IT Services Annual Report
2013/14
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January 2015
Contents
Director’s Report ......................................................................................................................... 1
A productive year ..................................................................................................................... 1
Challenges ............................................................................................................................... 4
Student feedback ..................................................................................................................... 5
Upgrades ................................................................................................................................. 5
Student enrolment and re-enrolment: ....................................................................................... 6
New state of the art student PC facility in the J. B. Priestley Library ........................................... 6
Launch of new student space in the J. B. Priestley Library ......................................................... 6
Business as usual ..................................................................................................................... 6
Looking ahead ......................................................................................................................... 8
Appendix 1: IT Services customer feedback 2013/14................................................................... 9
National Student Survey 2013/14 ............................................................................................. 9
Positive student comments from NSS relating to IT Services ..................................................... 9
Negative comments ............................................................................................................... 10
What one thing would have improved your experience ........................................................... 10
IT Satisfaction Survey conducted monthly during 2013/14 ..................................................... 10
Surveys during 2013/14 ........................................................................................................ 11
Staff Survey - HR led ............................................................................................................... 11
Appendix 2: How we respond positively to our customer feedback ............................................ 12
You Said … We Did … ............................................................................................................ 12
Appendix 3: ICT Servicedesk Annual Report 2013/14 ................................................................ 13
Appendix 4: IT Services – Key Metrics ........................................................................................ 14
A comparison of student print volumes 2009/10 through 2013/14 ....................................... 14
IT Services Budget .................................................................................................................. 15
IT Services Key Service Availability .......................................................................................... 16
Blackboard Metrics ................................................................................................................. 16
Wireless Networks – Wi-Fi for staff and students ..................................................................... 17
October 2014 ..................................................................................................................... 17
October 2013 ..................................................................................................................... 18
Wireless Networks - The Cloud (wi-fi for visitors) .................................................................... 20
IT Services Web Site Statistics (from September 2013 – August 2014) ..................................... 22
Top 25 most recently visited pages .................................................................................... 22
Insert Document Title
Website overall statistics..................................................................................................... 23
Devices accessing the IT Services website ........................................................................... 23
Top 10 mobile devices accessing the IT Services website .................................................... 23
Top 50 geographical visits .................................................................................................. 24
Appendix 5: HEFCE Value For Money Submission 2013/14 ........................................................ 25
Procurement savings .............................................................................................................. 25
Examples of where you have acquired or produced more for the same or less cost ................ 25
Business process or Academic delivery efficiencies................................................................. 26
Rationalisation or reorganisations that save resources or improve efficiency .......................... 26
Use of shared services............................................................................................................ 26
Effective delivery of projects .................................................................................................. 27
Examples of good practice and sharing of good practice ........................................................ 28
Appendix 6: Sample Case Studies Promoting University of Bradford Technology .................... 29
Appendix 7: Staff Reflections ..................................................................................................... 30
Structure for Information Services and IT Services .................................................................. 30
IT Services staff departures .................................................................................................... 30
IT Services staff arrivals.......................................................................................................... 30
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Director’s Report
Welcome to the IT Services annual report covering the academic year 2013/14. I hope
that you find the report interesting and I would be delighted to receive your feedback and
comments. This report describes in a variety of ways how IT Services has become more
influential as new innovations and ideas are underpinned by technology developments.
We deliver customer-focused services which respond to ongoing feedback from our
students and staff. We are particularly proud that in 2013/14 we have continued to
improve the NSS outcomes for learning resources including IT.
A productive year
It has been a productive year for IT Services, which started with supporting the University
through on-line enrolment events and concluded with a successful clearing week.
Throughout the year we have delivered both new and existing services. We tackled a
number of specific objectives this year which included:
1. Providing technical support and co-ordination to launch and support the first year
operation of the University’s student attendance monitoring system.
A single University-wide attendance monitoring system was launched on time for
Semester One. Improvements were made for Semester Two, involving detailed
planning with our supplier (Telepen) and other internal teams. Ongoing support
and development has now transferred to business as usual activity in the Academic
Registry, and we are now preparing investment plans to enable further
improvements to processes and systems. IT Services helped the University to meet
Borders Agency requirements and audit with respect to Tier 4 students, and HEFCE
statutory attendance reporting requirements.
2. Providing technical support and co-ordination to support the operation of the
Timetabling System (called Syllabus Plus).
Timetabling met the deadline for issue of Semester One and Two student
timetables. Exam timetables were issued electronically and individual personalised
emails sent to students. Ongoing support and development has now transferred to
business as usual in Academic Registry, and we are now preparing investment plans
for further process improvements.
IT Services ensure that students received academic timetables including electronic
examination timetables in a timely and accurate way.
3. Provide strategic input to the Changing Learning Landscapes (CLL) project as an
active member of the project team, and a contributor to the national initiative. IT
Services has provided technical support and co-ordination to deliver agreed projects
/ services and solutions.
This project successfully secured £7 Million investment over three years in
November 2013. There are a number of specifics including:
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
Development of a programme database.

Digital literacy assessment tool for staff and students.

On-line assessment tools.

Integrated approach to student support services.
Technology enhanced learning investment was agreed in the following areas:

Campus Wi-Fi.

Increased Computer Aided Assessment capacity.

Unified support teams.

Upgrade AV facilities in teaching spaces.

Student engagement.

Student-led Mobile Apps development (appathon).

