the implementation and integration of new administrative systems, and/or enhancements and improved integration to existing administrative systems) should help ensure buy-in and deliver greater transformational change and improvement across an institution. The systems themselves must be straightforward to use, but significant process change, and therefore changes to job roles and skills, is required to achieve the programme benefits.

There are also advantages to institutions in adopting a strategic and joined-up approach to planning and delivering organisational change and improvement involving ICT, including a clear understanding of the cost-benefits and environmental impacts in delivering change involving integrated, shared and external ICT solutions. Essential to this approach is:

1. The establishment of a common baseline, which includes gaining a shared understanding of the 'as is' organisational model (i.e. current governance, workflows, data, applications and other technologies used to support the current ICT function and administrative and student service provision, including an assessment of the costs and energy consumption of running existing systems, processes and service provision). Such baseline information will ensure that institutions can be confident in assessing the cost, risk and impact of any organisational change and measuring where savings and process improvements can be made.
2. The definition of the target state, which includes:
   • A blueprint of which governance, workflows, data, applications and technologies, and possible new models of service provision (internal and external) will be needed to support the 'to be' organisational model
   • Measurements of projected cost savings and energy consumption, as well as a possible new expenditure funding models
   • A clear exploitation plan and roadmap to measure and ensure institutional-wide take up of expected new processes, policies and technologies

Some tools are available to help institutions cost and model their baseline ICT service provision and calculate their return on investment in delivering ICT change and improvement. These include the JISC infoNet Impact Calculator, BIILS, and the Suste-IT Carbon Footprinting Tool.

These activities are seen as an essential pre-requisite to any major organisational change programme involving ICT.