Competency Centres Annual Review 2023

The first annual review of the Competency Centres launched in May 2023

This report describes the milestones, achievements, and key insights from the first year of Oxford's new Competency Centres, introduced as part of Oxford's digital transformation.    

In the first year of operation, the Competency Centres have already shown their ability to support the development of Oxford’s digital landscape. 2023 saw the launch of three Competency Centres with three more launching in 2024. The current centres The Workflow and Automation Competency Centre, The Cybersecurity Competency Centre and The Cloud Computing for Research, AI & ML (Machine Learning) Competency Centre have already directly supported more than 35 different departments across the University while engaging with more than 1000 colleagues through events, forums and work groups. With a focus on creating a culture of self-sufficiency, through training and upskilling and sharing best practices, Competency Centres represent the University's commitment to technological transformation and collaboration. 

Key stats from competency centres: 920 People engaged at events, 732 people connected through Communities and groups, 65 people trained, 6 people recruited to the Cyber Task Force, 8 new staff and 4 joining in 2024

Dive into a review of each of the centres

Launched May 2023  

Workflow and Automation Competency Centre Logo

The Workflow and Automation Competency Centre is excited to be working with departments across the University, delivering consultancy, training and technical deployment of automation solutions, with a focus on replacing time-consuming, manual, or paper-based processes and repetitive tasks with software-based solutions. This can free up staff time, remove human error, reduce costs, and make work easier for users. Staff at the centre have had hundreds of conversations with colleagues via communities of practice, forums, and staff days. Out of sixty-three formal requests for support received, seven units or projects across the University are currently being assisted, including Student Fees & Funding, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, and the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards. The centre will work to provide tailored support to the majority of those sixty-three other departments in 2024.  

A visual breakdown of the division and departments that have made a direct request to the Workflow and Automation Competency Centre

 

Working in partnership with the Focus team, the Automation centre begins every discussion by understanding the business process in question, to make sure it’s as efficient as possible before exploring technological solutions. This alone can eliminate redundancy and highlight opportunities for time saving. The next step is collaborating with the requesting individual or team to build a new, automated process and provide the knowledge, advice and support they need to use and maintain it. This can include training, delivered in partnership with the IT Learning Centre, and linking up with communities of practice like the SharePoint-Nexus User Group (SNUG). The Automation Competency centre recently completed the first round of in-person training to introduce users to automation software, with more courses to be offered during 2024 through a partnership with the IT Learning Centre.  

At present assistance to use the existing Microsoft365 tools, that are already paid for by the university is the most requested technical support. These tools include Power Automate, Power BI, Microsoft Forms and the use of SharePoint Online to host and manage data. In 2024 the Automation Competency Centre will publish more guidance and offer support on other technical options, including building chatbots and deploying generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) (like GPT) for business solutions.  

Katherine Tomlinson at OII:   

"A huge thank you to Stephen who helped us enormously with a Microsoft Power Automate flow we built at the Oxford Internet Institute for approving casual worker timesheets. We couldn't get the final part of the automated flow to work properly where an email is automatically sent to HR, on timesheet approval.  

Stephen looked into the issue and showed us how to fix it. He checked in with us afterwards to make sure it was working properly. This automated flow now saves the HR Team at the OII so much time emailing back and forth between casual workers and course conveners!  

I'm so glad the Workflow and Automation Competency Centre exists within the University; we wouldn't have been able to implement this departmental efficiency saving otherwise"  

Launched March 2023  

Cybersecurity Competency Centre logo

The Cybersecurity Competency Centre has continued to support teams across the University. Forty-eight staff in seventeen divisions, units or colleges have now qualified for their Certification in Information Security Management Principles (CISMP) after a five-day training course. These qualified staff form part of a growing network of information security experts, joined together by regular events and close communication with the Chief Information Security Officer’s (CISO) office and the Cyber Security Special Interest Group.  

The Centre has introduced a Cyber Taskforce, the first of its kind, to create a more joined-up team of Cyber Champions who can work together to make Oxford secure. Cyber Champions, selected by InfoSec and the Cybersecurity Competency Centre, will receive specialized training, including CompTIA Security and Security First Responder courses, to bolster the University's cyber security efforts. Cyber Champions will be located across the Collegiate University in departments and colleges. Our aim is to enhance local cyber security with OxCERT's expertise. The Champions will serve as a direct link between OxCERT and their units, providing advanced security practices, incident response, and facilitating best practices. Read more about the Cyber Taskforce here. Interested individuals can apply to become a Cyber Champion. Sign up for the next CISMP course here.  

In terms of impact, cyber-incidents across the University of Oxford have dropped from 785 in 2022 to 238 in 2023. It can be inferred that the wider and ongoing discussion about cyber security and cyber awareness around the university, including the work the Centre has done, has have played a part in keeping the importance of cyber security in the front of all our minds.  

A graphic that displays the difference between cyber incidents in 2022 (785) and 2023 (238) report graphic

 
 
Chief Information Security Officer Graham Ingram said,

“The Cyber Competency Centre is part of an overall initiative which is contributing to a drop in incident numbers.”   

