10 Priorities for Successful Service Delivery

Several years ago, I moved from for-profit industry to academia. It has taken me a while to come to grips that profit is not a motivator here — let alone, the primary motivator. I have come to the conclusion that there are ten priorities for successful service delivery at a state-related higher education institution.

1. Function — This is really a placeholder for whatever it is you do. No matter how well or how badly you do your function, you are there for a reason. This is your primary motivator. For me, my primary function is packet transport — I do national, state, and some campus networks.
2. Capacity — Once you do something, you have to do enough of it. Whether it is producing enough handouts or having enough web servers, after basic functionality you have to have sufficient capacity. For me, that means that the network has to have enough bandwidth to carry the traffic customers produce and consume. It also means that you have the tools to know what your capacity needs are and that you use them to know when you need to increase or when you can decrease your capacity.
3. Reliability — So, you do something and you do enough of it. Now you need to be able to do it when your customers expect it. If you only have one person to hand out leaflets and they have enough leaflets, it does you no good if they are out on sick leave the day you need them handed out. You need to provide a reliable service. For me, while there are many approaches, this generally leads to discussions of redundant delivery mechanisms. Though it also involves questions of maintenance, upgrades, support, repair, and replacement and the associated staff and tools.
4. Standing — So you provide a reliable function with sufficient capacity. That is impressive. Now you can think about paying it forward. How does what you do contribute to the standing of the institution in the Higher Education community? In my case, we participate in national research and education networking organizations. We give presentations on what we have done and listen to and question others on what they have done. We provide input and seek feedback from standards bodies. We work with other institutions to solve common problems and work towards common goals and make sure that our service delivery decisions build on and support those efforts. We work cooperatively with other institutions to seek better group pricing than an individual institution could achieve.
5. Welfare — While the funding we receive from the state is a small part of our overall funding, we do care deeply about the welfare of our state. Our institution has a tremendous economic impact on the state and we see this as a specific part of our mission. Whenever possible, we try to make spending decisions in a way that benefits the state economy. Whenever possible, we try to provide our services in a way that benefits the state residents.
6. Budget — You knew we would get here eventually. We are still not a for-profit industry, but we need money to do almost any thing and that money has a finite supply. Remember though, we are not in this to make money. You have a given amount of money in your budget to provide the planned service. If you manage to be able to spend less on one part of your function you should not think of it as saving money. You should think of it as having money to do more or better. You are here to provide a function with enough capacity and reliability — trust me on this — you are probably not going to have extra cash laying around. If you do, you should use it to invest in providing a better service. If you consistently have extra cash laying around, you should reduce your planned budget in the future. There are others who need it.
7. Parity — Your service cannot discriminate on customers based on their campus location. Everyone has to have the same opportunity. That does not mean you have to build out to every potential customer, but you have to be willing to build out for the first customer that wants your service at a campus you do not currently serve.
8. Equity — If parity is about providing service, equity is about paying for service. We all have a funding model. The money that goes in our budget came from somewhere — tuition, fees, grants, or customer charges. They also come with some expectation of delivery. That means your customers expect something for their money. The problem is that you also have to account for free riders. While your service may — and probably does — expect some level of free riders, you cannot let that impact the level of service you promised by accepting the money in your budget. The old saw goes, “You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.”
9. Transparency — Providing services in a higher education institution is rarely something you can do without help. Perhaps you rely on the service of some external membership organization that the institution is a part. Perhaps you buy part of the service from an external provider. In either case, transparency is key. While we understand that we may work with for-profit organizations, we want to understand what our budget dollars are paying for. We want visibility into the providers future plans and directions and we want the ability to influence them. The same holds for member organizations. We want some level of control in the governance of the organization.
10. Timeliness — Given everything you have done so far, this one seems hard to remember, but a service is best when it is available when needed. Unfortunately sometimes this means you have to say, “That sounds like a good idea for next year.”

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