Resources to help

Ultimately you need core administrative systems that recognise an apprenticeship for what it is, collecting the right information at the right point and not confusing apprentices with information that does not concern them. Achieving this is likely to happen over a period of time. Here is our suggestion for how to go about planning your roadmap.

1. Create a view of your IT Architecture showing systems used, interfaces and data transferred at key stages in the apprenticeship journey.
2. Identify any systems that consume resource in excess of their value to the organisation and plan to phase them out.
3. Look at your business processes the interactions between them and the ‘pain points’. Use this to build a ‘to be’ vision of how integrated processes ​ and systems could ease effort.
4. Consider points where you do (or should) link to systems used by subcontractors, awarding organisations etc.
5. Identify the likely lifespan and replacement cycle for existing systems.
6. Consider how a service-oriented approach (SOA) to your data layer could streamline the architecture and reduce the need for interfaces/data ​ retyping.
7. Consider where approaches such as cloud applications, software as a service (SaaS) or open source products, could fill gaps, add value or reduce costs.
8. Produce a ‘roadmap’ of how you hope to develop the IT architecture related to your key business goals: timing each change may depend on ​ system/infrastructure lifespan, license renewals, process change, staff change, moving premises etc but customer expectations are paramount.

Adapted from Ferrell and Bellis 2010: Does the cloud have a silver lining?: the future of flexible IT service delivery.