Digital master plan: Montpellier University charts its digital course
The Digital Master Plan (SDN) was approved by the Board of Directors last June. It sets out nine guidelines for the University of Montpellier's digital strategy for the next five years and will mobilize a large part of the university community around 120 projects. Details with Adeline Fabrié, Director of Information Systems and Digital Technology.
It's a minor revolution internally. Over the past few weeks , all UM employees have been able to abandon the aging Adhoc application and familiarize themselves with two new schedule and leave management software programs: Logeca and Planum. But few people know that these changes are just two small bricks in the huge construction that is the 2024-2028 Digital Master Plan (SDN), which was approved by the board of directors on June 10. "The SDN is a long-standing project at the University of Montpellier, "explains Adeline Fabrié, Director of Information Systems and Digital Technology. "It is an extremely important framework for describing an institution's digital transformation trajectory."
Cover all 271 needs
Until now, different master plans have coexisted at universities depending on their respective fields of application. However, recent societal changes linked to the boom in hybrid teaching, the emergence of open science, and rapid advances in artificial intelligence and cybercrime have prompted UM to include in its latest five-year contract "the development of a digital master plan capable of covering all of its areas, from research to training, including support functions such as HR, finance, assets, and management," the director continues. In doing so, the University was also responding to the recommendations of the HCERES and the Court of Auditors (recommendation no. 9, September 2023 report).
After more than two years of work led by President Philippe Augé in collaboration with the vice presidents—in particular David Cassagne, Vice President for Digital Technology in Education, and Anne Laurent, Vice President for Open Science and Research Data—as well as Bruno Fabre, Director General of Administration, and the teaching and research departments (see box on SDN governance), the UM has established a five-year development plan. Applicable, consistent, and sufficiently flexible, it can accommodate the many changes in professions and practices related to digital technology and IT. "We analyzed the 271 needs identified during the first phase of this work to create a portfolio of 120 projects, the development of which will be organized around nine strategic priorities," explains Adeline Fabrié.
Nine guidelines for 120 projects
One of the primary objectives of this digital strategy formalized by the SDN is to explain how each of these nine guidelines contributes to the University's overall strategy as defined by the institutional contract. The first three guidelines address training needs: developing digital teaching practices; responding to the challenges of training transformation; and improving digital services for students.
Guidelines 4 and 5 address the needs of research and innovation, which require better coordination and greater visibility of activities. The SDN also aims to improve the capacity to steer research activities, which are necessarily linked to international outreach and the modernization of the institution.
Modernization guides the last four guidelines. This will involve simplifying administrative procedures, securing management information systems, streamlining infrastructure, and ensuring business continuity through a high level of security.
"These guidelines have enabled us to organize and plan the upcoming rollout of 120 projects and, above all, to prioritize them in a roadmap that takes into account the workloads and capacities of the DSIN [ estimated workload of 19,000 days/schedule] as well as the business departments concerned [ 5,100 days/schedule]. Currently, 38 projects have already been launched," announces Adeline Fabrié.
Must-see projects
Some of these projects are describedas "essential, "meaning that they are required due to regulatory constraints, renewal obligations on the part of the publisher, or technical obsolescence that jeopardizes the security of the information system. They affect a large audience within the institution and therefore require special efforts in terms of change management," emphasizes the director. This category includes the arrival of Planum and Logeca, which we have already mentioned, as well as an upgrade of Siham, a structuring software program for the HR department, which will also be revamped thanks to an overhaul of its technical and application infrastructure. "Our goal is also to promote and deploy integrated, interconnected applications, which avoids, for example, having to re-enter the same data several times and simplifies usage. We call these urbanized systems, modeled on the way a city functions.In a context where cybercrime can no longer be ignored, securing our tools is also our top priority."
However, other significant challenges will arise from 2025 onwards with the evolution of Sifac, our financial management tool, to Sifac + and, above all, with the gradual phasing out of Apogée, the administrative management application for student enrollment, in favor of a transition to Pégase around 2028. These changes are being imposed by the Agency for the Mutualization of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (AMUE), which provides a number of tools, including Siham, Sifac, and Apogée, three giants in the management of our institution. "This is where the SDN comes into its own, as its development has enabled us to become aware of the changes ahead and to better anticipate them in order to support our staff. Some of our applications are aging, but our staff are so used to them that the change will inevitably require a period of adaptation and familiarization. "
Flagship projects and easy wins
Flagship projects account for 54% of the project portfolio in terms of workload. In terms of training, these include the implementation of the European Charm-eight project and the establishment of the digital health school; the development of digital exam rooms and the creation of a tool for managing knowledge assessment methods. On the research side, examples include the rollout of the "open science plan," the provision of a project call management tool, and the continued implementation of the Occitanie region data center (Drocc) for ESR partners.
Alongside these flagship projects, which are particularly important for the university, there are quick wins, which we could describe as faster or easier projects: "The president was very keen on these. He is aware that the flagship and essential projects will require a lot of work from the teams, but some small actions can be simple to implement and be of great service to the university community. " Among the thirty or so projects in this category are, for example: the digitization of the CMS card; the implementation of an online payment tool, Payfip, for certain services or continuing education; the promotion of health services at UM; and the provision of a data encryption tool.
Reach a milestone
Finally, there are the "core" projects, which are less visible and more technical, but form the heart of DSIN's work. "Their aim is to consolidate and improve the security of the information and digital systems and to take into account the evolution of technical and security infrastructures in order to respond to the new challenges of digital transformation. This may involve strengthening the institution's network, Wi-Fi, backing up our technical components, services that are not very visible... except when they don't work," emphasizes Adeline Fabrié.
This digital master plan therefore organizes and plans the University of Montpellier's response to the challenge of taking the digitization of its activities to the next level. This transformation requires additional human resources, particularly at the DSIN, but also financial resources. The total cost of deploying the SDN is currently estimated at €7 million over five years. The specially developed governance system will be responsible for adjusting or even adding new projects to bring this master plan to life in line with changing needs.
For more details on the planned projects, download the 2024-2028 Digital Master Plan.
Digital governance
According to the director of information systems and digital technology, "This is the key element for implementing the SDN!" Digital governance is divided into three traditional areas: strategic, management, and operational. The strategic aspect is embodied by the Digital Monitoring Committee (Cosnum). It mainly involves the presidency, the directors of schools, departments and institutes, and research centers, and meets once a year.
The steering committee is organized around the SDN monitoring committee (COSUI SDN), led by the Director General of Services and involving the DGSA, the Vice President for Open Science Anne Laurent, and the Vice President for Digital Training David Cassagne. "This monitoring committee has been in operation for over a year. It meets every month, makes decisions on the roadmap, and ensures that all the resources necessary for the proper development of the SDN are available," explains Adeline Fabrié.
This governance structure also includes eight information system steering committees. One for each major area: research, digital technology for training, training, finance, HR, management, assets and logistics, and finally information system and digital security. "The research, training, and digital technology for training monitoring committees already existed, while the others were created as a result of the hard work we all put in together to devise this new governance structure." Led by their respective VPs, they meet every six months to monitor the various projects and refine the roadmap in line with constraints on the ground. The completion of this SDN after more than 18 months of work now serves as a benchmark and a roadmap for the institution's digital projects. The digital strategy, through its nine guidelines and the governance structure in place, enables it to be steered and developed to best respond to future digital transformations.