Local, technical innovation in an outsourced world

Paul [email protected]

@paulwalkhttp://www.paulwalk.net

Local, technical innovation in an outsourced world

1

“We don’t do IT development - it’s not our business - I’d outsource my granny if I could....”

2

A chance remark from a senior IT manager in a UK University

What effect does outsourcing your granny have on your ability to innovate?

3

So, the question I'd like to consider (briefly) is...

some assertions

• universities have discovered a growing appetite for outsourcing technical services (cloud, SaaS etc.)

• steady, incremental innovation happens in a local context

4

going to limit myself to thoughts about incremental technical innovation - not because innovation cannot be non-technical in nature - it’s just where my interest and professional focus lie

the SaaS relationship

• Software as a Service -‐ where the software is delivered to your users across the network -‐ very often accessed through a Web-‐browser

• new features added by the vendor and rolled out to all customers

• considerable economies are made possible, but:

• local customisation opportunities are limited, and you are one of many customers (potentially many more than in a pre-‐SaaS world)

• to offer some local integration and customisation potential, vendors increasingly offer machine-‐readable Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

• APIs change the picture....

5

we’re familiar with the notion of Software as a Service?you pays your money, you takes your chances - although we're getting more experienced at negotiating and managing SLAs

APIs are interfaces for developers

6

not for machines. This is important. You probably have machines, but do you have developers?

simple SaaS relationship

SaaS

HE Institution

User or domain expert

Developer

ServiceManager Account

Manager

End user requirements

& opportunities

Strategic requirements

TechnicalStaffTechnical

requirements&

opportunities

7

green star is focus of knowledge about users’ behaviours, needs etc.red star is focus of capacity to innovate technicallygap between them is pretty largered line is technical dialogue - dotted means it’s a weak dialogue

it’s usually more complicated....

SaaS 1

SaaS 2

HE Institution


Developer

ServiceManager

AccountManager


& opportunities


TechnicalStaff

Technical requirements

& opportunities

Developer

AccountManager


ServiceManager


& opportunities

8

same gap between knowledge and capacitywe risk mirroring the classic internal IT divisions but making this worse as the tech capacity is outside of our organisational control.Loss of organisational understanding of technical issues

SaaS providers prefer this arrangement

Dev Consultancy

SaaS 1

SaaS 2

HE Institution


Developer

ServiceManager

AccountManager


& opportunities


TechnicalStaff


& opportunities

Developer

AccountManager


ServiceManager


& opportunities

ProjectManager

Developer


9

SaaS providers would often rather work through a partner with a track record of development with their product, than through each customer directly. After all, this is partly the appeal of the SaaS model to the provider. Here the focus of capacity to innovate technically in context is with the partner. Note that the nexus of development for the institution is still outside the institution.

closing the gap between understanding & capacity

SaaS 1

SaaS 2

HE Institution


Developer

ServiceManager

AccountManager


& opportunities


StrategicTechnicalDeveloper


& opportunities

Developer

AccountManager


ServiceManager


& opportunities


10

The local developer is able to exploit the APIs offered by the different SaaS providers to build a tailored solution

the gap between understanding of users’ requirements and the capacity to deliver technical innovation is reduced, and importantly, the next innovation project will add to this understanding and capacity.

but, I believe that we need to get to the point where we can conceive of a strategic local developer

the value of the local developer

• should understand local conditions better than an external supplier

• is more accessible -‐ very important when adopting agile development

• through (web) APIs, can tailor remote services to idiosyncratic local needs

• can engage the technical people in an external supplier -‐ not just the pre-‐sales people!

• can engage with and exploit available open source developments

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can make cheaper services into better services

the strategic developer

• is experienced, both technically and in the ‘business’ of Higher Education

• has good local (sometimes tacit) knowledge -‐ such as the real business processes of the institution

• has moved beyond ‘problem solving’ as the extent of their perspective

• can align technical planning and interventions to strategic goals -‐ has an institutional perspective

• gives a technical-‐development dimension to strategic planning

• offers leadership, beyond project-‐management and can identify new ICT-‐based opportunities to innovate

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is probably disguised as a manager :-)

does not really exist as a role, yet, but if it did....

the case of the missing career-path

?

Undergraduate

PG/research developer

Employed developer

Academic

Manager

4

junior senior strategic

?1 2 3

131. we have a rich source of raw talent coming in (our students)2. we can and often do employ some of these. They gain the domain and tacit knowledge. Then we start to lose people3. those that stay normally have a choice of going back into academia or moving into management4. by this point we have lost all of our experienced developers. It is rare to have someone with a developer’s experience at a strategic level in our institutions

institutional memory and understanding

?

junior senior strategic

?Introduction of new

technologies

judicious use of technologies coupled with understanding

of local contextorganisational

knowledge (tacit)strategic

understanding

41 2 3

141. technical (latest stuff) - new technical ideas (18 months to get up to speed on technologies)2. technical (judgement) and an understanding of local context3. organisational knowledge (tacit knowledge - how things work and how to get stuff done at my institution)3. domain knowledge (how higher education works, how libraries work)4. committee work, strategic planning, leadership (not on offer to our developers)

recommendations

• we should:

• evaluate our capacity to do local, technical innovation to get the best return out of our investment in turnkey or outsourced systems

• invest in this capacity: local developers empower our organisation to innovate

• be mindful of the importance of institutional memory

• don’t forget the supply of raw talent in the student cohort

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"If the UK's creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning. Take a lead from the Victorians [...]: bring engineers into your company at all levels, including the top."

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Anyone know who said this last year? Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google

Thank you!

Local, technical innovation in an outsourced world

Education

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