Lecture Capture Solutions.
There was a CLL one-day event held in October with Senior Management Team,
students and externals. IT Services led on the CLL survey work in partnership with
the Student’s Union and prepared and published ‘You Said…We Did’ responses.
The CLL project was also presented to national audience at the UCISA Management
Conference in March 2014.
4. Our previous success with Microsoft, has paved the way for us to consider whether
we should outsource other services. Our Blackboard system experienced
performance problems at the start of the academic year (not unique to Bradford)
and as a result, IT Services led the team which migrated Blackboard to a managed
hosted service at the end of the academic year. The project was implemented in 7
weeks after contracts were signed. Blackboard is our core Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE) now running out of Blackboard Data Centres in the Netherlands.
IT Services worked in partnership with Blackboard and the Centre for Educational
Development to successfully upgrade the service to the latest available release in a
24 hour weekend slot ahead of enrolment. A week later, Blackboard successfully
updated the system to the latest cumulative ‘patches / fixes’ in a routine overnight
maintenance window. Overall, students and staff did not notice the changes, other
than an occasional planned interruption and significantly improved levels of system
performance. This has not only freed up precious resource in IT services but it also
ensures that any future performance problems are the responsibility of the
developers who have access to tools and specialists needed to identify and repair
faults.
5. Another strategic landmark this year was to complete the upgrade of all University
staff desktops to Windows 7 / Office 2010 by December 2013, and the migration of
all University email accounts to the Microsoft Office 365 service.
The staff email migration was completed on schedule and successfully. The team
also completed the transfer of 400 legacy student accounts – these related to a
group of students who chose not to migrate across to the Microsoft service. We did
not force them to change until the start of this academic session and that has now
happened. The old email system which has served us incredibly well was prepared
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
for retirement. The Windows 7/Office 10 roll-out was completed on schedule by
January 2014 across all staff and student supported desktops. We also completed
the migration of all students to the Microsoft Office365 platform by July 2014 on
schedule, including final migration of students to @bradford email addresses. All
postgraduate students migrated to Office365 including those who had retained
staff email accounts in 2012/13. The Office365 project has also completed futures
papers undertaken by external companies for Sharepoint (Salford Software) and
Lync (4C technologies). We were pleased to launch Microsoft Academy to all of our
students at no cost as part of the program. The Meeting Maker migration to Office
365 Calendar was work in progress.
6. There has also been a major re-implementation of our student information systems
which is a significant financial and resource commitment and addresses a number
of risks and issues with the existing capabilities.
Developments have included the launch of a new SITS module called Azorus CRM
for student enquiry management, a process review and subsequent reduction in
progression codes (PIT codes) from over 900 to 10 codes for undergraduate
students, process review of academic misconduct and development of a database
solution, work on rebranding the e-Vision service and revised look and feel
including development of two new areas of demonstrator functionality (i.e. various
change of student circumstances) and new functionality to enable module
applications to CPD programmes. We have also tackled some long standing tasks
including working through a number of non-technical areas of work (which had
become known as project enablers) and also identifying leadership for system
coding, system support and ongoing process review. With respect to the Azorus
development, Director of External Relations sent the following message:
“we attended the Belfast UCAS Convention last week. As well as a much higher
profile at the event we were trialling for the first time our new student
recruitment CRM system Azorus (which incidentally we have implemented
within 7 weeks – without doubt the fastest implementation in any UK
university and the fastest I’ve been involved with since I started my CRM
career in 1996).
Historically the University has not had sight of the effectiveness of its
marketing activities as well as any indication on how we are faring prior to
when the UK UG applications start rolling in early in September. The new
system will now start to give us this capability and I thought you would be
interested in the first report we have run from the Belfast Convention. It shows
we generated 1,322 leads which represents 15% of the total attendees at the
fair. If we replicated this across all 39 fairs, then with last year’s total
attendance of 270, 000 that would represent around 40,500 leads – we
generated just over 300 last year.”
7. IT Services also helped to deliver a new Peer Support Scheme (buddy scheme) in
three week’s from decision to implementation. This involved some of our selected
undergraduate students proactively calling our applicants who are on the same or
similar courses to ask if they need any help or have any questions. This sort of
contact has not been attempted before and has involved a distributed team of
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
about 35 students and supervisors making calls from various locations on campus
in the evenings. The new system was well received by applicants and repeated
again later in the application cycle.
8. The arrival of a new Vice Chancellor and various new appointments at Senior Level
(Deans, Directors, DVC and Deans) led to a significant period of organisational
change and a variety of new initiatives and activities.
IT Services established briefing presentations for new senior staff and 1-2-1
sessions with Deans and Directors through July 2014. The presentations were
prepared and circulated on IT Services ‘what we do’ and annual reporting. We also
prepared an IT services response to the VC’s future strategy paper, and supported
the User Review of IT led by Alison Jones, and initiated a technology response to
the emerging University strategy ‘Making the most of IT – the technology enabled
campus’.
9. We also worked with HR to pro-actively review the structure within IT Services –
partly as a result of the integration of IT Information, Training and Advice Team,
and partly to ensure appropriate workforce planning for IT Systems and IT
Infrastructure teams. We negotiated HR support for structure review and
discussion with senior managers and adopted an industry standard approach (ITIL)
to identify ‘gaps’ in our structure. As well as structure, we completed a gap
analysis as a result of internal audit management plan relating to cyber-security. We
successfully recruited to two new advisor posts with TEL specialism to address
concerns with level of TEL support for academic staff and students. In the coming
year we will be responding to concerns about our capacity and capability to deliver
the range of new requirements and with this in mind we will be looking at the way
we structure ourselves to deliver services that are fit for a 21st Century technology
University.
Challenges

We have faced a number of challenges during the year, including occasional
service interruptions. Every major interruption is documented and available
through our IT Service status pages and reviewed by our management team
each month. We also transparently publish the root cause analysis and impact
on our customers. Overall, we have maintained a significant 40% reduction
(year-on-year) in the number of incidents as a result of our approach to
continuous improvement, change control and active follow up to incidents.

