UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association) is an association of higher education institutions, who work together to improve their “digital health”. This includes looking at both operational efficiency and student experience.
Every year, a survey is sent out to universities asking for details of the main software/systems they use. This is compiled in UCISA’s Corporate Information Systems (CIS) report, providing both a snapshot of the sector’s most widely used systems and any year-on-year trends.
The 2018 report, to which 117 universities contributed, was recently released. Takeaways that might be of interest from a Birmingham perspective include:
- We’re behind the curve in moving away from CODA and Alta HR, but ahead of the curve in terms of moving to cloud solutions for HR and Finance
- We use one of the most-used 3 or 4 systems for most other functions surveyed
- We are in line with the bulk of institutions with regards to the method of delivery of our systems (e.g. cloud)
- Where more than a third of institutions are using cloud / software-as-a-service to deliver a system, we are either already using cloud or discussions are underway about migrating
The full 2018 report can be viewed here https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/bestpractice/surveys/cis