Estates Systems Optimisation Programme seeks to improve Estates business functions through Business Transformation of Systems, Processes and Roles.
- Systems will be reviewed and refreshed, moving from a large number of small-scale, single-use systems, to an integrated, designed model of multi-use systems, consolidating the numbers of applications and partners used.
- Current and Future processes will be analysed and documented to enable functional design and technical workflows
- Business-as-Usual models including Target Operating Models and role profiles will be defined
Full 'whole-life' Total cost of Ownership solutions will be defined based on IT best-practise, such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITILv3) to ensure end state solutions are reliable, supportable and maintainable as ‘Business-as-Usual’ services.
The Systems Optimisation programme will have a small number of large-scale multi-year projects. Projects will consider improvements to systems, processes and team capabilities where necessary and agreed.
The programme currently consists of the following live projects:
EST129Estates Business Readiness and Adoption of SEP P&M Reports a RED status. SIT concluded on the 30th March with the caveat that defect management continues post Phase 3 and focuses on remaining critical defects. P&M have provided a new programme which EST129 are reviewing at present in relation to the timescales associated with tasks required before the end of July ’22. which raises concerns include UAT preparation ( scenarios and participation), data migration. support of full E2E processes, development of Estates specific cut-over plan and training, change management and comms for staff.
EST138Deister (Proxsafe)Now reports an AMBER status following delays in resolving a connection issue on a key server due to a memory leak.
EST139 Estates System Audit Reports a GREEN status. Resource availability during March has been limited as the focus was on the launch of Phase 2 for project EST140. As a result very little progress has been made on EST139 during this period. After discussions with the Sponsor it has been agreed that the project effort will be reduced to allow for tidying up of the data already gathered and then the project will be suspended at the end of April.
EST140 Estates P&M Phase 2 LaunchReports a GREEN status. Good use of time was made during the close down period with staff training. P&M delivered five training videos in mid March, which were used by the project team to deliver twelve training sessions for both Employees and Line Managers over the two week period .
EST132 Estates IQ Vision/Trend963 Upgrade -Reports a GREEN status- An agreement on the procurement route has been made and the P1 signed off by ETRP.
EST136 Contact Database for Estates Help Desk -Not started - GREEN
Therefore, the overall status of the EOO programme is set to AMBER due to the highest priority project (EST129) reporting RED and other projects are GREEN apart from one AMBER.
SIT concluded on the 30th March with the caveat that defect management continues post Phase 3 and focuses on remaining critical defects.
P&M have provided a new programme which EST129 are reviewing at present in relation to the timescales associated with tasks required before the end of July ’22. These include but are not limited to:
UAT preparation ( scenarios and participation)
Data migration, environment and database refresh support
Support for the production of full ETE processes and new ways of working
Development of Estates specific cut-over plan
Impacts on Estates business processes and staffing
Training, Change Management and Communications for Estate staff
The revised P&M milestones are extremely tight and progress will be impacted by upcoming holiday periods. There is a considerable amount of preparatory work required to ensure that Estates are business ready for the August Go-Live date. This concern is driven by:
Delayed conclusion of SIT period 3 impacting on availability of key stakeholders required to support the resolution of ongoing data migration, reporting and E2E processes.
EST129 have been escalating concerns to the Estates and P&M SLT for the last 12 months on a fortnightly basis and this has been increased to weekly.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Data Migration (Lead Rod Hanchard-Goodwin)
AMBER
RED
Status moves from RED to AMBER due to progress being made on data migration issues and data validation documentation. In addition the data migration scripts have now been handed over to ISG. However there are still concerns over some change requests that have been rejected by P&M
A number of data migration issues now have a resolution such as the Archibus gold copy data set not currently lodged in P&M, which was a showstopper
Agreement to remove Award functionality on P&M which greatly reduces the complexity of budget management.
MTC flag change request on migrated POs was rejected by P&M. Whilst this will add additional workload to the Maintenance Teams, Estates have accepted this decision.
PO date created change request on migrated POs was rejected by P&M. This was not accepted by Estates as key information will be lost on migrated POs. Estates have provided feedback to P&M and await a reponse.
Estates Data validation documentation is almost complete.
In preparation for UAT, a P&M resource (Mark Downey) has been engaged to support the P&M resolution of:
Outstanding data issues.
The investigation and documentation of an effective and less complex validation process.