There is always room for improvement. We have addressed a number of
reported service issues and frustrations. We have remained a coherent team
delivering a service which is rated very highly through our ongoing customer
satisfaction survey (our customers rated our service as 87% very satisfied, 12%
satisfied).

There are a number of strategic challenges which we have identified during the
year as part of the Vice-Chancellor’s longer-term planning horizon for the
University:
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
o
The need for a new library building, which now needs feasibility /
options appraisal (probably not a new build but extension to existing
building more likely).
o
Supporting emerging academic themes (advanced healthcare, innovative
engineering and manufacturing, sustainable societies and organisations)
– reflecting these in our work and the way we provide our services.
o
The continuing growth in both personally owned and corporate mobile
devices.
o
How we offer as full a service as possible out of hours aiming towards 24
x 7 x 365.
o
Information security and governance challenges.
o
IT Services – identifying our core activity, what (more) might be
outsourced and to what benefit? Clarity about which elements of
University activity are ‘just a business’ and what are unique to the
University situation? This will include how we work more with external
partners and suppliers in new partnership arrangements.
o
Making all our services as straightforward and user-friendly as possible.
Student feedback

In the National Student Survey the results have improved on previous years
with 88% of students satisfied with access to general IT resources when needed
– this was up 4% on previous year and now matches the English national
average. The summary qualitative analysis praised the specialist equipment /
resources available, as was the library and resources and facilities in general.
However, recurring negatives concern the library and IT facilities – mainly a
perceived lack of books / book availability, e-resources and computers; plus
inconsiderate student behaviour not being tackled.
Upgrades

Every year IT Services upgrades both the software and the hardware in student
PC clusters. Last year we also created new space equipped with student PCs
and large screen mediamast technologies so that more are available in the
most popular locations (on floor 01 of the Library). Wireless printing is now
available too, so that students can print from their own laptops and other
mobile devices. We further increased the number of loan laptops (uBorrow
scheme) and introduced a self-service fully automated loan facility available 24
hours. There was significant demand with over 3,000 laptop issues in the first
few weeks of operation. There is as yet no sign of a decrease in demand for
fixed PCs.
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Student enrolment and re-enrolment:

IT Services provided an enhanced student-facing IT presence during the
enrolment process, alongside the support that we always provide to enrolment
including desktop, telephony and document scanning. This was co-ordinated
with other activities that took place to encourage student engagement in the
first few days at Bradford. The ‘pop up’ facility in Richmond Atrium focused on
key things identified through Changing the Learning Landscape project. We
promoted a range of existing technology services which included Eduroam WiFi, Microsoft Office365, About UoB mobile app, and Blackboard Mobile Learn.
By the time students left the enrolment process they were ‘up and running’
with the basic tools they needed. Credit for this improvement rests with a
team drawn from across IT Services, including Baba Fayokun who as a new
member of our team, suggested the idea to be pro-active and reduce
subsequent IT advice queries of a more basic nature in the first weeks of the
academic year.
New state of the art student PC facility in the J. B. Priestley
Library

We re-launched our premier PC cluster facility for general teaching use in the J.
B. Priestley Library (room 01.53). It was further improved with a deep clean
like brand new (it had new carpets and lighting last year), a fresh paint scheme,
72 brand new computers and our colleagues in AV services installed over a
dozen large screens to enable the room to be available for teaching purposes
with High Definition music, video, and screen display capabilities.
Launch of new student space in the J. B. Priestley Library

A range of new facilities were opened in reclaimed space on level 01 which
have been a considerable success. Student surveys have consistently identified
group study space and more computers as priorities. We upgraded power and
network both wired and wi-fi which has enabled new PCs to be installed for
student use. The AV team set up four large screen ‘mediamasts’ for teambased learning equipment. With a flexible capacity of about 80-100 students
this large open plan area provides a mix of individual, small and larger group
study supported by new technology.
Business as usual

The Business as Usual activity generally went well – we paid people every
month, we produced management accounts, we enrolled students, we
managed progression and award ceremonies, clearing and confirmation. The
network internal and external was very resilient, all the services were available
in excess of 99% across the year, and we dealt with a number of planned and
unplanned business continuity events. There were on average two service
interruptions a month which were managed to a successful conclusion. We
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
remain under pressure to do even better (flexibility, system resilience, 24 x 7
expectations etc). There were specific high impact interruptions during this
year relating to:
o
Blackboard performance issues which were ultimately resolved by
moving Blackboard to its Managed Hosting service providing 24 x 7 x
365 capabilities.
o
Student Systems just prior to A Level results – interrupted due to
equipment fault.
o
Finance System (e5) – interrupted due to related equipment fault.
o
Data Storage used by staff (H Drive) – interrupted due to related
equipment fault.
o
Telephony System (faulty printed circuit board caused poor line quality).
o
Turnitin plagiarism detection (national service failure under peak load).
o
YHMAN Regional network (4 hour interruption).

