Information Management Overview for 2006 University Planning Summit

1. Introduction

Monash University faces a number of information-related challenges as it continues to move into the 21st century:

• growth in the volume and complexity of information upon which the university depends an increasing number of information islands and information-centric applications
• convergence in digital content and media.
• Information resources are as important as the university's other key assets – human, physical, and financial assets. We have systems and structures in place to manage these key assets but our systems and structures for managing information resources need attention. In order to excel the University needs to improve the quality of its information management.

The Information Management Strategy Project, guided by a steering committee, has been addressing this challenge. This committee is made up of senior leadership from the major university stakeholders responsible for information as well as experts from the Faculty of Information Technology and representatives from a number of areas of the university. The current membership of the committee is:

• Mr Alan McMeekin, Executive Director, ITS (Chair)
• Ms Cathrine Harboe-Ree, University Librarian
• Ms Kathryn Dan, Records and Archives
• Professor Chris Browne, President Academic Board
• Professor Sally Joy, Vice-President Academic Board/Faculty of Business and Economics
• Professor Sue McKemmish, Faculty of Information Technology
• Professor Don Schauder, Faculty of Information Technology
• Mr Peter Yates, Director SCS
• Ms Bronwyn Shields, Faculty Manager, Faculty of Arts
• Mr Eric Skuja, University Planning and Research
• Mr Jeremy duVé, Director Applications Services, ITS
• Dr Andrew Treloar, Director Information Management and Strategic Planning, ITS

One result of this work is a strategy document covering all aspects of the university’s activities. This is now available for public comment at http://www.monash.edu.au/staff/information-management/. The strategy defines information as “selectively encoded and communicated knowledge”. The vision developed for information management at Monash University is:

Managing information to better create and share knowledge

Working towards this vision supports the university in its endeavours to achieve excellence in research and scholarship, education and management. The support of senior staff and the university planning processes have a vital role to play in the implementation of this strategy. In support of this, the Information Management Strategy exposure draft will progressively be refined and aligned with the developing Monash University planning cycles.

2. Principles

The following Information Management Principles have been developed to inform and guide information management activities at Monash University. The Information Management Strategy elaborates some of the implications of these principles.

Corporate Importance: Information is a strategic resource, and will be managed appropriately. In general, university-wide information will be centrally managed to ensure integration and avoid fragmentation. Information needs and how information is managed should be identified as an integral part of strategic and project planning. An appropriate governance framework and adequate resourcing should be established to ensure this occurs.

Information Sources: University-created information may be made available from a core source or a derived source. The core source for any item of university-created information must be identifiable and accessible. Any derived sources of information must be identified as such. Each core source should have an identified custodian, an identified access community and an identified set of maintenance responsibilities.

User-Centeredness: Information systems and services should be designed (or re-designed) to operate in a way that is user- and task-centred. This should inform all aspects of system or service design.

Availability: Information should ideally be accessible (subject to security and acceptable use guidelines) to anybody who needs it, at anytime, anywhere, and anyhow (i.e. on any device).

Staff and student involvement: The process of developing and implementing the information management strategy and its accompanying policies should be as open, transparent and inclusive as possible. The university needs to provide an adequate, relevant and ongoing development programme to enable staff and students to create, access, manage and disseminate information resources effectively.

Productivity and efficiency: Information, and the way it is managed, should contribute to the productivity of members of the Monash University community.

Statutory requirements: Information must be managed in accordance with external statutory and regulatory requirements. Information must be stored in such a way as to allow a timely response to freedom of information and local requests, as well as legally-mandated controlled discovery. Information arising from research involving human subjects must be dealt with in accordance with the Human Ethics Committee requirements.

Trustworthy information and systems: Information provided by Monash University should be, and be perceived to be, trustworthy (that is, relevant, accurate and timely) to the maximum extent possible.

Retention and disposal: Essential information must be retained while required and then appropriately disposed of. While it is retained, it must be managed in such a way as to be recoverable in the event of loss on a timescale consistent with university requirements.

Information management principles determine IT principles: The information management principles in this strategy should be used to inform IT principles. These IT principles will support and enable the implementation of the information management principles, as well as determine the deployment of IT systems.

3. Implementation

The implementation of the Monash University Information Management Strategy will be supported by a communication plan as well as a work plan that is structured around four themes and mapped out to 2008.

Theme 1: Working with information efficiently and effectively

This group of activities seeks to assist staff and students to improve their ability in working with information. Particular sub-themes are staff development, classification, document and records management, repositories and search and discovery.

Activities for 2006 include completing the development of an information management coaching program, finalising the first series of information management HowTo Guides, implementing the first phase of an electronic document and records management system, improving information filing record-keeping and discovery systems, continuing the development of the ARROW research outputs repository and assisting researchers with their information management needs at all stages of the research lifecycle.

Planned activities for 2007–2008 include continuing the rollout of the electronic document and records management system, developing an email management strategy, investigating learning object repositories and developing a comprehensive information management training program for new and existing staff.

Theme 2: Delivering information and services to users through web technologies

This group of activities serves the delivery of online information and services, building on the existing progress Monash has made in using web technologies. Particular sub-themes are the roles of the public web, intranet technologies and solutions, and web content management.

Planned activities for 2006 include seeking support for implementing a new web strategy, rolling out the new web search engine, and continuing the rollout of the web content management system.

Planned activities for 2007–2008 include developing an intranet to support a range of different staff roles and communities, piloting a student intranet, implementing new portal technologies to improve the ability to deliver information and services (including enhanced learning and teaching services), and building on the new portal engine to provide access to particular frequently-used functions in SAP and Callista via the web.

Theme 3: Providing high quality management information

This group of activities seeks to provide managers with the information they need to make effective decisions. Particular sub-themes are integration across applications, business intelligence/reporting, and data quality.

Planned activities for 2006 include improving the ability to integrate information across applications, improving the quality of corporate data (including research data), completing phase 2 of the Load Planning project, and initiating a range of improved reporting and business intelligence offerings.
Planned activities for 2007–2008 include developing an overall reporting and business intelligence strategy, and developing a comprehensive offering of improved reporting and business intelligence offerings.

Theme 4: Supporting collaborative activity

Collaboration is fundamental to everything the university does. This group of activities seeks to enable greater collaboration and improve existing collaborative practices. The sub-themes here are the new collaboration offering and its relationship with other information management services.

Activities underway for 2006 include implementing Phase 1 of the recommended workgroup collaboration solution, including developing templates for common activities across the university such as steering committees, course and unit development and student group work.

Planned activities for 2007–2008 include implementing Phase 2 of the recommended workgroup collaboration solution, integrating this with the electronic document and records management offering, and investigating new and emerging collaboration technologies that might be applicable for Monash University.

Benefits

The benefits to the university from each of these implementation themes will accrue across each of the areas in which the university operates. Some of these benefits include the following:

Conclusion

Good information management does not just happen. It needs to be consciously managed and supported. The proposed Information Management Strategy and its implementation will ensure this occurs. The university planning processes and senior staff have a vital role to play in this implementation by supporting improved information management practices, ensuring staff understand their responsibility for information resources, and by advocating the actions proposed in the Information Management Strategy.