MERGER PROPOSAL DOCUMENT
APPENDICES
Appendix i :
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STRATEGY TO INTEGRATE JAMES WATT COLLEGE (NORTH AYRSHIRE
CAMPUSES) INTO THE AYRSHIRE REGION
2
Appendix ii /iii: DUE DILIGENCE REPORTS – CONFIDENTIAL – AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
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Appendix iv :
ASSESSMENT MATRIX TO SELECT HOST
6
Appendix v :
TIMETABLE TO VESTING DAY
6
Appendix vi :
PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
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APPENDIX i
1.1 STRATEGY TO INTEGRATE JAMES WATT COLLEGE (NORTH AYRSHIRE CAMPUSES) INTO THE
AYRSHIRE REGION
The Ayrshire and West regions are working together to deploy a robust strategy to separate existing
integrated systems and architecture while creating a robust and resilient infrastructure for both new
regional colleges.
To achieve the regionalisation objectives while maintaining continuity and quality of services, there
is a requirement for joint planning, shared milestones and potential service level agreements as a
contingency between the West and Ayrshire regions. Planned date for full integration of James Watt
North Ayrshire campuses into the Ayrshire region is 31st December 2013.
Plans are in development to transfer systems and processes in time for the proposed vesting day of
1st August 2013. Contingency plans are also being prepared to ensure that any delays in transfer of
systems can be supported in a co-ordinated way to ensure that there is no disruption to learners or
the services offered.
Schedules are in development for agreement for sign off for the following areas ;
Financial
Review and agreement of allocation methodology for :
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Staff
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Balance Sheet & Income & Expenditure
Weighted SUMS
Cost centre allocations
SFC allocations
Leases and contract
Fixed Assets
Assignation of staff based on agreed criteria and consultation with James Watt College Staff
Contracts
 Transfer of contracts supporting North Ayrshire Campuses referenced in Due Diligence. Key
contract for transfer to Ayrshire is the Privately Funded Investment (PFI) Contract for the
main Kilwinning campus.
 Communication with contractors to advise of contract changes as applicable.
Intellectual Property
 Transfer of Intellectual Property. At the time of writing, a list of Intellectual Property (IP) is
being drawn up for assignation to each region.
Systems and data
One of the challenges to be addressed is migration of systems, data and processes as the North
Ayrshire campuses are not standalone in terms of systems infrastructure.
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The migration process therefore requires establishment of an independent infrastructure to allow
North Ayrshire campuses to connect to the Ayrshire region systems and processes as part of the
transfer.
Process mapping has been completed to identify business critical systems to support the North
Ayrshire campuses from Vesting Day and a joint transfer plan is under development for completion
by 28th February detailing joint actions to support student records, student funding, HR, payroll and
finance.
Considerations for inclusion in the transfer plan :
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A plan to separate the North Ayrshire data from the Inverclyde data is being drafted and
where possible, a clone will be developed for the North Ayrshire campuses prior to Vesting
Day.
The systems will continue to be operated from Finnart Street in Greenock until vesting day.
Key business milestones have been considered to minimise the disruption to services by
phasing the transfer of the processes and data once the networks and operational abilities
have been tested.
o Payments and receipts will transfer on vesting.
o Payroll will transfer on Vesting day. Payroll processes will be tested in Ayrshire using
anonymised data to ensure that payroll is fully functional prior to live payroll runs.
o HR data and back-up will transfer by the end of October,
o Student data will transfer by the end of December.
o Historical asset registers will transfer by the end of October.
Service level agreements are being developed between the regions for James Watt’s Finnart
Street campus to provide contingency to Ayrshire for a limited period of time to support the
North Ayrshire campuses where they are required.
A service level agreement is being drawn up to cover historical data access.
Email, telephony, networks, printing, and desktop software are also included in the transfer
plan to ensure seamless transition for students and staff from Vesting Day
Individual data, including all staff and student personal data, will be transferred with the
staff.
Learning and teaching materials are also being transferred relating to the courses that are
being transferred. Where a course is going to be conducted in both regions, a copy will go to
both regions.