The IT Services account management process is working effectively although it
needs further work. We employed and developed students throughout the year
in various roles (e.g. student-led PC clinic, routine pro-active checking of
student cluster equipment, IT Advice) and supported students through
occasional lectures and through support for dissertations and projects.

We pro-actively managed the budget and the need to make savings coming up
with options and alternatives.

Involvement in Project Boards continued throughout the year – examples
included Learning and Teaching Program Board, Technology Program Board,
SITS Programme Board, Timetabling, Attendance Monitoring, Blackboard etc.
External involvement in professional body work at a national level continued
with active professional body involvement (UCISA), Service Desk Institute (SDI)
and Telecoms National User Groups. The University representative of UCISA
was elected to serve on the National Executive for 3 years commencing April
2014. The University mobile technology adviser was elected Chair of the
CampusM national user group.

An internal continual improvement team has been operating for the last three
years. In 2013/14 the team focused on improving communications, including
running a highly successful inaugural ‘Geek Week’ in partnership with
Microsoft. Recently the team has focused on the systems we use to support
service management in preparation for a joint Estates and IT led initiative to
implement an improved workflow and management system to replace legacy
services.

There are a significant number of activities, many of them ‘business as usual’
which do not appear in this report, but are no less important to the success of
the University. I would like to thank every member of staff in the IT Services
and Information Services team who has contributed to a successful year.
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Looking ahead
Looking ahead to the coming year our priorities include:

Service ownership: Clarity about the IT Services role with specific emphasis
on ‘service ownership’ – identified in the User Review of IT.

IT User Review action plan: To deal with all of the recommendations
following this important review of IT at Bradford.

Health and wellbeing activities for the team: Resilience of our human
resources – actively participating in the health and well-being agenda.

Team-building: Working as ‘Team Bradford’, within our own IT service, within
Information Services, within Professional Services and across the Academic
Schools.

J. B. Priestley Library refurbishment project: Affecting level 01 of the
Building.

Major IT projects include:
o
SITS Developments (Year two of development programme).
o
Office 365 Calendaring, then potentially Sharepoint and Lync pilots.
o
ServiceNow implementation for HR, IT Services and Estates.
o
Major Upgrade to E5 Finance.
o
Annual Upgrade to SITS core system.
o
Wi-Fi project (year one).
o
Support British Science Festival 2015.
o
Developing and participating in technology partnerships including BT, HP,
Blackboard etc.
I am confident that the IT Services team will continue to adapt to changing cultures and
new challenges, and we look forward to being an influential and innovative department
that continues to deliver excellent customer-focused services.
Graham Hill
Director IT Services
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Appendix 1: IT Services customer feedback
2013/14
National Student Survey 2013/14
The NSS Survey Analysis is presented in September 2014 for the prior year survey. The
summary information published by HEFCE
(www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/lt/publicinfo/nss/data/2014/ ) is as follows:
UoB
2012
UoB
2013
UoB
2014
2014 Sector Average
Learning resources
81
82
85
Below Sector (86)
16 - The library resources and services are
good enough for my needs.
81
83
85
Below Sector (87)
17 - I have been able to access general IT
resources when I needed to.
82
84
88
Sector Average (88)
18 - I have been able to access specialised
equipment, facilities or room when I
needed to.
78
79
82
Sector Average (82)
Positive student comments from NSS relating to IT
Services

The campus offers excellent facilities, like the library, student central, specially
designed areas for group and individual study, gym, praying rooms, research
areas as well as fully equipped labs with all the necessary technology. The
university also offers career advice services, counselling services as well as a
good loan system for laptops, tabs, cameras or any other equipment necessary
to complete certain assignments.

IT equipment and rooms were always available basically 24/7 which meant that
if there are any problems with your Internet at home and you cannot connect
to the university database, you can come in at any time and do your work. It is
really helpful.

The facilities are good.

Incredible staff and more information clearly given than I could dream of.
Everything is laid out clearly throughout. Great library facilities.

The library facilities and learning facilities of the whole university in general
have been invested into with great pride, and since the beginning of my course,
the university has improved in these terms each year.

The library and IT service has been great.
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14

The library is excellent and the facilities are good.
Negative comments

Only on some resource such as computers and the library needs more resource
such as private study areas and computers.

Computer facilities become filled up very quickly. This makes, despite there
being a large number of PCs, finding a quiet place to do I.T. work difficult
sometimes.

Need more computer rooms, as at times no space is available.

No quiet computing facilities whatsoever. More freedom required on computer
systems in 2nd and 3rd year.

The library computer cluster is also something I had an issue with, it was noisy,
lacked chairs due to groups gathering around one PC chatting to one another
and generally messing around not working.

Library IT equipment should also be improved as well as collection of books
needed

Not enough space in the library. Very hard to get hold of a computer.

There is limited computers and study space in management.

The library has poor material especially IT and online sources. Really, poor
compared to other universities.

The resources in the library need more computers.
What one thing would have improved your experience

The number of IT rooms.

Better computer facilities, more course related library books.

More computers in the library, as well as more printers.

If only I knew 1st year about all the amount of IT available to students for extra
benefit.

More library facilities, more books, more computers.

