New Ways of Working Steve Knight Deputy Vice Chancellor, Director of Corporate Services
Scope Middlesex University Overview/Context Consolidation Centralisation of Support Services Digitisation Outsourcing/Offshoring Way Forward Questions
About Middlesex 40,000 students worldwide (25,000 in London) 1,700 staff 180m turnover London (Hendon) - 200M campus consolidation International Overseas campuses - Dubai, Mauritius & Malta. Six schools: Art and Design Business Health and Education Law Media and Performing Arts Science and Technology
Consolidation Reduction from 9 London campuses to one London campus by Sep 13 Improves efficiency Enables academic collaboration Allows for greater centralisation of support services Focuses capital spend and improvement of estate/facilities Facilitates different use of space (e.g. open plan working, hot-desking) and greater use of technology (e.g. wireless, VoIP)
Centralisation of Support Services Enabled by consolidation of campus locations Underpinned by IT improvements (e.g. Laptops, Ipads, CISCO unified communications) and digitisation Significant efficiencies Business partnering model Enables higher spend on core academic/research activities Focus on improving the student experience (e.g. longer helpdesk opening hours)
Digitisation Digital Mail - post delivered to your desktop rather than your desk (over 22,000 items of mail handled via digital mailroom in last 6 months equivalent to 360kg of paper not being stored/handled) Digital Conversion conversion of paper files into digital documents (completed over 630,000 scans in last 8 months) Electronic Document Storage easier (electronic tagging) and instant access to archived files from anywhere (nearly 1,000 users 130,000 documents uploaded in last 6 months) Multi-Function Devices (managed print service)- secure printing and scanning (replaced 1137 staff printers with 81 MFDs; saved 1.7m pages just through duplex printing by default (40% saving in paper usage or 200 trees))
Outsourcing/Offshoring UK - strategy to outsource non-core activities to specialist companies on long-term (up to 10 year) partnership arrangements IBM IT Server Infrastructure Compass Group (Chartwells) Catering/Entertainment/Bars/Retail Dell Desktop Managed Service ICTS Security ISS Cleaning CDS Print/Copy/Design/Digital Hard/Soft FM Multiple framework contracts Overseas - strategy to offshore bulk processing/helpdesk activities to specialist provider and bespoke functions to university support centre Chennai, India bulk processing/helpdesks Mauritius bespoke functions (being implemented)
Offshoring How? January/February 2009 exploratory visits to Indian BPOs, selected a company (Quscient) in Chennai, India March May 2009 - initial pilot project (scoping and implementation) student application data entry August 2009 review of initial pilot project and agreement to proceed with further pilots September 2009 September 2012 expanded range of pilot projects particularly around enquiries processing and helpdesks October 2012 start of project to introduce student support system Pro-retention January 2013 started process of setting up new support office in Mauritius
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Offshoring - Background India Middlesex already had in-country presence Known centre for provision of BPO services Aligned with Middlesex strategy to expand in India Chennai chosen due to it being location of preferred supplier (other cities were visited) Quscient SME (2009 300 seats) BPO with expertise in US HE; also carried out wider range of functions, including IT/software development room for future expansion
Offshoring Why? Need to increase efficiency/productivity of administration Increasing emphasis on moving administrative functions online Need to improve business processes Need to improve data quality Need to support longer opening hours in UK and support worldwide University operations
Offshoring Pilot Projects Aim of initial pilot to test whether it was cost-effective to offshore back-office processes to a company in India and during the pilot to test fully issues such as quality, reliability and efficiency. Used piloting of projects to control risk Initial pilot project - student applications data entry (largest volume) Next pilot project - pre-enrolment student e-mail enquiries (use of e- mail) Most recent pilot student helpdesk (use of voice)
Offshoring Current Activity Worldwide applications processing, data entry and quality checking (during 2012 64,000 applications/supporting documents processed and uploaded into Electronic Document Storage) Pre-enrolment and post-application enquiries (over 48,000 telephone and 34,000 e-mail enquiries handled during 2012) Student Support helpline and web helpdesk (over 31,000 telephone calls and 8,000 e-mails answered in 2012; 82% of enquiries resolved by offshore team) Staff IT helpdesk (over 12,500 calls answered in 2012; 58% resolved by offshore team) Registry verifications (2265 requests processed during 2012) Unicare (facilities management fault reporting and processing) Finance data entry (over 12,400 invoices processed during last 10 months)
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Offshoring Future Activity Being Implemented Pro-Retention student support system (May 13) Extension of admissions processing/decision making (Apr 13) graduation administration (Jun 13) Lead generation (Mar 13) Being Scoped Additional finance data entry HR (transactional) student IT helpdesk
Offshoring Resources and Management Offshore team VP senior account manager Function managers Around 60 staff Middlesex Management DVC project sponsor Contract Manager manages overall contract Line management have day-to-day control of their elements
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Offshoring - Benefits Cost Savings e.g. staff and space/facilities Quality improvements e.g. HESA/HESES data, responsiveness of student helpdesk, etc Process improvements and added value e.g. admissions processes Management Information e.g. student enquiries Capacity e.g. able to plan work throughout year to maximise output Flexibility e.g. ability to respond to changing circumstances Competitive advantage
Offshoring - Lessons Learnt Senior level buy-in and strong/engaged management (champions) Pilot projects defined scope/timelines; reduces risk Cultures/working patterns Process mapping/sops Not everything can be offshored Patience/time to implement/training Communications UK staff/trade Union reaction Small vs large BPO/flexibility
Offshoring Risks and Mitigating Actions Key Risk (as with any other outsourced contract) is failure of the service provision Other risks: failure to achieve budget; potential impact on recruitment; some reputational damage. Mitigating actions: ensure management in place at both Mdx and Quscient; ensure all new pilot projects have clear SOPs (including business continuity plans); ensure compliance with all data protection, security and other appropriate regulations; carefully monitor partnership/contractual arrangements; Executive annual review of offshoring strategy; annual internal audit review.
Way Forward What s next for digitisation? Student e-submission Student managed print service What s next for UK outsourcing? Outsourcing multi-activity contract? Shared Services? What s next for offshoring Scaling up? more bespoke activities?
Questions?