Summary
This exercise has examined areas of JISC involvement and has been able to identify benefits to the community that demonstrate almost a fivefold return in value.
The majority of financial benefits identified arise from gains in quality or efficiency. JISC provides quality e-resources that are immediately accessible, a reliable network and accessible, customer-tailored support. This creates a highly efficient, high quality, easy to use work environment. Use of e-resources has become embedded in HE and Research work models, almost ubiquitously. FE does not appear to have yet achieved this level of penetration.
Some areas show outstanding value, particularly the negotiations for e-resources by the Collections Team and benefits arising from use of JISC supported e-resources. Available figures suggest that use of e-resources by the JISC community increased by approximately 35% in both of the last two years. There is no suggestion of any slowing in the rate of increase. Therefore the measurable benefit from use of e-resources is expected to continue to increase. This increase in value will be apparent in quality and efficiency gains made by the community and in reduction in the unit cost of supply of e-resources.
Several JISC services currently show increased value to consumers by growth in use with little or no rise in provision costs. These are usually high use services and include network provision, the major bibliographic services and the Athens Authentication service.
The JANET network provision underpins the communication and the use of e-resources. JANET is a high quality, high-speed, highly reliable network that connects a large number of organisations a low cost per connection. A large part of the value to the community arises from the wide-ranging, high quality, customer focussed support services provided by UKERNA. This integrated provision is tailored to the particular needs of the JISC community and is not normally part of network provision.
JISC provides a number of JISC advisory services that have no commercial equivalents or equivalents that are only available at a high cost at point of use. The JISC advisory services provide focused information to the community for comparatively little outlay. Evidence from user surveys indicates that where institutions have experienced these services, their contributions are almost always recognised as very valuable. However evidence also suggests that most of the advisory services could increase their user base and penetration, and thereby increase their value to the community.
The value of JISC activities extend beyond the benefits identified here. Education and research are high value commodities that play an important part in the UK economy and underpin the UK’s global economic position. The network infrastructure, content provision, advisory organisations, and discussion groups facilitated by the JISC make an important contribution to the development of a healthy research and education community. JISC activities underpin and facilitate UK research and education, which in turn underpins much of the economic growth of the UK.
The sphere of JISC activities is dynamic. Few fields experience such continuous, rapid and extreme changes as those involved in information and communication technology and the applications of these in education and research. These changes must be accommodated in tandem with the developmental principles for tertiary education. To achieve success in such an environment, an organisation needs both a solid strategy and the ability to identify, assess and exploit new technology within that strategy. JISC is exemplary in the manner in which it has achieved this, during a period that history will recognise as crucial in the evolution of information science and IT. Much of the internationally acknowledged high quality of UK research and tertiary education is attributable to the success of this approach.
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