“We’re proud to be working alongside the CISO’s office, and with the Cyber Security Programme on projects such as Oxford Secure, which will launch new training in 2024, to give staff the training, awareness and resources they need to keep the University’s digital estate safe.”

 - The Cybersecurity Centre Team 

Launched September 2023  

Research Cloud Computing Competency Centre Logo

The Cloud Computing for Research, AI & ML (Machine Learning) Competency Centre will be fully operational in early 2024, with the arrival of three engineering roles: Two Research Software Engineers and a cloud engineer. These staff will provide advice and technical support for research projects considering the use of cloud hosting, initially at zero cost to all end users.  

The current Training Manager is arranging free training courses for interested technical staff at Oxford; these sessions begin in Hilary Term and focus on cloud engineering for RSEs and similar roles interested in working in the AWS, Azure and Oracle environments. As well as training sessions sponsored by the cloud providers in question, the centre has commissioned independent training for staff beginning their cloud hosting journey. Working with the Doctoral Training Centre and the IT Learning Centre to make these courses accessible to staff and integrated into the broader University technical training programme.  

From next year (24/25) the centre will create case studies and compile technical resources for researchers and project staff who want self-led approaches to accessing the cloud; these will include collaborations with groups focusing on AI/ML approaches, such as the Generative AI Special Interest Group and the proposed Digital Transformation centre to support AI adoption at the University. The Cloud Computing for Research Centre will continue to engage with major cloud vendors, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle, to publish guidance on licensing and hosting package questions and to pursue discounted or free cloud credits/LLM tokens for interested researchers to pilot technical approaches.  

Future Centres

We’re going to be launching three more centres in 2024, each focused on supporting a different area of technology.   

  • Immersive Technology: Bringing the power of virtual and augmented reality to education across the University, giving staff and students the tools and training they need to use immersive technology in teaching and learning.  
  • Online Course Delivery: Partnering with the Department of Continuing Education and the Centre for Teaching and Learning, this centre will help to support the creation and delivery of taught online courses. This centre will be headed by a new Head of Online Courses, arriving in January 2024.  
  • Digital Experience: Helping staff across the University to improve the experience of people using our digital platforms and systems. This will include support for user testing, creating a consistent digital look and feel, and ensuring our online platforms meet high standards of accessibility. This centre will be headed by a new Head of User Experience, arriving in February 2024.
     

Key Insights 

Providing training and tools vs offering a Service   

All the Competency Centres have focused on ensuring colleagues have the skills and tools to use technology themselves.  

The Competency Centres do not exist as a Service in the same way that IT Services exists, they are working to embed the ability to use, maintain and develop technologies within departments and units. This means more training opportunities for staff with more courses in automation, cybersecurity and cloud architecture in the new year.  
 

Pie chart that shows the number of people who have completed different training provided by Competency Centres

Upskilling staff is not the only way that the Competency Centres are supporting Oxford’s digital transformation. There is an ongoing issue around a lack of resources for things like software licences and hosting, the centres are positioned to provide these and to also assist in the creation of business cases to help departments pilot new technologies. An upfront investment in better cybersecurity or automating a time-consuming process can easily save money in the medium term. However, frequently the biggest barrier to adopting a new technology lies in not knowing where to start. To help with this, each of the centres are publishing case studies of good practice in different areas of the University. Colleagues are also able to visit the centres for consultations to help identify and overcome what is holding them back from engaging with a new technology.  

High demand for training advice and support in technical areas  

In their first six months of active work, the Cybersecurity and Automation centres each received over 100 requests for focused training, advice or support.  

This is around two incoming requests every day and almost every one represents a whole unit or department that needs a solution to a technical problem. That could be a time-consuming professional process that could be automated, or a pressing need for better information security capacity. Each of the centres are continuing to explore the different ways they can provide prompt and tailored support for each request, including connecting colleagues to existing resources or communities.  

Inconsistent level of technical expertise across the university   

Oxford has many individual staff who excel at using automation software, cloud computing, or implementing good, practical cybersecurity. However, these trailblazers are currently held back by lack of coordination or resources. A key achievement of the first six months of operation has been to help identify and promote the work of local trailblazer, through case studies, joint events, or by partnering with communities of practice.  

The goal is to inspire others to adopt their enthusiastic, hands-on approach to technology, and to support growing networks of technological best practice through the University. An example of this is the Cybersecurity centre, where 48 colleagues have been trained in security management principles. These individuals from across the University form a network who can share knowledge and support each other and their colleagues to improve information security. Six colleagues from this cohort, one in each division and in two colleges, were then recruited as the first members of the Cyber Task-Force. They’ll work directly with the CISO’s team to help protect the whole university and have the cybersecurity expertise to respond rapidly to any cyber threats in their local areas.  

We’ll continue to build distributed but connected communities of practice, using the Competency Centres to support and train the staff who make change possible. 

Visit the SharePoint site 

Find out more about the competency centres latest activity on the SharePoint Site .

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