Final RM Meeting in York - 26th March 2010

Zeynel from our project team attended the Final RM Meeting in York on 26th March 2010 organised by the JISC CETIS team. It really was good to get together with colleagues and partners on the day and see how other projects have been doing from both Relationship Management and Student Lifecycle Relationship Managament strands.

More info is at:

http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Final_RM_Meeting_26th_March_2010#Thursday_25th_March

Recent staff changes at Knowledge House and in our project team

The New Year has started with some staff changes at Knowledge House and consequently within our project team structure too.

Our colleague Julie Swinbank, who has been with Knowledge House for some years, has recently left Knowledge House and moved on to pastures new. Good luck to Julie in her new career.

On the other hand, Knowledge House's Technical Manager Rachel Armstrong, has recently gone on maternity leave. Good luck to Rachel too.

Last but not least, a big welcome to Paul Cranner, who has joined our team from our partner Sunderland University as a secondee. Paul is now our new technical guru and will be in charge of Rachel's duties during her absence.

As of today, individual workshops with our stakeholders and partners have been completed

As of today, individual workshops with our stakeholder and partner organisations, which is another milestone in our project has been completed. Thanks to all involved and participated.

Next step in the New Year will be the amalgamation of all the input and information, which will also be published in a final report.

Have a great festive season!

Report for our consultative stakeholder workshop is ready!

After a long and iterative process, we are pleased to publish and share our report for the consultative stakeholder workshop that we held in September. The remit was to reach a Consensus on the regional issues and priorities surrounding BCE CRM and PRM.

If you would like to have a look and even download a copy of our report, please click on the following link:

JISC BCE CRM - Knowledge House Stakeholder Workshop Report

Individual workshops with our stakeholders and partners are underway!

Following our consultative stakeholder workshop, which captured the regional perspective for our project, we are now undertaking individual workshop sessions with our stakeholders and partner institutions. During these workshops, we are using the following tools produced by Nottingham University during their CRM journey, which we have modified and tailored slightly to suit our stakeholders and partners:

• How will I consult my customers
• Analyse your customer group
• Changes that you wish to make to your customer group
• Self analysis check-list HE&FE version
• Self analysis check-list ONE&BENE version

So far, we have held workshops with:

• John King - One North East (Regional Development Agency)
• Louise Markham & Gillian Marshall - Business Link
• Julie White & Omar Al-Janabi - Newcastle University
• Mel Soulsby - Sunderland University
• Geoff Archer - Teesside University
• Jennifer Thompson & Jonathan Lee - Durham University
• John Wilkinson & Hazel Juggins - Northumbria University.

Summary outputs from our consultative stakeholder workshop

The stakeholder workshop that we facilitated produced some interesting results re. Business and Community Engagement, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and particularly PRM (Partner Relationship Management) challenges and issues in our region. Here is a quick summary:

Participants’ perceptions into current BCE CRM and PRM picture i.e. how well people, processes and systems are integrated:

Critical Success Factors (CSFs), which are the must haves/sub-goals:

CSF1: Quality and governance

CSF2: What’s in it for me/Regional buy-in

CSF3: Appropriate collaboration and sharing

CSF4: Cost/benefit/value

CSF5: Output/visibility

CSF6: Process fit

CSF7: Supportive culture

CSF8: Customer definition/focus



Key Business Processes (KBPs), i.e. what needs to be done to support the CSFs:

KBP1: Manage customer journey

KBP2: Identify project scope

KBP3: Assess financial impact

KBP4: Maintain communication

KBP5: Identify/understand mutual benefits

KBP6: Evaluate continuously

KBP7: Specify governance

KBP8: Comply mandatory protocols

KBP9: Specify partners' roles/responsibilities

KBP10: Stimulate customers

KBP11: Undertake pilot

KBP12: Allocate resources

KBP13: Identify metrics

KBP14: Understand regional initiatives

KBP15: Develop a PRM strategy from collective intelligence

Using our ETCH  (Electronic Tool for Consensus and Homing-in) Tool developed at Teesside University, a detailed evaluation was carried out re. CSFs and KBPs in order to determine the pivotal KBPs, which are shown below:

• Manage customer journey

• Maintain communication

• Stimulate customers

• Undertake pilot

• Develop a PRM strategy from collective intelligence.

In the coming weeks, we also need to carry out individual workshops with each partner institution. The aim of these workshops is to understand their relationships, markets, customers, systems in use, internal and external linkages, etc.

We held our consultative stakeholder workshop yesterday

Everything went according to plan and we held our consultative stakeholder workshop yesterday. We had attendees from One North East, Business Link, all the universities in the region, Newcastle College, Knowledge House and KSA Partnership. The consensus was that it really was a great opportunity to discuss issues and priorities around Business and Community Engagement in the region and there were some great comments and feedback from the partipicants, which made it a worthwhile experience for all of us.

