Balancing big data with Big Brother: an interview with the University of Derby's Neil Williams

IT director Williams explains how much of his role is about ensuring that the university is getting the best out of its data - without compromising privacy

Leading the IT department at a university is quite different to the role of a CIO in a commercial organisation, explains Neil Williams, IT director at the University of Derby.

Between the months of September and November, Williams' IT team has to decide which projects it is going to embark on for the year ahead, and by January many of these projects have been approved, with the expectation that they will all be delivered by the end of August.

"The financial year ends in July but the end of the academic year is August, so from March to the end of August there is a lot of intensity because you have the money and people on board, and now you have to deliver [these projects]," he says.

This means that the department has to deliver multiple projects in a short time-frame, which Williams admits can be a struggle.

However, unlike many universities, says Williams, the University of Derby's IT department has the comfort of knowing that its work is valued by those who hold the purse strings.

"The university is very supportive of us, and in 2008 gave the IT organisation a five-year plan with a funding model," he says.

The work of Williams' IT department is divided into four portfolios.

The first is a systems brief that encompasses the likes of CRM and big data solutions, the second is the overall IT estate, the third is what the university calls the strategic IT infrastructure portfolio, and the fourth is an IT improvement module, which ensures that all of the technology is fit for purpose and takes care of such tasks as resetting passwords.

"So we're running all four of those portfolios within a very short time frame, and then you hit September the following year and you're back into that cycle again," Williams says.

Getting the best out of data

Williams reveals that the university has a whole project dedicated to big data and business intelligence, an area that he says is becoming increasingly vital for universities.

"We spent the last 18 months bringing together our analytics systems to enable us to gain insight into certain trends," he says.

The university uses IBM Cognos as its main reporting tool.

"If we have some students not doing well in certain areas we would look to see if there are any trends; is it because of their background in doing BTEC rather than A-Levels, for example, as their course wasn't geared towards exams; or perhaps because nobody else in their family has done a degree," Williams says.

If the university can better pinpoint where a problem lies it can more easily rectify the issue, he says.

Meanwhile, "learning analytics systems" enable the university to check whether students tend to look at material the night before an exam, or whether they are constantly referring to material, which might indicate they didn't understand the coursework properly.

"We will have the data over time to check what it means for people who don't ever go to the library - does it affect their results?" Williams explains.

But the university has to act in an ethical way with this data, and it faces different challenges to commercial organisations, according to Williams.

"The challenge for the university, which isn't the same as for other organisations, centres on the ethics of such ‘Big Brother' big data efforts. We are building capabilities but we have to look through these internally and ask what it means and go through the appropriate governance methods and understand what our stakeholders feel," he says.

"We have to make sure what we do is right. In contrast, if you look at a website and somebody is tracking what you're looking at, you expect to then be targeted [with advertisements], but these [students] are members of our institution - not customers – so it's a different situation," he adds.

The same principles need to be considered when it comes to university staff.

"How much do you monitor them? We don't do that - but some organisations do," he claims.

For Williams, the biggest challenge that big data throws up isn't technical, but how best to interpret the information.

"There is a lack of understanding of the data. The software piece isn't the important bit, because you're putting software in data systems, so you know you won't end up with five different parts of the business with different CRM systems. Most of our conversations are not about software - it is about understanding what we are doing with the data and getting a ‘single intelligence'," Williams explains.

But the university is still in the early stages of ensuring it can get this "single intelligence".

"We're putting in place a learning analytics system and planning systems - what we are trying to do is put all of [the data] into a central core data repository. The concept is there, but it is a two- to four-year journey," says Williams.

The IT team is also working hard to raise awareness of the security implications of using consumer cloud technologies to save and share files.

"Users don't realise that they are moving data in and out of the cloud, so we are recommending what we think is the safest option. We use Office 365, so we urge users to only use this and not alternatives such as Dropbox," says Williams.

Many staff a simply too naive, he says, and do not realise that sharing a spreadsheet using a consumer cloud service can easily lead to confidential information being exposed. Raising awareness of the secuirty and moral implications around data sharing is one of his biggest concerns, he adds.

CIO to CXO

Computing recently questioned whether CIOs had the required skillset to be considered as potential COOs, CTOs or CEOs. There are several examples of CIOs who have indeed made that shift - such as Philip Clarke who was made CEO of Tesco, Chris Taylor, who is currently COO at News UK, and Kevin Murray, who is both CIO and COO at insurance giant AXA UK.

Williams believes that the shift to another C-level role depends on the individual in question.

"For example, I can't see myself as a CTO because I think that is more of an architectural technology role that is more appropriate for a very technical-based organisation, which we are not. I prefer engaging with the business and fixing business issues, rather than pre-empting technical requirements," he states.

What about a shift to CEO?

This depends on the nature of the CIO's role and character, he suggests. "For example, if I was the right type of person, I could be the vice chancellor of the university because I'm so engaged with almost all aspects of the business. In the same way, CIOs who are engaged with the business [could also be considered for the CEO role] but it depends on how you build on that knowledge," he says.

Williams believes CIOs would need to be able to build relationships with the marketplace that they're operating in, and ask themselves whether they have the economic and financial acumen to run a large business and make decisions about mergers and acquisitions.

"I can imagine a CIO in a university becoming a vice chancellor, although vice chancellors often have to have a research background in order to make that step up.

"Outside of the university sector I can see people making that step up - it is the same type of step up for a senior sales or marketing professional, but if you're a CIO you should take over some of [the CEO-type] work beforehand," he says.

Williams was Highly Commended in the CIO of the Year category at the UK IT Awards 2014.

Here is what he had to say about the achievement:

"The list of things that were mentioned in the submission covered things that have been done by the department. So you need a lot of good people and the award is recognition for the department overall.

"Most of us work really hard over the years, but it is hard to measure how much you've contributed. This recognition says ‘you have made a positive contribution to something in your career'."

Williams was also included in Computing's Top 100 IT Leaders list. The full list can be found here.