Dispute resolution
It is not anticipated that there will be any items that are not allocated and agreed to transfer to one
of the regions at Vesting Day. However, in order to address unforeseen issues or disputes that arise
whereby the allocation/responsibility cannot be agreed between the two new regional bodies, then
the arbiter will be the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
Regional agreements will be confirmed by 28th February 2013 in relation to monetary limits.
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1.2 Request for Additional Funding to support the Separation Strategy of James Watt North
Ayrshire Campuses – Summary of Request submitted to SFC in December 2013
The North Ayrshire campuses are not independent in terms of systems infrastructure.
The current and future connections planned are shown in Figures 1&2.
Development of a robust, resilient connectivity solution will allow a timely transfer of systems and
data to the Ayrshire region. This will require interim operational controls to manage the Ayrshire
campuses until separation occurs.
To support migration and provide contingency, the connection between Finnart Street and
Kilwinning will require to be maintained on a short term basis
Processes
The processes that support the business objectives of both regions will be developed to support the
transfer. They will both require interim arrangements and training and staff development.
Resources
While planning for the transfer, it has been recognised that there are two competing requirements
on the staff in James Watt College. They will be required to support the verification of transfer data
for North Ayrshire Campus activity whilst also working with the West Region on integration plans. It
is acknowledged by both regions that resources will be required to ensure continuity of services.
This requirement will be scoped in detail on confirmation of assignation of staff to each region.
Planning & Timing
Consideration will be given when planning the transfer to ensure business continuity and adequate
testing and training. For example, optimum time must be allowed to transfer student data to ensure
that there is no disruption to business critical processes at commencement of the 2013/2014
academic year. Consideration also has to be given to linear processes in order to facilitate later
migrations. Work is being carried out to establish ways to develop copies or set up new databases at
a point prior to merger in a timeline that will not be disruptive to operations or management
reporting periods but will require addition equipment and resources to do so.
Technical Challenges
A number of technical challenges exist to deliver the final connectivity objectives. Work-streams are
currently identifying the actions and timings to ensure the detailed strategic programme milestones
are achieved to support procurement, implementation and testing of increased bandwidth
connectivity to JANET and for 3 way connectivity between the main campuses in the Ayrshire
Region.
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Figure 1
West- Ayrshire Connectivity - today
University of
Glasgow
Reid Kerr
Campus
Ayr
Clydebank
Campus
James Watt
Campus
Kilmarnock
Finnart
Campus
Nether
Mains
Waterfront
North Ayrshire
(Kilwinning)
Camp
Largs
Campus
JW connections are used for :
Email, Phones, VLE, and all transactional / internal traffic
between sites as the main computer centre is in Finnart
Campus.
Figure 2
West- Ayrshire Connectivity – Post Regionalisation
University of
Glasgow
Reid Kerr
Campus
Kilmarnock
Ayr
Campus
Campus
James Watt
Finnart Street
Campus
Clydebank
Campus
Due Dil
Waterfront
North
Ayrshire
(Kilwinning)
:
Largs
Campus
Nether
Mains
Camp
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APPENDIX ii & iii : Legal and Financial Due Diligence Reports
Appendix iv
Appendix v
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APPENDIX vi
PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
MERGER OF AYR COLLEGE, JAMES WATT NORTH AYRSHIRE CAMPUSES, KILMARNOCK COLLEGE
This document provides an overview of the project planning and management process and should
be used as a point of reference for all workstream and subgroup members.
CONTENTS
 Considerations for Merger Planning
 Project Planning and Reporting
 Roles and Responsibilities
 Workstream Reporting and Tracking
 Risk Management
 Sharepoint
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Appendix I : Workstream Org Charts
Appendix ii : Sharepoint Quick Guide
CONSIDERATIONS FOR MERGER PLANNING – FROM MERGER WORKSHOP ON 7TH NOV 2012
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PROJECT PLANNING AND REPORTING
1. TOP LEVEL MILESTONE PLAN
Purpose :
To provide a strategic overview of the high level plan and associated project phases
for critical activities for merger
To manage project milestones, timelines, dependencies, risks.
