Top UK University Chooses Adaptive Planning As Their Budgeting and Planning Solution

Cloud-based computing, for those unfamiliar with it, is the expression (first popularised by Amazon back in 2006) used to describe a variety of different computing concepts, which involve a large number of computers connected through a real-time communication network. A number of universities and HE institutions around the UK have transitioned to cloud-based solutions in the past several years; drawn by the dual benefits of increased storage and the ability to more easily carry out shared work both applications frequently called upon by those working in higher education. Traditional computer systems are not always conducive to this kind of large-scale storage, nor the type of open collaboration that is increasingly required in HE, said Rajesh Ram, VP of Products at Egnyte, a technology company that specialises in cloud computing infrastructure and provides cloud-based solutions to Oxford University. He added: As universities expand not just in terms of their campus-size but also their reach overseas, the cloud can offer a great service. To further understand this seismic technological transition, University Businessspoke with a number of different HE institutions around the country to offer a microcosm look at how cloud-based systems are transforming university IT departments. Threes a cloud Carl Teigh only moved into the role of Chief Financial Officer at Regents University London around 15 months ago. Among his first tasks in the position was compiling the budgets for the following academic year. At the time, Regents University (then Regents College) was working with an Excel-based system, stored locally on different hard drives around the campus. Teigh quickly highlighted it being unable to cope with the complexity of a large number of budget holders and over 100 different nominal codes, and pressed the University to move to a cloud-based system that would bring everything under one roof. Looking back over the past five years, weve seen year-on-year growth of at least 10 per cent as a University, he explained. The institution has grown in size and organisational complexity. What is quite common when you have this kind of growth is that people are very busy, and it can be difficult to step back and look objectively at whether the systems you are working with are proving effective. You need to ask whether you have the right platforms to support your infrastructure, and in our case, the answer was that we didnt.

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Teigh looked at various cloud-based systems before pinpointing one that met Regent Universitys needs: discoverable by analysing what was not working about the then-current Excel system. Chief among these was the lack of visibility Excel offered. Teigh and his team could set deadlines and chase them by telephone, but they had no way of looking to see how far along the process was. The problem was compounded by the fact that, in many cases, multiple budget drafts were being created, requiring an unsustainable level of coordination to ensure that everyone was working from the same document. With more than 50 budget holders and that same number of worksheets, it was a very labour-intensive process, and there was a real challenge in making sure that all the information was present, with no lines missing, Teigh said. Ultimately he selected Adaptive Planning, a leader in cloud-based business analytics solutions used by 1,500 organisations worldwide, designed specifically for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, dashboards and business intelligence. Among other benefits was the fact that Adaptive Planning enabled Teigh and his team to see how far along people were with budgetary planning. Another welcome feature was the ability to quickly model staff costs for the following year including automatically working out the National Insurance contributions for every employee. Being able to update our budgets monthly rather than annually, and having greater flexibility to make changes, gives us the opportunity to study our budgets from multiple perspectives whether its focusing on a particular cost centre and looking at their net cost to Regents University, or concentrating on a nominal code subject such as professional fees to identify upward or downward trends, Teigh said. With Adaptive Planning, weve been able to spot significant movements that simply wouldnt have been picked up when we were using Excel. Just as impressive as the intuitiveness of the Adaptive Planning user interface was the roll-out time: an astonishingly quick seven weeks, during which Adaptive Planning proved indispensable in providing support.

Need for speed Speed is, of course, just one reason for cloud-based solutions. Another is the second big S when it comes to computing: storage. Around two years ago, University College London came to the conclusion that, in order to meet the needs of its academic researchers and extensive, data-intensive research projects, it needed to rethink its approach to building a scalable information storage infrastructure capable of capturing and managing the extensive volume of institutional knowledge it was generating on a regular basis. To solve the problem, UCL turned to its long-time technology partner, Data Direct Networks (DDN) for an answer.

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What UCL was largely interested in was a cloud-based storage system that could work as an active archive of information, representing the combined work of 2,000 researchers, explained DDNs Jeff Denworth. The objective was to capture the digital memory of the University on one platform; thus opening up the possibility of other HE institutions collaborating with UCL in a more straightforward manner via the cloud. DDN created a scalable system capable of reaching 100PB of research data, while also protecting this data against file loss or corruption. What the cloud offers is a computing framework that allows you to move information easily between university departments or even across entire geographies, Denworth continued. Think about a large project that comes up that involves the whole university but only lasts for two months. That research project requires a computer that is maybe 10 times the size of any that they own. However, for such a short project they dont want to go and buy a whole new resource. In that situation they could push their applications onto the cloud-based service, thus allowing them to get the job done that they need to. With set-up costs minimal and the positive benefits of moving to the cloud evident to everyone, there has never been a better time for universities to make the transition. If youre looking at comparing cloud-based systems to just a piece of software that sits on your desktop, theres really no comparison, said Carl Teigh of Regents University. The accessibility is a big selling point. People dont want to be tied to using just one computer, and the cloud gives you the option of working on your work desktop, a home laptop or another mobile device and being able to access the same information. It makes life easier for them. Meanwhile, the focus on security is convincing many that the cloud does not represent an information risk. When we launched Egnyte around four years ago, the companies that were looking for cloudbased solutions tended to be very small, said Rajesh Ram. Today there is significant interest from larger organisations, across a number of sectors, and I feel that that is because we have emphasised security to the degree that we have. But security is still evolving. I dont look at it as a destination; I view it as an ongoing journey. And were striving to constantly get better. The theme of constantly learning and improving is one that DDNs Jeff Denworth said he sees regularly when speaking to university representatives. The common thread that comes up when we are talking to our university customers and partners who are looking for a cloud-based solution and infrastructure is that they dont know the exact direction that they are heading in technologically, but they feel that they need to be more agile in order to meet the business requirements and research needs of being a modern HE institution.

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There are certain technologies that will help them meet those needs and cloud-computing is one of them. The key in all of this is scalability and elasticity. UCL needed a storage-based solution in the short term, but it also wanted a system that could grow in a way that it was not yet in a position to predict. Needs change over time, and its up to us to make sure that cloud technology moves to meet them.

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