Introducing the Service Partnership Framework

We aim to bring together the academic and professional services communities and develop a Framework that provides a governance structure and process to establish:  

• A clear relationship between service user and service provider,
• Consistent and reliable ways of measuring, monitoring and reporting service quality,
• And a shared culture of collaborative service delivery and improvement.

To implement the Framework we will: 

• Establish new PS Service Partnership Boards – a mixed membership group of service users and service providers who regularly review both strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational service level agreements (SLAs) based on service catalogues; and
• Design and implement a Service Partnership Framework – reporting dashboards containing a balanced set of metrics and measures. 

The benefits of introducing clearer accountability and ownership of performance measures, as well as defining an established governance route to escalate any issues include:

• Helping us to move away from solving issues in isolation and towards more integrated business partnering, service delivery and strategic planning;
• Improving our data management and supporting smarter use of data to inform decision making;
• And improving the user experience – making it easier to use services and supporting a well-developed service culture.

Plan, progress so far and next steps

The first phase of the project will run from October 2019 to the end of May 2020. During this time we will focus on three main work streams: developing a pilot version of the Framework within Finance and the PS Hub; working with the Data and Insight Team to test out semi-automated reporting dashboards; and exploring how we can incorporate Service Partnership design into all future Transformers.

We have been designing the pilots with Finance and Business Affairs (FBA) and the PS Hub. The teams have developed and agreed to a set of strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) as well as how these will be measured. We’ve also been using Tableau to develop strategic dashboards for these areas which make it easier to visualise data and monitor performance.

We’re looking into how we can embed Service Partnership design into all TOPS transformers, starting with Research Support in November. We are delighted to have the support of Nigel Titchener-Hooker Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, to help ensure this work meets the needs of the academic community. 

We are also currently planning the first pilot meetings of the Service Partnership Boards. 

More about Service Partnership Framework

• Read about why we need a Service Partnership Framework and find out more about the project plan.