You could use the following links to download the workshop presentations.

• Opening ETCH Presentation by Zeynel Badak
• KSA's JISC CRM Presentation by Martin Haywood 

Thanks to everyone for attending and contributing to the workshop. Also, a big thank you to Laura and Lynnsey at Knowledge House administration and support team for pulling it all together.

One week to go for our stakeholder workshop

This workshop is one of the critical milestones for our project in terms of capturing the perspectives of all re. the Business and Community Engagement in the region. So far, majority of the stakeholders have confirmed their attendance. Here is the agenda for the day:

• 9.00-9.15 Registration and coffee
• 9.15-9.20 Welcome and overview of the day - Julie Swinbank, Knowledge House
• 9.20-9.40 Background to JISC BCE CRM - Martin Haywood, KSA Partnership
• 9.40-9.45 Workshop introductory presentation - Zeynel Badak, Knowledge House
• 9.45-12.30 Workshop facilitated by Zeynel Badak (Coffee break midway), which will capture Critical Success Factors and Key Processes for BCE
• 12.30-13.00 Lunch
• 13.00-14.00 Evaluation of priorities (Attendance optional).

Consultative stakeholder workshop

After emailing our project plan to Scott and Sharon at RMSAS, now we can get on with organising a workshop for our project stakeholders on 15th September 2009 between 9.00-14.00 at Knowledge House HQ so that we could:

• Understand process boundaries between FE and HE partners and regional stakeholders such as the regional RDA One North East (ONE) and Business Link
• Capture perceptions, issues and priorities of all stakeholders.

The outputs from the workshop will help us understand the current picture in Business and Community Engagement (BCE) so that we can confirm future activities and make recommendations in order to formulate the way forward for a Collaborative Business and Community Engagement and Partner Relationship Management (PRM).

The workshop will include presentations and a facilitated interactive exercise to capture perceptions from workshop participants.

Bring it on!

Meeting with KSA Partnership

Martin Haywood of KSA Partnership is coming up to Knowledge House on 13th August . Martin gave a good general insight and overview to the involvement of KSA in the BCE CRM during the Relationship Management Event in Birmingham. The report that they published for JISC was also a useful resource so surely Martin will provide some good input to our discussions regarding the stakeholders workshop too.

Project plan

As requested by Sharon, we have emailed our draft project plan to Scott today. I hope it doesn't require major changes.

We are on Twitter!

We are on Twitter as KHouseUK. Still trying to get used to it and just 3 tweets so far.

Things to remember from the JISC Relationship Management Conference

In a nutshell, it was an excellent event at a great venue and thanks to all involved in organising it and of course the presenters and participants for making the effort to be there! The contents of the days were really useful and relevant to the projects and the opportunity to share experiences was the jewel on the crown.

Summary points:

• It is all about creating synthesis, building up capacity and enabling take up.
• Neverthless, look before you leap!
• Identify and analyse the stakeholders and then involve them in the process.
• Ask others and share your experience to learn more.
• Get on and use Twitter and other useful sites as much as you can.
• Relationship Management is not just software or technology so beware!

Good luck and let's make it happen!

We are on Skype!

We are on Skype as KnowledgeHouseNE. Our project team will be delighted to share our BCE project experience and learn from others within the JISC Community. Please add us to your contacts.

The Relationship Management Startup Event

The Relationship Management Startup Event will be held on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th July, 2009 in Birmingham. Zeynel from our project team will be representing us during the event. Please click here for further information about the event.

Support is available from the RMSAS team

JISC CETIS RMSAS (Relationship Management Support, Analysis and Synthesis) Project is delivering support, analysis and synthesis services to the BCE CRM (Business Community Engagement Customer Relationship Management) Process Improvement Pilots and to the SLRM (Student Lifecycle Relationship Management) Pilots. Please visit their wiki for further information.

Invaluable information on JISC CETIS website

JISC CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology & Interoperability Standards) provides support and advice on educational technology and standards. Please see their website for educational technology news, resources, comment and analysis, as well as information on community events, etc.

Intended outcomes

Intended outcomes for the project set by JISC include:

• Better connectedness between the Business and Community Engagement (BCE), central resources and functions to enable enterprise-wide approach to developing and maintaining strategic relationships and partnerships.
• Increased understanding of how to enhance efficiency and generate business value through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) approaches, in support of strategic Business and Community Engagement.
• Increased understanding of different operational processes and use of ICT systems that are employed by Further Education (FE) and HE (Higher Education) institutions.

Project background

During May 2009, Joint Information Systems Committe (JISC) announced a call for pilot projects under the theme of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Business and Community Engagement. Knowledge House responded to this call and following its successful bid for grant funding, this project has been initiated in North East England.