Data Futures software suppliers day
I have spent much of the past year speaking with HE providers about the Data Futures programme. The question I get asked more than any other is ‘are you speaking to the software suppliers?’
HESA has always maintained a good working relationship with the software suppliers
HESA has always maintained a good working relationship with the software suppliers, both the commercial suppliers in this market and those colleagues in institutions who run in-house systems. For both these groups, UCISA has been an invaluable forum and facilitator for this engagement.
On 14 December we hosted a software suppliers day to provide an update on the Data Futures programme so far and to discuss how we might best work together over the lifetime of the programme. The event included all of the main commercial suppliers, companies who are looking to enter the UK HE market and a number of colleagues from institutions that run in-house systems, both publicly funded HEIs and alternative providers.
The morning session covered an overview of the programme plans and a more detailed session on the current consultation from the Collection Design project. By lunchtime we were crawling through data models and discussing data segments and different approaches to data quality assurance.
The afternoon session considered plans for the two phases of piloting and discussed how the programme could best engage with the software suppliers, driving the maximum value for HESA, the suppliers and, of course, the HE providers. We also covered the extent to which the Data Futures platform could potentially provide new APIs for data submission, quality measures and metrics, and the supply of enriched data for analytical use by providers.
The HESA team have a far better understanding of what the suppliers need to make Data Futures a success
The day was a great success and we are really grateful to all the participants who travelled to Cheltenham and engaged so openly and constructively with this work. The HESA team have a far better understanding of what the suppliers need to make Data Futures a success and we are confident that this is the start of a very constructive period of engagement.
'"The start of a very constructive period of engagement': @AndyYouell on #DataFutures & software suppliers
