Information Management Project

The project was borne out of work undertaken during late 2004 and early 2005 for the future visioning project, one of the themes that emerged was that the University had a lot of data but little in the way of real information. There was a consensus that there was a need for an institutional information management system or decision support system to enable informed decision making.   
This project has been instigated to turn data from disparate data sources into real knowledge and information to inform decision making. The project will achieve this by implementation of a decision support system providing the right information to the right people at the right time. The University currently has a number of corporate Management Information Systems covering Student Administration, Finance, Human Resources and Library Services. Currently there is not a shared understanding of what functions are supported by these systems or how the information from these systems could be combined to enable effective evidence based decision making.   

Objectives:

• To bring together disparate data and information from a variety of sources to form a coherent information set that can be used in analysing trends and conducting 'what if' scenarios in support of key business objectives.
• Build trust in the information provided and ensure all staff are clear in regard to their responsibilities in respect of the creation and use of data and information.
• To provide a single access point to information via a user-friendly interface

The project has been successful in securing funds from the Leadership Foundation under the title 'Information Management as a Strategic Decision Making Tool'.   

The overall goal of the project is to improve the quality and speed of decision making across the University by implementation of an Information Management System that provides a professional business support service to all decision makers. The emphasis will be placed on using information more effectively rather than on the introduction of complex systems and procedures.   

The project will be phased over the next couple of years. This phase will focus on the provision of student based management information and will incorporate business process changes to enhance quality of the data used to provide the management information reports.   

The Project Board includes:

The Project Team consists of:

Julie Guest is currently meeting with Faculty and School reps to ascertain requirements. If you would like to contribute to the project brief please contact Julie on ext 2491 or email to j.k.guest@rgu.ac.uk