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Is your institution adapting and responding to the fast changing marketplace as quickly as it might?
Changing demographics, government policies and shifts in economic pressure are all taking their toll on education organisations and now, as the UK seeks to strengthen its world-class reputation in teaching, learning and research, leaders in our universities and colleges need to ensure they maintain their competitive advantage.
To keep pace with the challenges, institutions need to be flexible and adapt quickly to change, so that every member of staff understands, identifies with, and contributes to, the vision, mission and values of the whole organisation.
Much of the potential in university and college people and processes can be lost through ineffective use of ICT, especially in communication and information sharing.
However, much can be gained by ensuring ICT is completely integrated and aligned with the institutional strategic planning, decision-making and delivery of business goals and that every resource, person and process is pulling its weight.
Studies undertaken by JISC in partnership with Nottingham University have shown that institutions differ widely in the maturity of their strategic ICT use and in the way ICT adds value strategically or operationally.
I recently watched a JISC webinar that introduced a new Strategic Information and Communications Technology (S-ICT) toolkit and it seems to me that it could add real value in measuring the strategic ICT maturity for an organisation, ie how well ICT is integrated into the institutional strategy and how well it is able to deliver maximum value and agility in reaching business goals.
Listening to the webinar as someone with a general interest in the subject rather than as an ICT specialist, I found the case study from Lucy Nelson at University of Central Lancashire really highlighted the instant impact S-ICT could have on an institution, showing the business benefits from a practical viewpoint.
She also gave a clear picture of the huge scope of the toolkit – its ability to quickly pinpoint gaps in understanding and in areas such as communication and engagement.
S-ICT produces a results profile, which gives ratings on operational, strategic and transformational levels, then assists leaders in using ICT to support decision making and planning and engage staff in working together more effectively and productively for the benefit of the organisation as a whole.
Part of the challenge of making decisions is having a clear and truthful picture of how your organisation is performing, its strengths and areas for development. It was really interesting to see how the case studies were being proactive, turning strategy into action and responding to the challenges of growth, diversification and mergers.
S-ICT developers have taken into account the unique qualities of every institution acknowledging that each department needs to be aware of attributes and values that set them apart in order to be able to positively contribute to the organisation as a whole. This versatile toolkit also has the scope to focus down on a particular faculty as well as a particular need or ambition.
S-ICT is available for downloading here.
Watch the webinar recording.