The library resources, computer and lack of books availability.
IT Satisfaction Survey conducted monthly during 2013/14
IT Services publishes a monthly satisfaction report at:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/about-us/reports/ict-servicedesk/.
Our customers say that they are overwhelmingly ‘very satisfied’ with our service. 87% of
customers who respond are very satisfied and 12% satisfied). We receive some very
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
positive (and also constructive) feedback which we welcome. We also publish ‘You
Said….We Did’ responses to customer feedback on our website here:
Surveys during 2013/14
Previous surveys were conducted in 2009 and 2011 by an external company (used by
others in the sector to benchmark IT) and in 2013 a student-led survey of technology was
undertaken by the Changing Learning Landscapes project in collaboration with the
Student Union and IT Services. The full survey results, analysis and importantly the follow
up ‘You Said….We Did’ report are available at:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/about-us/surveys/.
Staff Survey - HR led
There was a University-wide survey of all staff at the University and an action plan is
currently being developed for Information Services.
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Appendix 2: How we respond positively to our
customer feedback
You Said … We Did …
Feedback from students, including our responses, can be found at:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/about-us/surveys/various-surveys/.
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Appendix 3: ICT Servicedesk Annual Report
2013/14

www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/media/itservices/allfiles/documents/servicedesk/ictannual-report-13-14.pdf.

www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/media/itservices/allfiles/documents/servicedesk/ictannual-report-13-14.docx.
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Appendix 4: IT Services – Key Metrics
A comparison of student print volumes 2009/10 through
2013/14
1. Pull printing (Pharos) was introduced at start of academic session 2009/10.
2. Pricing policy has remained unchanged at 5p per sheet for five years.
3. Self-service print volumes have increased by about 20% in the last year with total
volume in 2013/14 of 2.80 Million pages (previous year 2.36 Million pages).
4. Total student revenue from printing was £130k (previous year £109k) which is an
increase of £21k (20% increase) with no increase in the unit price.
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
IT Services Budget
The profile of IT Services budget and how it has changed – these figures are taken from
annual approved budgets – they exclude the effects of ‘ring-fenced’ investment budgets.
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
Income
£102k
£51k
£34k
£27k
Salary costs
£1670k
£1645k
£1801k
£2191k
Vacancy Factor
(£60k)
(£58k)
(£60k)
(£76k)
Net Pay Costs
£1610k
£1587k
£1742k
£2115k
Operating Costs
£859k
£902k
£931k
£955k
TOTAL BUDGET
£2.4M
£2.5M
£2.6M
£3.1M
Equipment Depreciation
£45k
£45k
£26k
£4k
The total IT Services budget excludes externally funded projects, and internally funded
investment plan projects (e.g. technology investments are forecast at £1.5M capital and
£1.1M recurrent in the three years to 2014-15).
Over the last 3 years the operating costs of IT Services have effectively remained
unchanged with cost savings and absorption of economics and inflationary increases in
that period. The increase in staff costs reflects the transfer of all IT staff from Life
Sciences through a Facility Management arrangement, and the provision of Facility
Management for Health Studies.
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
The actual spend each year is broadly in line with budget (subject to agreed overspends).
IT Services Key Service Availability
The IT Service publishes real-time service information on the University home page at:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/service-status/.
This is a transparent mechanism for all students, staff and visitors to see how key
services are operating using a simple traffic light approach. The information is also
provided in a format called RSS which allows feeds to other web-based and mobile
systems (e.g. About UoB). It is also displayed graphically on large screens within the J. B.
Priestley Library.
During 2013-14 there were a number of IT ‘improvement’ periods published at:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/staff/improvement-dates/. These are published in
advance and we reserve the right to interrupt service if necessary during these periods –
this is recorded as scheduled maintenance and not included in the service availability.
The information provides an indication of the service reliability (for key services identified
on our service status page) and also the responsiveness to service interruption when
required.
Blackboard Metrics
For Blackboard Learn (the core virtual learning system) we have statistics for the last
year. They have been generated by Blackboard's standard reports.

The number of active courses loaded into the system is 3,138 (down from
4,400 in 2013/14 reflecting housekeeping as a result of the move to the
Blackboard managed hosted service).

The number of active organisations is 224 (also down from 275 due to
housekeeping).

There are 12,338 active users (also down from 14,000).

The average number of daily page views is 139k (was 126k) and the peak was
439k (up from 380k) on 15th September.

In the last 12 months, last October was again the busiest month with an
average of 139k page views per day, followed by September and November.
For Blackboard Mobile we have annual statistics available:

There have been 10,721 unique visitors (up from 4,665 so more than double
last year).

The busiest day was 12th October with about 12,000 logins (up from 3,900)
split roughly.

80:20 between Apple (IOS) and Android.

Overall there have been 8,000 (was 3,200) unique users using Apple (IOS) and
3,000 (was 1,400) using Android with a handful of Blackberry users (9).
January 2015
16
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14

