MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Background 1. The University of Liverpool is considering the acquisition of a system or systems to improve the quality and availability of management information in order to support the development of performance measurement processes and inform decision making. The new system(s) will be expected to provide a range of benefits including: • • • • • •

timely provision of appropriate information to key individuals at all levels of the University to support strategic planning and operational management provision of appropriate tools for managers to support devolution of responsibility, e.g. financial planning and budget monitoring improved capability for evidence-based decision making standardised data definitions and standards to support accurate and reliable reporting for internal and external purposes, including returns to statutory bodies creation of single agreed sources of data and improved data collection efficiency enhanced capability for data analysis, assessment and interpretation

2. The University has the following corporate information systems: • • • • • • •

Banner: Student Information System Agresso: Financial System (5.5) Alta-HR: HR and Payroll System Planon: Facilities Management Information System. Scientia: Academic Timetabling and Room Booking System IRIS: A bespoke Research Management System containing a wide range of research related data for staff and their grants ePrints: Institutional repository

The above systems operate on an Oracle platform and provide a reporting facility through Business Objects using both the operational data and some specialist data marts. At present, management information is obtained from these systems in a variety of ways, e.g.: • • •

Standard and ad hoc reports generated and promulgated by the system owners Business Objects reports run by or on behalf of end users Standard and ad hoc reports generated on behalf of end users by the University’s Planning and Development Department, primarily to support performance measurement and monitor progress against the University’s Strategic and Operational Plans

The University has begun implementing the budgeting, forecasting, costing and reporting tool “Corporate Planner.” The objective is to provide an integrated University plan, by drivers of financial performance, which will enable us to understand activity and monitor performance. It will also allow for scenario planning and forecasting. 1 of 6

3. Significant use is made at local level of spreadsheets and databases to extract and merge data from the corporate information systems and manipulate it to meet local information requirements. It is recognised that this raises issues in terms of data accuracy and consistency. When the new system is in place, this practice will be heavily discouraged. 4. The University has recently undergone a comprehensive organisational restructuring. This has resulted in management, planning and financial responsibility and accountability being devolved to three academic Faculties, each having subordinate reporting layers of Schools and Departments. This change, coupled with recent developments affecting the funding of the Higher Education sector, has placed a strong focus on the need for robust, comprehensive and accessible management information. 5. A University-wide consultation exercise is in progress to establish the requirements for management information and the problems and shortcomings of the present arrangements. Emerging findings from this exercise have identified that the following areas are likely priority targets for improved management information provision: • • • •

Student data Research activities Personnel and Payroll Finance

The emerging findings from consultation also indicate that a number of datarelated issues will need to be addressed either prior to or in conjunction with the implementation of a new system. These include: • • • • •

The need for standardised data definitions Shortage of expertise in the use of data access and reporting tools (e.g. Business Objects) Data quality issues (both actual and perceived) Lack of awareness of management information currently available A desire to be self-sufficient in terms of management information provision, rather than reliant on others

6. The detailed findings of the consultation exercise will be captured in the form of a Functional Specification which will form part of a package of documentation that will underpin a procurement process to be conducted at a later stage in the project. 7. This Request for Information (RFI) is a preliminary step, designed to provide the University with general information about the market availability and approximate costs of systems that may meet its requirements. All interested parties will be invited to submit formal proposals for evaluation at a later stage in the project. Suppliers’ responses to this RFI are for preliminary information only and will not form part of any subsequent appraisal of proposals. 8. If you believe that your organisation can offer systems and services which would satisfy all or part of the requirements set out in this RFI, please respond accordingly, with particular reference to the specific information requirements described in the paragraphs below.

