It's not long until the government's comprehensive spending review - 20
October. I attended the FOTE10 conference in London on Friday and spoke to
a couple of institutional Web team managers. It seems that they are
planning for cuts of about 20% over the next three years - though this may
have to be revised when we hear the outcomes of the comprehensive spending
review.
I'm interested in the approaches other Web teams might be taking. I've
outlined some possible scenarios at:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/scenario-planning-for-institution
al-web-managers/
In brief the possible scenarios may be:
1. Gentle downsizing: Changes in staffing levels in institutional Web teams
will be addressed by early retirements. There's no real need to be worried.
2. Outsourcing of Web teams: Web teams will be closed, with staff facing
redundancies, to be replaced by outsourced provision of activities
previously carried out by Web teams. Staff in the institution will be
responsible for managing the contractual agreements with outsourced
providers.
3. Greater use of outsourced Web technologies: Staff in institutional Web
teams will move away from using internal CMSs and make greater use of
externally-provided services.
4. Greater use of cheap labour!: The University of Southampton's ECS Web
team blog has stated that it intends to address the redundancies which is
taking place within the team: "Other tasks we may hire students for. There's
some great talent amongst our students and they work relatively cheaply, but
gain experience and it looks good on the CV".
5. Move towards centralisation: Web content providers and developers in
departments will face redundancies, as greater emphasis is placed on
provision of Web services from central Web teams.
6. Move towards devolution: The central Web team is down-sized and Web
content provision is delegated to departments.
7. Time for growth and expansion: Policy makers within the institution
agreed that the Web provides a cost-effective service. Greater
responsibilities - and resources - and given to institutional Web teams.
Anyone like to summarise the approaches they are taking?
Thanks
Brian
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Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943
Web site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/briankelly/
Twitter (automated posts): http://twitter.com/ukwebfocus/
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