London HE and FE IT Directors Forum
Notes of meeting held on Tuesday 06 December 2005 at Birkbeck University of London

Attendance:

Dr Jasbir Gill Birkbeck University of London (Chair)
Sheena Wakefield London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Mangal Patel Queen Mary University of London
Nick Clark Tower Hamlets College
Russell Altendorff London Business School
Malcolm Raggett School of Oriental and African Studies
Adrian Bradish University of Greenwich
David Rippon ULCC
Tony Wright University of East London
Adrian Ellison Royal Holloway University of London
John Shemilt Imperial College London
Jeremy Harrington Institute of Cancer Research
Graham Florence School of Pharmacy
Geoff Cooper Roehampton University
Bill Crooks Barking College
Malcolm Barker LSE
Tony Jack Newham College
Ayo Adaramola Southwark College
Paula Vickers Middlesex University
Debbie Haddow Lewisham College
Dr. Benito Meza-Díaz Wimbledon School of Art
Paul Marsden Croydon College
Jide Jemiyo Bromley College
Rod Fricker College of North West London
Linda Kerr Sixth Form College Brookehouse
Dr Richard Marsh College of North East London
Tony Rybacki LMN
Maria Ilia LMN (notes)
Pete White LMN

Jasbir Gill (JG) chaired the meeting. Four topics had been selected for discussion based on the outcome from previous HE and FE IT Directors' Fora.

1. Remit of Combined FE and HE IT Directors' Forum.

Jasbir Gill (JG) introduced the discussion. He briefly reviewed the format and issues discussed at the previous separate meetings of the HE and IT Directors' fora and suggested that the timing was appropriate for a combined FE/HE IT Directors' forum. He addressed the attendees whether they are still happy with this arrangement. Nick Clark pointed out that there is no real concern about FE objectives being swallowed by bigger HE institutions and JG added that one of the aims of the Forum is to develop links between HE and FE.

Outcome: All attendees agreed for a combined FE/HE IT Director's Forum to be held most probably biannually. It was also agreed that the remit of the LMN IT Directors Forum would remain as providing a relatively informal opportunity for IT Directors to discuss common issues, consider opportunities for the collaborative procurement of services, disseminate examples of best practice in the management of IT services, and provide a focus for voicing shared views of London IT Directors on desired developments to such organisations as LMN, ULCC and UCISA. LMN would continue to facilitate the meetings of the IT Directors forum and the attendees agreed for JG continue to chair the meetings.

2. LMN Infrastructure

JG invited Tony Rybacki (TR), CEO of LMN to brief the attendees on the LMN infrastructure developments.

TR said that the LMN Technical Group (TG) had, over the past year, been working on the requirement to reprocure the LMN network using SuperJANet 5 (SJ5) funds provided by UKERNA under its RPAN contract with LMN Ltd. The requirement to reprocure had been pushed up the LMN agenda by a number of factors, not least of which is the fact that the University of London (UoL) has announced plans to move ULCC from its current premises at 20 Guilford Street into new premises in Stewart House. The TG had recommended to the Board that the best value for money from the SJ5 upgrade funds cannot be obtained through a procurement of LMN3 which is forced by the timetable for the ULCC removal and that this procurement should be postponed for a period of at least 6 months, leading to a reprocurement of the network in the latter half of 2006, for completion in 2007 around the time of the renewal of the RPAN agreement.

Geoff Cooper (GC) asked what kind of connectivity options would be available to members. The LMN management team replied that it was too early to set definitive options but a range of choices would be investigated during the procurement.

JG asked about the timing of the ULCC PoP shift from Guildford Street to Stewart Houseand TR replied that it is being planned for Easter 2006. Peter White (PW) reassured that the PoP relocation will occur in a system session approach and hence no major interruptions are anticipated.

Tony Wright (TW) and (GC) enquiried about potential costs to the institutions as a result of this shift and the LMN 3 procurement.

