Articulating value in the digital world:A conference on the espida Approach

Producing a realistic assessment of the benefits of IT or Information 
projects is tough.  This conference will be of value to both the managers 
of resources (decision makers, funders, etc.) who are seeking to understand 
what they might get for money expended and those that prepare business 
cases for projects who want to convince those with the money that what they 
propose is worthwhile.  It will explain the background to the problem, ways 
that it has been addressed in the past, the approach developed in the 
espida Project and the perspectives of funders, decision makers and others 
on the problem and this approach.

Management
The rapid pace of change in Higher and Further Education means that 
decision-makers and funders are frequently required to evaluate project 
proposals that have serious implications for their institutions. There are 
never enough resources available to fund more than a small fraction of the 
proposals and decision makers are keenly aware that the size of the 
resource pool is fixed and that every pound spent on infrastructure and 
administration is a pound not spent on 'primary production': learning, 
teaching and research.

Costs of projects are relatively straight-forward to define, but benefits 
that are not expressed in financial terms can be very difficult to 
communicate and measure. These intangible benefits are frequently a major 
feature of business cases and are often expressed in vague prosaic 
language.  

This conference, held by the espida Project will offer an approach that can 
help construct and communicate intangible benefits in such a way that 
informed and transparent decisions can be made for the benefit of the 
organisation. Speakers will present a view of the economic background to 
the issue of understanding intangibles, the espida Approach itself, and 
examples of how the Approach can be used successfully in different types of 
organisation. 

Proposers
How are business cases for resources made within your organisation? Are 
hours spent carefully crafting purple prose to convince senior management 
about the merits of your work? Do management find it hard to understand the 
benefits of the proposal?

The espida Approach was initially developed as an aid to securing resources 
for actions to preserve digital materials, helping to define the value of 
such work in a language that senior management can understand. In addition 
to the digital preservation community however, the Approach has high 
relevance for areas that measure their outcomes, not with financial 
indicators but rather more intangible results. These include records 
management, knowledge management and IT. In general, any business case that 
must convey outcomes that are not purely financial may benefit from 
applying the espida Approach. 

The Approach helps users:

a)      Figure out what the benefits of their proposal really are,

b)      Express these benefits in a way that communicates them effectively,

c)      Identify outcomes in a systematic fashion. 

This conference, held by the espida Project, will offer an Approach that 
can help communicate intangible benefits in such a way that proposers can 
increase the chances of their proposal being understood and resourced. 

Speakers include:

Helen Shenton (British Library)
Welcome

Professor Sir Laurie Hunter (University of Glasgow)
Setting the scene

Dr. James Currall & Peter McKinney (University of Glasgow)
The espida Approach 

Alice Colban (JISC)
The Approach in the context of Funding Bodies

Dugald Mackie (Vice-Principal, University of Manchester)
The Approach in the context of HE decision-making

Julie Carpenter (Director, Education for Change)
The Approach in the context of consultancy in Heritage

Conference details:
Monday 12th February
British Library Conference Centre
10am-4pm

Cost: Free

To register for the conference please visit the website 
(www.gla.ac.uk/espida). 

Contact Joan Keenan for further information ([log in to unmask]).