Supporting a Modular and Flexible Market
Most of the information systems used by colleges and universities are provided by a relatively small number of large companies. The generic nature of supplier-led corporate information systems can make it difficult to achieve a perfect match for all situations and institutions will sometimes be forced to develop bespoke modules for certain processes even though similar functionality exists in their current systems. An example is fee billing, which can sometimes be found as part of a student record system and sometimes within a finance system. Maintenance can be expensive in terms of ongoing support and licence costs, and long-term supplier lock-in means that service provision may lack the flexibility to keep pace with changing institutional demands and priorities.
If existing information systems are disaggregated into distinct modules or services, based on open standards, and aligned to support a defined set of processes, or if service interfaces on existing suites are developed and made available (and hence providing the appearance of modularity to the clients):
- Suppliers should be able to:
- Offer more flexible, granular and interoperable products to institutions who are unable to commit to the procurement of current major systems suites due to their reduced ICT budgets
- Open up opportunities to market discrete components of their systems beyond their existing customer base
- Institutions should be able to:
- Select 'best of breed' at a modular level, and switch between supplier offerings to meet changing institutional needs and priorities, either as in-house or external service provisions
- Phase the replacement of business systems, spreading the capital cost over a number of years
- Save money by enabling existing applications to become open to combination and allowing for re-use of common data and software in different ways
Supplier Engagement
Supplier engagement is an especially important strand within flexible service delivery because there is an opportunity for supplier-led systems used by universities and colleges to become either shared, offered externally or disaggregated as flexible services. Any such change must involve these suppliers in order for it to be successful.