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Summary requirements System requirements (Please indicate below each of the following paragraphs the ability of your products to meet the stated requirements, preferably with examples drawn from other universities who are using your products.) 9. The system will be required to draw data from the relevant corporate systems identified in paragraph 2, both singly and in combination. The system will also be required to draw data from other sources including Excel spreadsheets and Access databases and to combine data from these sources with data from corporate systems. 10. The system will be required to present and display data in a variety of userdefinable ways including graphs, charts and tables. The system must also allow data to be presented at various levels of detail with the facility to “drill down” from the highest to the lowest level. 11. The system should be capable of undertaking trend analysis, KPI reporting and data modelling. “What if” scenario planning would be a desirable feature. 12. The University is re-developing its staff intranet to include personalisation, i.e. the display of data and information relevant to an individual staff member’s role or areas of interest. This will ideally be achieved in part by means of a data feed from the management information system. The student intranet will be re-developed in a similar way at a later stage. 13. It is envisaged that the system will be used widely throughout the University by users on a wide spectrum of IT literacy and data handling abilities. The chosen solution should be intuitive to use and require a minimum of special skills and training at end user level. 14. To maintain security and confidentiality, the system must incorporate a hierarchy of user-definable access controls. 15. Although there will be a need for local data manipulation and analysis, the University wishes to apply controls that prevent users from easily corrupting data, e.g. by combining data from the management information system with unofficial, locally-held data sources. 16. The system must be able to cope with changes to source systems, data structures or organisational restructuring. Such eventualities should not unduly impact the University’s ability to undertake analysis that draws upon historical data, e.g. trend analysis. 17. Although it is anticipated that the system will be implemented in the first instance in a limited number of defined priority areas, it is expected that its scope will be extended to cover most types and sources of data, through a managed roll-out programme. Any limitations to growth or scope should be stated. 18. The system must allow the capability to “slice and dice” data to meet different external bodies’ reporting criteria. 3 of 6

19. There must be the ability to preview reports prior to release. Ancillary services (Please indicate the approach of your organisation to the provision of the following types of service.) 20. Training. Two levels of training are envisaged: • •

Technical training for Computing Services staff End user training. A “train the trainer” approach is favoured, although other training models will be considered

21. Implementation support and consultancy, e.g. to assist the University to identify and address data issues prior to and during implementation, and/or provide HE-specific template models and solutions. 22. Ongoing support and maintenance, including new releases and upgrades. Indicative costs (Please provide indicative costs in the categories listed below. Please note that the costing information provided at this stage will have no significance other than to give a general indication of affordability. Formal priced proposals will be invited at a later stage.) 23. One-off acquisition costs (note that the University already has a server licence for the basic core Business Objects reporting tool and an Oracle campus enterprise licence, including all support tools, e.g. to access multiple data sources and to support a data warehouse.) 24. Additional hardware and software requirements where not accommodated by existing VM servers, networks and licences for Oracle and SQL Server databases. 25. Annual support, maintenance and licence costs with basis for cost models. 26. Training costs, expressed in terms of £s per day and costs per training manuals in terms of £s per set. 27. Implementation support and consultancy, expressed in terms of £s per day. Contractual considerations 28. The University recognises that individual suppliers may not be able to meet the full range of requirements. However, we would ideally wish to contract with a single supplier for the provision of the required systems and services. If your organisation would need to subcontract or enter into a partnership arrangement with another supplier in order to meet our requirements, please provide details.

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Supplier Experience 29. Please provide details of other Higher Education establishments for whom you have supplied similar systems and services to those outlined in this RFI. Response requirements 30. Our preferred response format is to use this RFI as a Word template and for the required information to be provided by entering details below the paragraphs in which the information is requested. 31. Your response should be sent to: Barry Graham Management Information Project Manager The University of Liverpool Planning & Development Dept. Foundation Building Brownlow Hill Liverpool L69 7ZX Tel: 0151 794 8550 E-mail: [email protected] To arrive by 19 November 2010 32. If you require additional information to enable you to respond fully to this Request for Information, please contact the above-named. Note 33. The term “Management Information System” has been used in this RFI to describe in general terms the type of system that the University anticipates acquiring. This should not be taken in any way as prescriptive or restricting the ultimate choice of system. Terms such as “Business Intelligence”, “Data Warehouse”, “Dashboard” and “Balanced Scorecard”, although potentially relevant in the context of the University’s requirements, have been deliberately avoided so as not to imply a bias towards or away from a particular type of solution.

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APPENDIX A

Relevant statistics

The following is a selection of University statistics to assist with defining the scale of the overall requirement: Faculties:

3

Departments:

55

Programmes:

454

Student Body: •

Total:

19,330

• •

Full time: Part time:

15,918 3,412

• • • •

Undergraduate: 14,426 Post Grad Research: 1,475 Post Grad Taught: 1,540 Continuing Education: 1,889

Staff: •

Total:

5,021

• •

Academic: Professional Services:

2,238 2,783

Further information can be obtained from the University’s Annual Report, which can be found at http://www.liv.ac.uk/annual-report/annual-report-2009.pdf

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