Working Smarter: Progress Report 2013

One year into the three-year efficiency strategy and all 16 of the first-year’s goals have been met or are on target. The strategy covers four distinct areas of university activity where there is potential for greater efficiency: procurement, ICT, shared services and business processes and the university estate and carbon reduction.

• In ICT commercial discussions are underway to progress to collaboration licence agreements for virtual learning environments.
• In procurement the sector has exceeded its own target of 25 per cent of institutional spend through collaborative procurement. It currently stands at 30 per cent.
• In business services the goal was to evaluate the sector’s appetite for shared services and identify opportunities for more. The publication of the Ernst and Young report has delivered that.
• In estates a series of metrics needed to be agreed upon in order to benchmark progress. This has now been agreed. The benchmarks cover energy consumption, recycling rates and revenue generation from ‘sweating the assets’.

The Universities Scotland Efficiency Taskforce will progress with work to meet the three-year targets