There are fewer logins at weekends and logins tend to drop in the evenings,
starting about 3PM and start to increase again about 10PM.
Wireless Networks – Wi-Fi for staff and students
The following table provides a one month snapshot for October 2014 and comparator for
October 2013. There are three ways to connect to Wi-Fi at present. In total there were
over 17k different users of the systems (up from 14k an increase of 20%). The prevalent
route is RoamNet which had almost 10k customers and 185k sessions in a month. The
Cloud is available to visitors and internal staff and students and had over 8k users. This
service has no restrictions and is provided through a public network connection. The
Eduroam service which was promoted for September enrolment has increased to over 3k
users. We expect this to increase significantly in 2014-15 as it becomes even more
established.
October 2014
Session data by SSID
SSID
Clients % of
Clients
Time % of
Time
MB Used
% of MB
Used
Average Sessions
Signal
Quality
Uobroamnet 9911
45.47%
4385
days
12
hrs
53
mins
52.56%
2555765.79 57.87%
31.71
185319
The Cloud
8601
39.46%
2846
days
0 hrs
29
mins
34.11%
1268829.17 28.73%
29.79
126296
Eduroam
3287
15.08%
1112
days
11
hrs
52
mins
13.33%
592051.70
30.71
57228
3 SSIDs
100.00% 8344
days
1 hr
15
mins
13.41%
100.00% 4416646.66 100.00%
17
368843
January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Client session summary
Sessions
Unique clients
Guest users
Unique APs
Average session duration
Total traffic (MB)
Average traffic per session(MB)
Average traffic per client(MB)
Average bandwidth per client (Kbps)
Average signal quality
368843
17119
0
262
32 mins
4416646.66
11.97
258
48.67
33.42
October 2013
Session data by SSID
SSID
Clients % of
Clients
Time % of
Time
MB Used
% of MB
Used
Average Sessions
Signal
Quality
Uobroamnet 9543
52.33%
3251
days
13
hrs
16
mins
54.26%
1249781.52 53.42%
29.28
147948
The Cloud
7174
39.34%
2101
days
12
hrs
14
mins
35.07%
908736.16
38.84%
28.69
94995
Eduroam
1519
8.33%
639
days
4 hrs
9
mins
10.67%
180898.00
7.73%
31.02
33249
3 SSIDs
January 2015
100.00% 5992
days
5 hrs
40
mins
100.00% 2339415.68 100.00%
18
27692
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Client session summary
Sessions
Unique clients
Guest users
Unique APs
Average session duration
Total traffic (MB)
Average traffic per session(MB)
Average traffic per client(MB)
Average bandwidth per client (Kbps)
Average signal quality
19
276192
14360
0
222
31
2339415.68
8.47
162.91
38.44
32.03
January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Wireless Networks - The Cloud (wi-fi for visitors)
This two charts below show that the busiest time for user devices accessing the Cloud
during the last year was October 2014, with over 6000 devices. Predominantly, devices
used were iPhone, then Android, then laptops, then tablets and then other devices.
The chart below shows that the busiest time for WiFi sessions during the last year was
March 2014, with over 60000 sessions. Predominantly, devices used were iPhone, then
Android, then laptops, then tablets and then other devices.
January 2015
20
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
21
January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
IT Services Web Site Statistics (from September 2013 –
August 2014)
Top 25 most recently visited pages
Views
Unique
Views
Average
Time
Spent
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/email/
1,254,821
1,170,267
00:04:46
www.bradford.ac.uk/itservices/students/computers/facebook-free/
471,985
120,548
00:01:04
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/connect-to-thenetwork/roamnet/login-successful/
276,216
251,647
00:04:32
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/staff/email/
128,308
119,104
00:03:03
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/
17,958
13,426
00:00:19
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/password/universitypassword/
15,853
10,533
00:02:04
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/help-sheets/emailand-calendaring/student-email/
15,433
13,494
00:00:35
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/
15,325
12,219
00:00:18
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/email/logging-in/
12,563
11,331
00:00:24
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/staff/
9,992
7,454
00:00:13
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/service-status/
8,508
7,071
00:01:05
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/password/
7,811
5,856
00:01:04
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/help-sheets/emailand-calendaring/
7,182
4,548
00:00:28
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/email/webmail/
7,146
6,130
00:01:16
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/help-sheets/filemanagement/remote-access-to-files/
5,159
4,312
00:02:56
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/connect-to-thenetwork/
4,815
3,704
00:00:30
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/students/mobiletechnology/office-365/
4,787
4,137
00:02:50
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/staff/off-campus/
4,571
3,835
00:00:23
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/blackboardunavailable/index.php
4,409
2,657
00:03:36
January 2015
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Views
Unique
Views
Average
Time
Spent
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/problem/
4,352
3,648
00:01:58
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/helpsheets/accessibility/
4,134
2,847
00:01:01
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/software/
3,683
2,610
00:00:49
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/projects/live/office365staff/
2,998
2,159
00:00:27
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/help-sheets/filemanagement/secure-global-desktop/
2,918
2,233
00:02:50
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/help/help-sheets/antivirus/
2,885
2,158
00:03:06
Website overall statistics

Views: 2,401,804.

Unique views: 1,872,363.

Average time spent: 1 min 47 seconds.
Devices accessing the IT Services website

Desktop: 1,304,587 (76.52%).

Mobile: 314,200 (18.43%).

