Report on IT Outsourcing and Strategy for University of Bradford

This report, prepared for the University of Bradford, analyzes the potential benefits of IT outsourcing and cloud services within the higher education sector. It begins with an introduction to the University's history, mission, objectives, and leadership, emphasizing its commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. The report then delves into the specifics of IT strategy planning, highlighting the advantages of distance learning, e-learning programs, and high-tech model classrooms. It explores the practical aspects of outsourcing IT services, comparing Bradford's approach to that of the University of Oxford, and discusses crucial considerations such as software efficiency and application testing. Furthermore, the report addresses the significant risks associated with big data in higher education, including data security breaches and financial implications. It concludes by summarizing the benefits of adopting IT and cloud services while emphasizing the need for risk mitigation strategies. References to relevant literature are also included.

UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD-
‘OUTSOURCING AND IT OUTSOURCING’
Nusaybah Begum

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................2
1.1 THE HISTORY....................................................................................................................2
1.2 MISSIONS AND OBJECTIVES.........................................................................................2
1.3 LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT..............................................................................2
1.4 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY PLANNING..........................................3
1.5 EFFECTIVE EXPLOITATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...........................3
2. OUTSOURCING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY................................4
2.1 BIG DATA RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION.......................4
2.2 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................5
3. REFERENCES...................................................................................................................6
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1. INTRODUCTION
The University of Bradford is renowned for developing a new course for the students of
the university; it always focuses on innovation that can ease the education system of the
university (Ackoff 2016). It also focuses on continuous improvement of the study courses
offered at the university so that the students can get the best education from the university.
Outside London, the University of Bradford is the very first University who cater the part-
time degree course, the University courses have been designed aligned to the social
landscape, aligned to the changing business and the environmental landscape and the
scientific landscape.
The report will mainly highlight how the University can be benefitted by the IT services.
1.1 THE HISTORY
The University of Bradford started their journey in the year 1832 by initiating the
Bradford Mechanics Institute, later the University was granted its Royal Charter in the year
1966, and since 1966 they are providing excellence in education. The University has
technologically evolved over the course of fifty-one years and is craving for more. They are
willing to adopt advanced technology features that aid in the advancement of the University
and the educational courses.
1.2 MISSIONS AND OBJECTIVES
The ultimate mission or the ultimate objective of the University of Bradford is
‘Making Knowledge Work'. They basically want to cater the high-quality teaching
experience to the students; they want to be constantly informed about the latest technology
features and the latest recognised course studies. They incorporate the latest updates in their
course studies as well and educate the students the same (Gronroos 2015). This can assist the
students to get the educational benefits; can assist the professors, lecturers to embellish their
careers in a sustainable environment. The University of Bradford consists of the following
values which they think, follows and put into actions and the values are- inclusive,
sustainable, reflective, supportive and ethical values.
1.3 LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
The University of Bradford has decided to deliver the support to the leaders and the
managers. They have also encouraged the personal development of the leaders and the
managers working in the University. There are certain strategies that are followed by the
University of Bradford are-
The e-learning can various kinds of resources can prove to be effective for assuring
various kinds of delivery.
The diversity must be promoted as new managers and leaders are recruited, appointed
and promoted the information technology can act as an effective tool to serve better
candidates (Gronroos 2015).
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The leaders and the managers should be appointed with the objective of retaining the
talent of leadership in the University.
1.4 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY PLANNING
The information technology planning can enhance the learning and the study courses
offered in the University. The IT trends that can prove to be beneficial for the university are
distance learning, high tech model classrooms (Schwalbe 2015). To effectively implement
the information technology in college and universities of England, they need to train the
professors the usage of the high tech tools and also they must be aware of those tools that can
bring immense benefits to the professors, lecturers as well as the students. Similarly, the
University of Bradford must be aware of the IT aspects and must implement those in their
premises. They must educate the instructors and the lecturers of the University as well as the
students so that the IT services can be implemented and enjoyed throughout the University.
1.5 EFFECTIVE EXPLOITATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The distance learning programs, e-learning programs and the high tech model classrooms
are the information technology benefits that the college and universities of England can
utilise for their own benefits and the University of Bradford is no exception (Bilbao-Osorio,
Dutta and Lanvin 2013). More and more students registered with the University can avail the
benefits of the information technology.
The students residing in distant locations can get benefits via distance learning programs.
In case of distance learning programs, the students who want to avoid the transportation want
to avoid the classroom space and the restriction of time can be benefitted from this approach,
the students who want to do a job and alongside can complete a degree course (Bloom et al.
2014). The students just need to collect the video lectures in the form of CD or pen drive and
the ebooks and pdf and then can pursue the course sitting at home. If the students face any
queries they can clear doubts calling lecturers or sending emails.
The e-learning is somewhat similar to the distance learning program where the students
can learn the subject matters or the study course; here they can get the opportunity of
attending the live classrooms online sitting at home (Holtshouse 2013). The students can
clear their doubts after the class is over via messages and emails.