TR Replied that LMN did not intend to bill members directly for the cost of the shift. Nevertheless, if institutions wanted to upgrade to a higher bandwidth access link than could be financed under the UKERNA arrangement, then LMN would be happy to provide pricing for such sevice opportunities..

Russell Altendorff (RA) asked TR to describe the process of the OR for LMN3.

TR explained that the OR was not drafted by himself but was compiled by the LMN TG which constituted a group of senior experts from LMN's member institution who approved the OR in its final format.

Outcome: TR encouraged all IT Directors of the LMN community to communicate with LMN their requirements in terms of connectivity, ressillience and services for the future.

3. Supplier partnerships.

JG introduced the topic and asked about views on areas to consider for collaborative procurement.

Adrian Ellison (AE) suggested that it would be a good idea to formalize business supplier relationships which was backed up by RA who anticipates a more collective approach towards commercial agreement for example with Microsoft. RA also volunteered to act as point of contact by e-mail raltendorff@london.edu for members to share opinions on this matter.

Delegates pointed out that this is of great interest and they welcomed a collective approach by LMN.

JG went on to highlight successful vendors with an offsite backup service that saved considerable time and effort for its staff.

Paula Vickers (PV) mentioned that she has just started a deal with Dell Managed Leasing Service which is for 3 years including setup, support and desktop disposal on completion of the contract. Malcolm Raggett backup this Dell service saying that SOAS is entering the second life cycle with it as they are currently using it for over 5 years and they are very satisfied with the services that Dell has provided.

RA suggested for PV and MR to share the leasing contracts because it appears to be of great value to the rest of the LMN community.

Action: PV/MR to e-mail Maria Ilia (MI) relevant information

MI mentioned about services that LMN is currently evaluating and provided a folder with all the relevant information about Data Archiving, Web File Storage and Webfiltering solution by SurfControl.

Paul Marsden (PM) and Tony Wright (TW) mentioned that Croydon College and the University of East London are both using SurfControl for webfiltering respectively and that they are very happy with this service.

Action: MI to e-mail PM and TW the highly discounted pricing for SurfControl service.

4. Support of Mobile Devices (Laptops and PDAs) - presentation

JG highlighted that there was an increasing challenge for IT departments, with both staff and students wanting to connect their own portable devices to institution's networks and invited Nick Clark (NC) to give a short presentation on support.

NC briefly mentioned that Mobile Technology (MT) is here to stay as a new mean of learning (delivery of learning materials), legislative regulation (flexible working). He went on to describe the actual devices that are currently used by MTs and issues about their connectivity, security, standardisation and training from an insider's perspective as MT is widely used at Tower Hamlets.

5. Next step issues of interest to LMN IT Directors

a. Proposal for an IT staff networking group

JG introduced the item and invited MR to talk about it. MR mentioned that he had found past LMN Staff Development events particularly useful in providing a networking opportunity and enabling an exchange of good practice, systems information acquisition, etc.
JG asked for IT Directors to let LMN know of their views for the revival of such events.

Action: Attendees to e-mail MI with their views on the subject m.ilia@lmn.net.uk

b. Topics for future LMN events

JG asked for contributions from delegates about any burning issue they would like to see discussed at future meetings and for LMN to investigate and to e-mail MI with any issues.

These could include, for example:
" Disposal of old PCs and other hardware (some delegates indicated they used third party charity schemes and local councils)
" Best practice for consolidate IT Infrastructure and increasing availability
" Authentication
" Storage Area Networks
" Adoption of ITIL and BS15000 standard for IT Service Management
" Voice over IP
" Issues of ongoing operational support cost for projects implemented when capital grants available
" Ensuring continuous provision of services in the international arena (many institutions have overseas offices, campuses, partnerships
" Business Continuity: DR, implications of 24x7

Members were also asked to check whether the UCISA Top Concerns match their own.

Action: Attendees to e-mail MI m.ilia@lmn.net.uk with a list of their top three issues that they would like to discuss. For the next IT Directors Forum we would identify one or two issues which have been prioritised by the members and invite someone with expertise in the areas identified to lead the discussion.