Tablet: 86,191 (5.06%).
Top 10 mobile devices accessing the IT Services website
Apple iPhone
125,492(31.34%)
Apple iPad
60,864(15.20%)
Samsung GT-I9300 Galaxy S III
29,299(7.32%)
Samsung GT-I9505 Galaxy S IV
25,729(6.43%)
(not set)
11,317(2.83%)
Samsung GT-I9100 Galaxy S II
8,712(2.18%)
Samsung GT-I8190N Galaxy S III Mini
5,737(1.43%)
HTC M7 One
5,455(1.36%)
Google Nexus 7
4,935(1.23%)
Samsung GT-S5830i Galaxy Ace
4,701(1.17%)
23
January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Top 50 geographical visits
United Kingdom
Tanzania
China
United States
Singapore
Nigeria
Greece
United Arab Emirates
Germany
Canada
India
Spain
Cyprus
Italy
Oman
Netherlands
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
France
Sweden
Hong Kong
(not set)
Australia
Turkey
Qatar
Bulgaria
South Korea
Ireland
Romania
Kuwait
Switzerland
Ghana
Malaysia
Japan
Kenya
Mauritius
New Zealand
Jordan
Estonia
Jamaica
Denmark
Bangladesh
Poland
Austria
Portugal
South Africa
Belgium
Russia
Guyana
Philippines
January 2015
1,565,191
17,179
8,491
8,447
6,994
6,881
6,380
6,048
4,265
3,661
3,621
3,587
2,435
2,395
2,382
2,236
2,083
2,071
2,046
1,897
1,848
1,705
1,698
1,697
1,694
1,655
1,565
1,516
1,384
1,237
1,216
1,094
1,056
1,049
1,047
980
906
863
857
847
831
761
737
720
699
691
623
603
551
538
24
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Appendix 5: HEFCE Value For Money
Submission 2013/14
Procurement savings
There is significant procurement knowledge regarding technology and IT obtained from
links within the sector and through procurement experts (e.g. Local and National
Purchasing Consortia) and professional associations (e.g. UCISA, SCONUL).
Specific examples in 2013/14 include:

Contract negotiation with Blackboard resulted in savings over the initial 3-year
term of the contract. Should the contract be extended by an optional two
more years then the total saving excluding economics is £300k including VAT
over 5 years.

Further contract negotiation with Blackboard for delivery of its Managed
Hosting service resulted in an auditable saving of £35k including VAT over the
life of the contract.

Contract negotiation with ServiceNow, for procurement of a service
management system. This system has cross-functional capabilities, and was
procured via EU procurement processes. The system provides a platform for
integrated systems, and the initial implementation will include HR, IT Services
and Estates. By liaising with another University which had procured the system
we were able to confirm best value licensing, together with longer-term
commitment to pricing should our requirements change.

Saving of £21k over 40 months by negotiating new maintenance contract for
approximately 6000 telephone extensions covered by our telephony system
maintenance contract.

Continued IT energy saving service (Nightwatchman) with ongoing financial /
energy benefits (£7.4k per annum).

Contract negotiation for extension of Finance system support with the supplier
of the system Advanced Business Solutions (ABS). This enabled a planning
period for re-implementation of the system reducing risk, and securing support
at a reduced price.

The Worktribe system was procured at a heavily discounted price as the
University of Bradford was the first SITS / Tribal customer.
Examples of where you have acquired or produced more
for the same or less cost

Windows 7 / Office 10 roll-out completed on schedule by January 2014 across
all staff and student supported desktop computers. This provides industry
standard desktop software across the University within existing national
campus agreements.
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January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14

Office365 project providing email for staff through Microsoft cloud services
was completed on schedule by end of July 2014. This included final migration
of students to @bradford email addresses, and also enabled integration with
mobile devices for email anytime, anywhere at no additional cost. All
postgraduate students were also migrated to Office365 including those who
had retained staff email accounts from earlier in the migration process.
Business process or Academic delivery efficiencies

A new applicant enquiry management system called Azorus was launched on
schedule for the first UCAS fair of the academic year in Belfast. Bradford is one
of the first Universities in the UK to introduce CRM technology to the enquiry
process, enabling new automated business processes for personalised enquiry
management.

A company called Worktribe were appointed to deliver Curriculum workflow
and management with a £25k phase one proof of concept completed. This will
enable approval and management of the academic curriculum to be coordinated and streamlined.

Improved portal developments were launched within the SITS student
information system for all staff and students including new corporate branding
launched July 2014.
Rationalisation or reorganisations that save resources or
improve efficiency

IT Services worked with HR to pro-actively review the structure within IT
Services – partly as a result of the integration of IT Information, Training and
Advice Team, and partly to ensure appropriate workforce planning for IT
Systems and IT Infrastructure teams. We adopted an industry standard
framework (called ITIL) to identify ‘gaps’ in our structure. Appointment of an
Operations Manager from February 2015. Completed skills gap analysis as a
result of internal audit management plan relating to cyber-security. Two new
posts to address cyber security audit from February 2015. Recruited to two
new advisor posts with TEL specialism to address concerns with level of TEL
support for academic staff and students.

Appointed Russell Allen to lead a continual improvement team on
communications from the IT Services perspective from October 2013 until end
February 2014. Report and recommendations identified.
Use of shared services

During 2013/14, all corporate email accounts were upgraded to Microsoft
Office365 to manage email, contacts and smartphone / mobile access
capabilities. All of the University both staff, students and associates are now
working in a single unified communication platform. The next stage of
January 2015
26
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
development is calendaring integration with email and also with internal
systems such as timetabling.

The University continued to be actively involved with the Regional Network
provider YHMAN (Yorkshire and Humber Metropolitan Area Network) as it
transitioned to national shared ownership (JANET) in September 2014. JANET
provides the shared network infrastructure both regionally, nationally and
internationally to the Higher Education sector.

We have continued to contract with NorMAN a shared service provider of out of
hours IT support services which provides 365 days a year cover based at
Northumbria University. The service dealt with 50-100 incidents per month,
resolving over half of the incidents and referring remainder back to IT Services
for next working day fix.

