Outsourcing Model
FIGURE 14: UML ACTIVITY DIAGRAM FOR OUTSOURCING MODEL
Typified by
Characteristic |
Description |
| Number of courses | Any |
| Complexity of provision | Any |
| Number of sources | Any. Aggregation carried out either by the HEI or by the agency. |
| Quality of authoring | Reasonable quality authoring required, unless agency is directly involved in sub-editing. |
| Data structures | Moderately well defined data structures required, unless agency is involved in handling primary data storage for the HEI. |
| Update frequency | Depends on service levels agreed between agency and HEI. Annual updates easiest; more frequent updates are dependent on systems within the HEI. |
| Audit trail | For an automated service and updates other than ‘whole data set’, a mechanism for indicating updated records is required. |
| Centralisation | Agency acts as centralisation mechanism. Helpful if HEI carries out aggregation prior to transfer of data to agency. |
| Process capability | Process capability is outsourced to the agency, so only ‘performed’ level of process capability is required at the HEI (this level supports and enables the work needed to produce the required outputs, but does not include standardisation or specific process improvement arrangements). |
| Technical capability | Technical capability is outsourced to the agency, so only a basic ability to provide the data is required at the HEI. |
| Organisational context | Any. Agreement to pay the agency is required. |
| Resources | Small. Contract management and payment of the agency is required. |
TABLE 6: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OUTSOURCING MODEL
Description of scenario
The HEI arranges a service contract with an agency to carry out processes specified in its agreement. These services can range from data aggregation, through validation, transformation, mapping and specified outputs to internal or external third parties. The use of XCRI by the agency on the HEI’s behalf increases the efficiency of the operation by the agency and therefore its cost effectiveness for the HEI. This type of arrangement takes into account the specific circumstances of the HEI, so the details can vary very widely.
Example: The Open University
The Open University sub-contracts its supply of data to third party data collecting organisations to an agency (APS Ltd). The OU supplies data to the agency in a database, which is used as part of the consolidation of the OU’s course advertising data for production of its website. This data is converted into XCRI as a base format for further transformation and mapping by the agency into specific formats (for example Access databases, spreadsheets, csv files, etc) for seven third party data collecting organisations. The agency maintains third party classifications in the OU data on behalf of the data collectors.
