Broadcast: News items

Jason Oliver, Chief Digital Transformation Officer

Building a better University for a better world means making sure we’ve got the right services in place to support a modern institution like ours. IT Services (ITS) play an enormous part in us getting this right.

Over the past two years we’ve all had to work differently – and my division, ITS, is no exception to that. Not only has my team shown flexibility but we have continued to deliver an excellent service, supporting and developing the needs of the University. Now the team is required to transform to continue meeting those needs.

Along with my ITS leadership team, I have, over recent months, been looking at the structure of our division to ensure that it is ‘fit for the future’ and in the best possible shape to meet the needs of the University over the coming years.

Many of our staff from previous years have taken part in the voluntary severance programmes or have chosen to take opportunities afforded to them post-pandemic to move onto new roles. This has allowed us to put a new structure in place so that we can provide the best service possible to our evolving University. Things change and we must view this as a positive opportunity. We are in a transitional period, recruiting into multiple vacancies and providing our existing staff with new skills, whilst settling into new ways of working under a new structure. My team and I appreciate the support and patience of colleagues whilst we recruit and rebuild our teams, and drive towards creating a modern IT service.

This change isn’t simply about filling in names on an organogram – it’s about meeting the changing needs of the University, adopting some of the work and practices that are becoming commonplace across the sector.

One of my leadership team colleagues, Clare Gryce, Deputy Director of IT Services, is leading our division’s organisational development work, which she calls as ‘a longer-term plan – bringing our people with us’. The work aims to help enhance the overall culture and performance of ITS and will involve everybody across the division and offer each person the chance to contribute to designing the way that individuals, teams, and the division interacts with itself and the wider university communities. It is about exploring historic issues, being open about our challenges, and collaborating to develop solutions so that we can be our very best.    

My team and I are busy recruiting to several roles across the division. This has been a massive effort, with expert guidance and support from colleagues across Professional Services. We’ve been excellently supported by the Size & Shape project team, and particularly HR and Finance, whose advice and guidance has helped keep us on track and ensure we are aligned with the University’s new job families framework. All across the sector Universities are finding recruitment a challenge – it’s a job-seekers market - but we are casting a wide net and working hard to reach the pools of talent that we can attract to Sussex that will allow us to thrive with our new structure. This has been an excellent demonstration of single team working.

Over the coming months, as the vacancies are filled, new services will be added with a focus on product improvement, agile working practices, joined up approaches to development and testing, and enhanced customer services. We look forward to providing support and guidance to the University in the friendly and professional manner you have come to expect. These changes will really help us to ensure a future-fit IT operation, just what our brilliant University needs!