Discussions ongoing to resolve outstanding questions regarding the timing of required Archibus data base updates/refresh.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Historical Data Store (HDS) - (Lead Rod Hanchard -Goodwin)
GREEN
GREEN
Status remains at GREEN, based on the working assumption that access to historical data will be maintained at current access levels until a replacement solution is signed off as fit for business purposes.
P&M have issued the technical requirements and these have signed off by Estates. The next stage is to produce system design documentation.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Finance Operations – (Lead Jo McDonald)
AMBER
AMBER
Status remains at AMBER trending on RED, Estates Finance resources will continue to manage and support Estates Finance administration activities in P&M. However there remains concerns:
No sight of planned “To Be” procedures / new Roles & Responsibilities / Training / Go-live preparation / Cut over plan / Knowledge Share / SLA’s / etc. for core operations. Engagement from P&M is part of the Finance Business Partnership development.
An overview of the new retention process has been deferred with no date confirmed.
There remains a number of outstanding open questions to be addressed by P&M.
Work is in progress with Estates to review and provide feedback on some processes within the P&M PDD for the Projects module.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Procurement Operations – (Lead Jane Cameron)
RED
RED
Status remains at RED. This is based on the current lack of engagement between the Procurement operations team and Estates. Estates have circa 60 outstanding questions that cover the main concerns that Estates have as Go-Live approaches. These include but are not limited to:
No sight of planned “To Be” procedures / New Roles & Responsibilities / Comms / Training / Go-live preparation / Cut-over planning / Knowledge Share / SLA’s / etc. for core operations.
Estates concerns remain unaltered in relation to the challenges faced by P&M to sufficiently resource, embed and train adequately the Procurement Operations team to support Estates at Go-Live, this particularly is in regard to the T- one month approach to staffing, many of whom will be entirely new to the University.
Estates are concerned that the current team may not have the capacity to support the volume of Estates procurement related administration
Estates have completed a list of active contracts in a contract data matrix, at the request of Procurement Operations Team lead. Work is planned to complete this exercise with financial data for FY20/21 and FY21/22 year to date.
An updated procurement policy has been circulated and further feedback provided to P&M. There are still concerns relating to this policy document and Estates have escalated these within CSG.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Reporting (operational & strategic) –
(Lead: Jane Brodie)
RED
RED
Status remains RED.
Planned gap analysis has not progressed due to lack of availability of P&M functional leads to support this exercise.
EST129 and P&M are currently attempting to arrange the required review sessions in April ’22 however there still remains issues with access to P&M functional leads.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Systems Integrations Lead: - (Lead Eric Wardle)
AMBER
GREEN
Status is AMBER:
Systems Integration testing for Period 3 has now been completed in the Archibus Test system.
Some issues remain around the Stock interface and Work Request that need to be resolved but the myProject interface has no issues.
P&M weekly meetings will continue. The focus will be to co-ordinate team effort (MASS, IS & Estates) in support of interface re-alignment, if appropriate.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
System Integration Test (SIT) – (Lead Eric Wardle)
AMBER
AMBER
Status remains AMBER due to fact that SIT has now closed for Period 3 following an extension of one week. However there still some outstanding issues. Any non “critical” issues will placed on hold until UAT. SIT summary as of the 28’ March is as follows:
myProject: All tests for have been carried out. One retest required after fix applied. Status -GREEN
AR Lease: Some issues around the credit notes remain which will be carried over into UAT Status - AMBER
Work Requests: Issue with WR mappings remains outstanding despite a fix being provided. Status - AMBER
Stock/Inventory: 3 issues remain outstanding. Status - RED
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
User Acceptance Test (UAT) - (Lead Eric Wardle)
AMBER
AMBER
Status remains AMBER, trending on RED. UAT has now been condensed into one 7 week block with just 2 weeks contingency between the conclusion of UAT and the commencement of staff training.
Estates have escalated their concerns regarding P&Ms approach to UAT which includes but is not limited to:
UAT is restricted to “critical” and “high” only. Scope has not been defined yet.
Estates participation in UAT is not yet confirmed.
A detailed UAT plan has not yet been circulated.
E2E user journeys are not yet defined therefore UAT is restricted to system only testing and not the full solution.