To provide visibility of project milestones and progress to project stakeholders.
Figure 1 : Top Level Milestone Plan
Detailed project plans will be continuously evolve as the project progresses to reflect critical
activities for each workstream and subgroup.
It is critical that Workstream action lists are kept up to date with RAG status reporting to enable the
Project Manager to extract the relevant information for the detailed plan.
RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status is used to determine progress to plan and associated risk. Any
negative impact to the plan should be identified to the workstream lead immediately to allow
corrective action to be taken.
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2. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES :
Role of the Workstreams
Cross college workstream groups have been created to identify actions to support critical activities
for merger and to develop strategic solutions to ensure that the necessary infrastructure and
protocols are in place through the planning, implementation and integration phases of merger.
Role of the Subgroups
Subgroups have been formed to undertake process mapping to inform decision making on the
integration of systems, policies and procedures. Subgroups report directly to the top level
workstreams as shown in the attached organisation charts in APPENDIX i.
Responsibilities :
1. Establish Terms of Reference with Workstream Leads reflecting top level strategic objectives
for merger.
2. Publish schedule of meetings to microsite – confirm schedule through to July 2013
3. Compile and maintain action lists for each workstream showing tasks to support top level
critical activities for merger.
4. Assign primary point of contact for each workstream to provide regular updates to Project
Manager on progress to plan and risks.
5. Update summary report on a bi-weekly basis for review with the Project Manager
6. Maintain minutes and action lists from meetings and publish to Microsite
7. Prepare and submit papers detailing recommendations to support top level objectives to
Workstream Leads
Figure 2 : Workstream Action List Template
RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status is used to determine progress to plan and associated risk. Any
negative impact to the plan should be identified to the workstream lead immediately to allow
corrective action to be taken.
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3. WORKSTREAM REPORTING AND TRACKING
Purpose :
To monitor progress to plan and identify cross workstream dependencies
1. This template should be completed on a bi-weekly basis
a. Subgroups should complete and submit to the relevant Workstream
b. Workstreams should complete individual templates and a summary overview of
subgroup activity for submission to the Project Manager.
2. Critical activities for merger and associated dates should be incorporated from the
Workstream Action Lists.
3. Summary of progress should reflect key actions in the last 2 weeks .
4. Planned activities should reflect key actions in the next 2 weeks.
5. Issues / Action should reflect a clear question for other project stakeholders to facilitate
documented cross workstream communication.
6. Risks / Contingency should reflect current risks to the plan – these will then be reviewed by
the Project Manager with Workstream Leads and Principals to determine overall impact to
the project for inclusion in the project risk register and to initiate corrective action as
needed.
7. Critical Business systems should be listed by workstream and recommendations shown on
the template as and when agreed .
8. Workstream Summary reports are included in the monthly Project Management Summary
presented to the Ayrshire Partnership Board
Figure 3 : Workstream Summary Template
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4. RISK REGISTER
Purpose :
To identify, quantify, manage and mitigate risks to the merger project plan
Figure 4 : Risk Register (Example)
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5. SHAREPOINT AND PROJECT TEMPLATES
Purpose :
To provide a central library so that relevant information can be readily accessed by
project stakeholders
Folders :
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Project Management
Finance (Including Estates)
Curriculum
HR/OD
ICT
LRC
Marketing
Admissions
MIS (Student Records)
Student Association
APB
More may be added as needed as the project progresses
Subgroup activity can be added as sub-folders to the main folders
Maintain Sharepoint to include :
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Templates (referenced in this document)
Updated Action Lists
Workstream Summary Reports
PM Summary Reports
Minutes
Supporting information for decision making
o Process Mapping
o Collated information
o Technical specs
o Information Papers for workstream leads
o Recommendations to workstream leads
Actionee :
Project Manager
Workstream Lead Rep
Workstream Lead Rep
Project Manager
Workstream Host
Workstream Members
All templates referenced in this report are saved to Sharepoint
See Sharepoint Quick Guide in Appendix ii.
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