Digital transformation at a global university

Heriot-Watt's has more than 25,000 students, split between online learners, on-campus learners, Scotland-based learners and international students in Dubai and Malaysia.

With a strong record in online learning, the university offers one of the largest online MBAs anywhere in the world, taken by students across the globe. But while it’s diverse in its locations, modes of learning and student population, it remains one university with one curriculum, one single set of exams and one set of core systems – that all work globally.

Fraser Muir, global director of information services, says:

“Heriot-Watt is a global university; however, its spine is digital and that serves all our campuses and locations.”

The micro and macro

At Heriot-Watt, there are two ‘buckets’ of digital transformation projects. Micro transformation projects take individual business processes and assess, optimise, digitise, upskill and automate. There’s a dedicated digital transformation team within the university’s information services department that works closely with business areas to automate where possible and drive efficiencies in staff time, freeing up staff to do the things that only humans can do. It is, as the team calls it, the “anti-drudgery group”.

Fraser says:

“It's about removing that day-to-day drudgery from staff and automating it to machines, who don't care about the drudgery. And that then leads to greater satisfaction from the staff who are providing that process. They're seeing they're adding more value back in to their fellow staff, the students and the users of their particular service.”

Then there are the macro transformations – those major strategic digital change projects supported and enabled by enterprise systems. They include an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation and a digital student experience programme, looking at completely reimagining the end-to-end digital journey of Heriot-Watt students through its enterprise systems. The team has also successfully completed the first two phases of its data and insights project, developing a comprehensive data and insights platform.

Fraser explains:

“We’re starting to drive real value from our enterprise data, presenting dashboards and insights from data that's previously been squirreled away in silos distributed around the university.”

Digital as enabler

This well-thought-out distinction between micro and macro transformation projects stems from the bigger picture, set out in the university’s digital strategy, that digital transformation is about connecting people to systems and processes.

As Lucy Everest, global chief operating officer at Heriot-Watt, explains,

“Digital transformation is about seeing digital as an enabler of growth, of more effective ways of working, of efficiency and effectiveness, of peoples’ sense of happiness in their jobs. So, for me, digital transformation is constant and it's about continuous evolution, continuous improvement.”

Fraser agrees:

“Digital transformation is institutional transformation enabled by digital. There's very little aspect of change within the organisation that isn't in some way enabled, facilitated or driven by digital now.”

Tracking benefits

However, if digital transformation is about supporting people through digital – with people always placed before technology – then there needs to be a clear focus on the benefits, and these need to be communicated fully and frequently.

For this to work, Heriot-Watt takes an agile project management approach, responding to what the business needs at different times while staying true to an ultimate goal.

Lucy explains:

“As programme sponsor, we constantly check and challenge each other. Are we going off-track? Are we staying true to what the benefits needed to be? Are the compromises and redirections or reprioritisation that we're making the right ones? And have we got the right input from stakeholders?”

Fraser adds:

“For our macro projects we are tracking benefits in the same way that we previously would have tracked risks and issues, so that we're constantly checking in. Are we still on track to deliver that benefit? Have we identified any new benefits as we go through this? How are we telling people about that? How are we reminding people of those benefits as we go through some of these major projects? For the micro transformations, it's a lot easier because the turnaround time to realising those benefits is so much shorter so people see the immediate benefits.”

The power of a framework

Harnessing the power of a framework to link needs and activity together in a more accessible way, using non-technical language, is also critical. Both Fraser and Lucy point to the importance of helping staff and students to understand what’s being done and why – and when and how they need to engage.

“There is a general tendency within universities to use acronyms, and if you then apply them to IT projects, you get these double whammy discombobulations. Strategic frameworks are really important in digital, because it helps everyone to understand how the project connects to customers or users and what they need.”

And those conversations also need to be ongoing – it’s certainly not a one-and-done situation.

“We've got new people joining us all the time. People are leaving, new people are coming in, existing staff might not have picked up on the message previously, so we need to constantly reiterate and find new ways to communicate what we're doing and why we're doing it.”

Baggage handling

Nonetheless, there will always be challenges. For Heriot-Watt, the sector-wide issues of digital capabilities and a lack of time loom large. The “historical baggage” that comes with major digital projects can also be a challenge, including the perception that those large projects have a tendency to go over budget and over schedule without delivering on benefits.

Fraser is keen to change that narrative and points to the value of using more agile processes and micro-transformational processes within even the big, strategic macro projects. This ensures there are some quick wins and immediate tangible benefits, even if the whole project is scheduled to take five or even 10 years to complete.

Another challenge is resourcing, and Lucy points to the very tough financial environment for most UK universities now, and especially the shift in investment in digital from capital expenditure pots, where it was somewhat protected, to operational expenditure, where it must compete against more interests.

“It really forces colleagues to be able to articulate business benefits and think about the sequence of projects and what they will deliver against strategic goals and financial sustainability.”

Approaching AI

Looking ahead, the growth of AI, which Lucy describes as a “complete game changer”, is seen as a potential opportunity to further remove layers of bureaucracy and reduce manual transactional processes of staff to create capacity for value-added activities.

However, Fraser warns that Gen AI, specifically, is not a silver bullet.

“We need to be appropriate, measured and cautious about our adoption of AI, and be very clear about what we're doing, why we're doing it, and be able to communicate that to our staff and students as we tread down that particular, albeit exciting journey.”