TECHNOLOGY
campusreview.com.au
Tech success
The key to delivering winning
technology projects in education.
By Gavin Bainbridge
U
niversities and businesses all
around the world are littered
with failed technology projects.
If you dig into why those projects fail, the
fundamental reasons are often the same
– the scope wasn’t well defined, or they
were trying to achieve too much change
too quickly.
TECH’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE
I’ve learned from experience that it’s
important to balance where you want to
be with where you currently are. You need
to gauge the current state, understand
the capability and then navigate the
future state.
The way I like to mitigate that process
is through small, incremental changes.
Having a three-year implementation cycle
is very risky because of all the technology
and environmental changes that can
happen in that time: by the time you deliver
the project, the world has moved on.
If you break it into smaller three or
six-month projects, you can still meet
deliverables while also having the
opportunity to regularly reassess where
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you’re at, and whether the vision or end
goal is still valid.
The way I have driven business
transformation at the University of Otago
is through an appetite for transformation,
which means there are no barriers to
combat in order to persuade people that
there’s a need.
I currently have no less than 12 streams
of transformational projects in motion.
We’re working through a strategy for
improving integration throughout the
organisation as we currently have several
enterprise apps that operate in silos.
An integrated solution, however, will allow
us to streamline processes to provide a
better user experience, which is ultimately
the role of IT.
Another major initiative is around
business intelligence (BI). We’ve got a
fragmented information set, and BI will help
us to get the data out and provide a single
source of truth. It will help us to get our
decision-making information into the hands
of the right people, at the right time.
Software as a Service (SaaS), for us, is the
way of the future. In higher education, our
students want to be able to interact with
one front end, regardless of where they are,
what device they’re using, and whether it’s
for student registration, procurement or
residential requirements. SaaS offers a way
to improve that user experience.
THREE SKILLS FOR DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION IN EDUCATION
Ultimately, success is delivering to
outcomes. The three skills required are to
listen to the customer, know when to be
consultative, and to think strategically.
Listening to students and staff is
important so you can understand what
they want and what the problem is. But
often they will come to you with a solution
without having the broad experience
you do or fully exploring the problem
statement. In that case, you need to
understand when to be consultative and
when to be directive, to truly give staff and
students the best outcome.
You also need to ensure you don’t get
caught up in the tactical. Set a strategic
plan, and then constantly re-evaluate to be
certain you’re on the right path.
If I was to reflect on what’s most
pertinent, it’s to always deliver value,
because value is the reason you’re doing
something. What you’re doing is the
means to an end, not the end itself.
You can have two projects both
delivering the same thing, and one will
deliver value and one will not. On paper,
both might seem successful if they
delivered the scope on time and on
budget. But if the reason you were on that
journey is lost, or not clearly defined, then
your successful project might not
actually deliver any meaningful change.
DIGITAL IS THE ENABLER
Digital is the enabler for business process
and student and academic experience. My
catchphrase is: “We can do anything in IT,
but do you know what you want?”
Over 90 per cent of stakeholders I deal
with have no idea what they want. So
make sure you clearly define the scope,
and understand what the outcomes
are, before beginning any kind of digital
transformation journey. ■
Gavin Bainbridge is head of information
systems at the University of Otago.