Strategic Approach to Information Management: Proactive vs Reactive

1. Current Issues: Proactive vs Reactive approaches to recent legislation – the case for a strategic approach to managing information Mike Milne-Picken Executive Director – Performance, Standards & Data Management Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale & Middleton

2. Overview • Some current developments – system-wide and legislative • The nature of ‘information’ • Some approaches to finding a solution

3. Current Developments – External 1 • Increasing interrelations between the different UK post-compulsory learning organisational sectors: • HEIs, FEIs, Schools, Adult & Community Learning (LEAs), Private Sector, Other Public Sector • Examples: • HE in FE (White Paper 2003), OFSTED Area Wide Inspections, NHSU, Creation of LSC, Funding Council mergers in Scotland & Wales, etc • Drivers: • Government trying to get a lever on policy, especially to improve standards • Marketisation, competition and price pressure to drive down unit cost while improving efficiency

4. Current Developments – External 2 • Legislative enactments on both openness and confidentiality of information • Examples: • Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act, Human Rights Act • Drivers: • Protection of individual rights in an increasingly corporate society • Threat of technologies enabling greater movement of information on an unchecked basis • Growth of a society in which ‘Knowledge is Power’

5. Current Developments – External 3 • Improving technologies that are significantly faster and more effective at holding and transferring information – danger of being left behind • Examples: • Enterprise Resource Planning, MLE/VLE, Web technologies • Drivers: • Technological change – hardware and software • Competition

6. Current Developments – Internal 1 • Tendency of organisations to devolve responsibility into semi-autonomous business units • Examples: • Devolved budgeting, planning etc to faculties/depts and business operating units • Drivers: • Scale and size of organisations, complexity of operations and legislative/specialist requirements

7. Current Developments – Internal 2 • Increasing drive to look for partnership solutions and takeover/merger options • Examples: • ‘Associate College’ networks, recent mergers (and only occasional decouplings), learning partnership groupings and networks, bidding consortia • Drivers: • Government policy, efficiency savings, ‘local’ political pressure, status ambitions

8. The nature of information 1 • ‘Information’ is now a very broad term covering: • Structured electronic database systems • Web site information • Less structured electronic data • Manual files • Library books and journals • Photocopied notes, posters on walls, newsletters

9. The nature of information 2 • Some realities, borne of experience: • Data integration is harder to achieve than anyone estimates • Rule based systems not developed to the extent predicted • People suspicious and obstructive about sharing ‘their’ information • The ‘not invented here’ syndrome - local solutions can present block on progress • Information management development can be ‘one step forward, two steps back’, which can be very demoralising

10. The nature of information 3 • Organisations have piecemeal strategies for managing information • Continuum of control and management that ranges from extremely tight central control to laissez faire • depends on nature of the organisation, and type of information • varies over time according to internal and external pressures

11. Some approaches to finding a solution • Leadership that understands the strategic issues • Find the balance between top-down and bottom-up solutions • Avoid the ‘technobabble’ • Control costs • Find the balance between continuous improvement and radical change