The smart model classrooms can make the learning procedures more flexible. The
implementation of computers, laptops, projectors and the digital blackboard can make the
learning process smooth and fast (Rivard and Aubert 2015). The lecturers can explain any
models or figures in 3D motion view which is practically impossible in the regular
classrooms. These also help the professors in explaining things more elaborately.
2. OUTSOURCING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
The University of Oxford has adopted the information technology services and yet to
adopt many advanced features. There are various means by which the University of
Bradford’s IT services can be outsourced and that include the
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The University of Oxford has implemented IT services, installed software on their
premises. The software applications that have been planned to implement must be efficient
enough to serve the purpose. The application will have to be fast as well (Kolotylo et al.
2017). The leaders and the managers of the University of Bradford must check whether the
third party software company that has made the application is performing or not.
The University of Oxford has thoroughly checked the applications and finally implement
those in their premises. Like the University of Oxford, the University of Bradford must test
the application program and should validate whether the application is actually meeting all
the requirements set by the university (Han and Mithas 2013).
Like the University of Oxford, the University of Bradford must cater the responsibility or
outsource the development and research of the innovative technologies, process, systems
involved. Also, this approach can let them know the latest innovation (Koppman, Mattarelli
and Gupta 2016).
The University of Oxford has already implemented the cloud services and the lecturers
and the students are enjoying the services. Like the University of Oxford, the University of
Bradford must outsource their IT cloud services by cloud vendors like Amazon AWS and
Microsoft Azure. The cloud vendors have the capability to provide to provide advanced
innovative cloud solutions and IT services (Jain and Thietart 2013). The cloud vendors will
update and maintain the database of the University of Bradford and will provide advanced
security solutions also.
Therefore, all the mentioned solutions can prove to be ‘critically useful’ for the
University of Bradford.
2.1 BIG DATA RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
All the universities are willing to adopt the IT services and cloud services and want
more innovation in IT services so there are chances of online data security and privacy
breaches. The software and web developers will continuously work on and update the
database for the university so the software and the website they will use will be in beta stage
and the hackers can take advantage of this (Choi, Chan and Yue 2017). The hackers can hack
the database and the system and steal the vital information like students’ data and the
financial data of the university. The University of Bradford must consider the data security
and privacy and they must safeguard their database and system from the hackers otherwise all
the financial data and the instructor’s data and the students’ data will get compromised.
The costing or the budget is the important aspect of every college and university and
they must consider all these aspects (Ravindran et al. 2015). Similarly, the University of
Bradford will have to bear heavy costing for adopting and maintaining the cloud and the IT
services and that can affect the regular business operations of the University.
The online database must be properly maintained and updated otherwise the college
and the university may suffer from the faulty storage issues. Also, the University of Bradford
will have to keep in mind that they will have to collect correct and updated data from trusted
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sources (Olson and Wu 2017). The University must have to store data in such a way that the
duplication of data can be restricted. In this way, the sensitive data of the students can be
protected.
2.2 CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the University of Bradford can achieve
significant benefits due to the adoption of IT services and the cloud services. The solutions
that can be ‘critically useful’ have been explained in details. The history of the University,
the missions and the objectives of the university has been elaborated in details in the report.
Along with that the leadership and the management of the university have been highlighted in
the report. Moreover, the outsourcing of the information technology strategy has been
focussed and the factors have been explained that offer significant success to the university.
However, the university must keep in mind the big data risks associated with IT and must
take necessary precautions for that.
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3. REFERENCES
Ackoff, R.L., 2016. Mission statements. Planning Review, 15(4), pp.30-31.
Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B., 2013, April. The global information technology
report 2013. In World Economic Forum(pp. 1-383).
Bloom, N., Garicano, L., Sadun, R. and Van Reenen, J., 2014. The distinct effects of
information technology and communication technology on firm organization. Management
Science, 60(12), pp.2859-2885.
Choi, T.M., Chan, H.K. and Yue, X., 2017. Recent development in big data analytics for
business operations and risk management. IEEE transactions on cybernetics, 47(1), pp.81-92.
Galegher, J., Kraut, R.E. and Egido, C., 2014. Intellectual teamwork: Social and
technological foundations of cooperative work. Psychology Press.
Gronroos, C., 2015. Service management: a management focus for service
competition. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 1(1), pp.6-14.
Han, K. and Mithas, S., 2013. Information technology outsourcing and non-IT operating
costs: An empirical investigation. Mis Quarterly, 37(1).
Holtshouse, D.K., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Jain, A. and Thietart, R.A., 2013. Knowledge based transactions and decision framing in
Information Technology Outsourcing. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 22(4),
pp.315-327.
Kolotylo, M., Zheng, H., Parente, R. and Dahiya, R., 2017. Information Technology
Outsourcing and Knowledge Transfer: Achieving Strategic Alignment through
Organizational Learning. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology,
International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering, 4(6).
Koppman, S., Mattarelli, E. and Gupta, A., 2016. Third-World “Sloggers” or Elite Global
Professionals? Using Organizational Toolkits to Redefine Work Identity in Information
Technology Offshore Outsourcing. Organization Science, 27(4), pp.825-845.
Olson, D.L. and Wu, D.D., 2017. Data Mining Models and Enterprise Risk Management.
In Enterprise Risk Management Models (pp. 119-132). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Ravindran, K., Susarla, A., Mani, D. and Gurbaxani, V., 2015. Social capital and contract
duration in buyer-supplier networks for information technology outsourcing. Information
Systems Research, 26(2), pp.379-397.
Rivard, S. and Aubert, B.A., 2015. Information technology outsourcing. Routledge.
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Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
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