Business Case Planning for Research Support Services

A Progress Report to the DLF Forum

Mike Furlough & Elizabeth Kirk, November 1, 2011

Responsibility and Credits Ted Fons, OCLC Mike Furlough, Penn State Elizabeth Kirk, Dartmouth College Carol Hunter, University of North Carolina Judy Luther, Informed Strategies Michele Reid, North Dakota State University

CLIR/DLF sponsors this work MediaCommons will host results of our work Beverly Lynch, Director, Senior Fellows

Program, UCLA introduced us

Context for the Project

Our goal is to provide the Library/Higher Education community with processes, tools, best practices, and examples to enable successful planning for library services to support new scholarly communications practices. 

Transformation: Drivers Consumer technology and user expectations The marketplace for academic publishing The open access/copyleft movement The emergence of digital scholarship in

humanities & social sciences The emergence of computationally-driven

data-intensive science Mass digitization …

If you can’t persuade me that the work you’re doing is going to make us more famous, we’re not going to be interested in investing in you…. Is that wise and profound and good? No. It’s stupid. But that’s the way it is….

--John V. Lombardi, President of Louisiana State University at the October 2011 ARL Meeting.

Recommendations: Business Planning for Emerging Services

Recommendations for Success We need a toolkit for making informed

decisions about creating new services Diagnose organizational and institutional

readiness Develop a business case “A culture of discipline is not a principle of

business; it is a principle of greatness.” (Jim Collins on non-profits)

Organizational readiness In your DNA, or a radical shift? Are the climate and capacity ready for very

different kinds of services? Four steps:

Understand if you are mission-ready Know your risk tolerance Determine outcomes that promote impact and

sustainability Make sure that you can put resources in the right

places

Mission and risk Do proposed new services “fit”? Create a balance between allowing change

and maintaining identity Are the library and the institution comfortable

with new service development? Is risk-taking rewarded or is maintaining the

status quo essential? Is there an understanding of the importance of

revenue and a willingness to keep services financially feasible?

Outcomes and resource allocation Social enterprises balance social and

economic values Outcomes must promote high mission impact

and high viability Is the moment right? Environmental scan: are all of the essential

pieces in place?

Developing a business case What happens if… ? Multiple steps

Create a basic outcome statement Identify options and analyze them Pinpoint and test Write your implementation plan

Outcomes and options Define what a service will accomplish Tie desired outcomes to library and

institutional strategic goals Brainstorm every possible option for action,

then narrow the list Gather data and analyze the options

Benefits, viability, costs Should you really do this alone, or as part of a

distributed effort? Timeframes

Talk to key stakeholders early and often (marketing)

Pinpoint, test, implement Find the sweet spot Identify and plan for risk Be realistic: avoid best-case scenarios Rewrite the outcome Write an implementation plan Action items and timelines Value proposition and marketing

Further considerations: Test. Build. Assess. Rebuild. To pilot or not to pilot? Project management skills required Creativity and freedom to fail Execution and assessment And more assessment The cycle of change and assessment

1. Organizational

Assessment

2.1 Business Case

Development

3. LaunchGo/No Go

Decision 2

Go/No Go

Decision 1

4. Periodic Reassessme

nt

Time

Business Planning Lifecycle

2.2 Pilot

Decision 3

5.1 Service

Modification

5.2 Exit

Case studies and timeline

Why Case Studies Explore planning processes employed by

libraries "on the ground" Can we identify best practices? Refine and extend initial work Publish examples from practitioners to provide

models

Recruiting 6 Participants The commitment:

Initial questionnaire on baseline data 1.5 day on-site interviews about planning &

managing the services Follow ups & write ups

http://is.gd/casestudies

Respond by November 15 This is NOT A CONSULTING SERVICE

Timeline By end of 2011:

Publish our initial report via Media Commons for public comment

Identify pool of case study sites First half of 2012:

Conduct case study research September 2012:

Publish final results

Questions Email address of today’s speakers

Mike Furlough: mfurlough@psu.edu Elizabeth Kirk: elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu

Suggest a case study subjecthttp://is.gd/casestudies