We use The Cloud Wi-Fi service which is also linked to the JANET network to
provide our visitors (as well as staff and students) with access to the internet.
Effective delivery of projects
Specific examples in 2013/14 include:

The SITS Re-implementation which has a full-time Programme Manager. There
is a clear development plan and particular successes include launching the
Azorus CRM system, the Learning Styles questionnaire development within a
refreshed Pre-Enrolment Portal.

The timetabling project was carried through to completion (December 2013)
and supported all of the business as usual activity thereafter. Timetables
issued for Semester One and Two. Further significant work now planned to
improve processes.

The attendance monitoring project was carried through to completion
(December 2013) and supported all of the business as usual activity thereafter.
Information collected and reported in support of University policy and Borders
Agency requirement. Further significant work now planned to improve
processes.

Supported procurement and launch of the resource discovery tool Summon in
the Library.

Titanium software purchased and successfully installed for the counselling
service and further enhanced during the year.

Major improvements to exam scheduling with Syllabus Plus welcomed by the
end users.

Launched the Mobile Prospectus App in March 2014 and implemented two
student competition winner apps for September 2014 enrolment.

Completion of the Blackboard migration to a managed hosting service in
Amsterdam. This high impact project was completed in 7 weeks from contract
signature.
27
January 2015
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14

Business Continuity – permanent connections for generator to J. B. Priestley
Library and further test of electrical interruptions successfully completed.

Significant upgrade to Salto access control system across campus.
Examples of good practice and sharing of good practice

IT Services has continued to survey its customers every month and provides an
opportunity for every incident or request that is processed. We report customer
satisfaction with services in a transparent way via the IT Services web presence:
www.bradford.ac.uk/it-services/about-us/reports/.

IT Services also surveys students on a bi-annual basis. These are reported on
the IT Services web presence along with a ‘You Said…..We Did’ response:
www.brad.ac.uk/it-services/about-us/surveys/.
January 2015
28
IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Appendix 6: Sample Case Studies Promoting University of
Bradford Technology

Blackboard – Managed Hosting:
http://blog.blackboard.com/private-cloud-hosting-solution/?lang=uki

The Cloud Wi-Fi:
http://universitybusiness.co.uk/News/education_for_a_wifi_nation

HP/DTP managed printing:
www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/4AA5-5324EEW.pdf?ver=1.0

OmBiel Mobile for Prospectus:
www.campusm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Bradford-Case-Study-Nov2014.pdf

Phillips Digital Pathology:
www.newscenter.philips.com/gb_en/standard/news/press/2014/20141113university-of-bradford-and-philips-collaborate-to-bring-digital-pathologytraining-to-student.wpd#.VG9GtqFFCig

Telepen access control:
http://telepen.co.uk/university-of-bradford-extends-sentry-usage/

Techaid UK – donations of end-of-life equipment. The University partnership is
promoted at:
http://members.viplus.com/view.ashx?message=e40072888O40056600O133759O-40072889&r=1005
29
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14
Appendix 7: Staff Reflections
Structure for Information Services and IT Services
There was a significant change to the reporting structure of IT Services with the decision
to create a new Directorate of Information Services. In September 2014, a revised
structure was agreed within IT Services with three teams. From October 2013, IT Services
provided its IT Facility Management service for the School of Health Studies after a trial
period. In December 2014 (2014-15 academic year), on an interim basis, line
management of the staff in the Computing and Audio Visual Team, in the Faculty of
Management and Law, was transferred to IT Services.
IT Services staff departures

Alex Ardelean (student intern) who completed his time with our IT Systems
team, returning to his final years studies (end of contract September).

Phil Crowther in our IT Support and Telecomms team (retired).

Andy Walmsley very sadly and unexpectedly passed away (2014-15 academic
year).

Mark Jones in our IT Infrastructure team (retired) (2014-15 academic year).
IT Services staff arrivals

Continual Improvement Teams continued – Russell Allen led on
communications improvement with members of other teams supporting, Sue
Gregson was appointed as part-time Continual Service Improvement Manager
with initial focus on enrolment.

New student support staff were appointed - Sherzad Mahmud (previously on
cluster checking and studying for a PG degree in Peace Studies), Elena Zaharia
(studying UG Degree in Engineering) and Khaled El-Mansoury (studying UG
Degree in Pharmacy), Amanda Yeates from November (studying for Masters in
Information Technology Management).

Two new posts were created as a result of the introduction of Facility
Management (FM) arrangements for the School of Health Studies with effect
from October, trainee IT Support / Network Co-ordinators - Dan Payne with
effect from September and Matt Dyson with effect from November.

Baba Fayokun as trainee IT Support / Network Co-ordinator in the IT Support
and Telecomms Team commencing April 2014 as a result of Phil Crowther’s
retirement.

Tully Wakeman joined the IT Systems team on a short term contract (January to
May) to work on the SITS development programme.

Jeff Boyce joined the IT Systems Team with effect from March 2014 working in
a Systems Analyst / Programmer role for an initial period of one year.
January 2015
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IT Services Annual Report 2013/14

Lawrence Gains joined the department from Student Registry Services in June
2014 in the IT Systems team working on the SITS development programme.

Sherzad Mahmud appointed as trainee IT Support / Network Co-ordinator in
the IT Support and Telecoms Team on a twelve month fixed term contract in
the first instance, to backfill for Jeff Boyce.

Appointment of two IT Advisers with a specific responsibility for Technology
Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems. Gillian Jones (indefinite post) and Sarah
Bostan (12 month fixed term in the first instance).
31
January 2015