Any delays to the conclusion of UAT will impact on the development of Estates tailored training.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Training, Change Management and Communications. - (lead: Jane Cameron)
RED
RED
Status remains RED
P&M are preparing a plan, including deliverables and deadlines to assure UoE of their ability to successfully deliver the transformational launch August '22. New P&M change manager now recruited to support Phase 3 activity.
Estates concerns have been discussed in detail with Gillian Richardson in relation to the lack of E2E user journey documentation, training and communications, for both system and new ways of working. There is not a straightforward E2E view to support Estates business readiness activity to communicate new ways of working and how to manage the impact on current roles and responsibility within the department.
Work stream
Current RAG
Previous RAG
RAG Commentary
Cutover, Go Live & Business Continuity- (Lead: Jane Cameron)
AMBER
AMBER
Status remains AMBER, trending on RED based on:
Following receipt of the revised system implementation plan, the anticipated Go-Live date is 15 August '22 (with a 2 week shut down immediately prior). Estates understand that progress on this plan is being made, but it is now imperative that Estates receive the UoE Cut-Over plan within the next 2 weeks in order to adequately prepare for this event.
A weekly, EST129: Phase 3 Implementation Planning Group meeting is being held to help mitigate risks around Go-Live.
EST129 Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is ongoing.
A monthly review of IS resource effort has been scheduled. The changes in IS resource effort from planned best guest effort are:
Eric Wardle has now returned full time to EST129 and will manage UAT and EST129 Finance workstream.
David Shannon has increased effort to focus on supporting planning for Estates Implementation.
Rod Hanchard-Goodwin has now taken over from Jo McDonald as the EST129 Project Manager.
The overall RAG assessment remains RED.
Issue, changes, Assumptions & Decisions;
These are detailed at the following link and cover the challenges with Scope, Time and Effort and MASS failure to meet P&M plans for Integrations and Data Migration.
Good use of time was made during the close down period with staff training. P&M delivered five training videos in mid March, which were used by the project team to deliver twelve training sessions for both Employees and Line Managers over the two week period . The training was delivered via Teams and the resources shared with the attendees after the sessions.
The final decision from the Enactment group on the use of time cards was reached. The decision is that all areas of Estates, with the exception of Support Services, Central & Non Central will move from Bulk Upload to Time cards by the end of July 2022. The Project team, through the Local Guides have communicated this decision and are managing Estates expectations around this. This may mean, upskilling of Line Managers and additional Time Keepers may be required in some areas.
Resource has been identified (Stacey Maxell) for handover to BAU when the project closes. Stacey is new to the project team but experienced in Estates. Work has begun with knowledge transfer, to bring Stacey up to speed.
The project team continue to meet weekly with the local guides, information is communicated peer to peer via this group and engagement with Estates remains positive.
Issues with incorrect work schedules have been identified. These staff are mainly in the in the maintenance area, there are potentially circa 100 Estates employees affected by this issue.
The project continues to positively contribute to the Estates monthly steering group, presenting the updates for the launch of phase 2.
Issues / Outstanding
The correction of the work schedules is a priority for April, as pay is derived from this information.
How and who will action Time Cards in each of the areas remains to to be resolved. There is some reluctance from the Line Manager group to adopt this task as it is perceived to an administration responsibility. Due to the late delivery of the training videos, there was little time to prepare or manage staff expectations around the additional tasks that are now required, due to the introduction of P&M. Where there are changes in who does what, the information from P&M could have been better.
Communication and messaging from P&M is not always clear. The handling of overtime worked in March for payment in April was quite challenging and took some considerable chasing from the project team to gain a workable resolution.
The overtime policy was not supported by the forms and process issued by P&M. Estates have a need to pay a flat sum of monies to an employee (as do many other University departments), this is often derived from a percentage calculation. Although this is mentioned in the overtime policy, no mechanism had been created to allow this. The new TAP form (Temporary Additional Payments form) had this field removed, it has since be re-added. The awareness and communication from P&M on this has been very challenging. The additional effort required from the project team to ensure that Estates have the tools needed, to submit information to payroll has required a disproportionate amount of effort.
The project sponsor has agreed that additional effort of 15 days shall be added to this project, increasing the effort from 41 days to 56. The change request will be submitted to Apps review on the 7th April.
Next Steps
Correction of the work schedules, where the hours are known to be incorrect.
Regular communications via the established channel will continue.
Mop up training sessions for staff who were unable to attend the previous ones
Continuation of the meetings with the Local Guide Group.
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