Contract for the provision of WORKTRIBE Research Contract to the University of Birmingham

Worktribe is a market-leading research management system. Through examination of the market and discussions with staff at other institutions, there appear to be few main options currently available for consideration.

Since first procuring Worktribe, the University has made a substantial investment in terms of integrations into the rest of the technical estate, working processes and staff training, as such the impact of moving to a new system would be significant, such as:

• System Integration Data: Migrating data to a new system entails significant financial and non-financial costs, including data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) processes, data cleansing, validation, and ensuring data integrity during the migration process which would entail significant internal UoB resources to support.
• Staff Training: Transitioning to a new system would require comprehensive training for staff members to ensure they are proficient in its use. Extending the contract with WorkTribe allows us to leverage existing staff expertise and minimise the need for extensive retraining, thereby reducing overall training costs.
• Project Managing Implementation: Implementing a new system necessitates effective project management to ensure a smooth transition and minimise disruptions to ongoing operations. Project management costs include personnel expenses, software licenses for project management tools, and other resources required to oversee the implementation process. By extending the contract with WorkTribe, we can mitigate the need for additional project management costs, as the UoB team is already familiar with our systems and processes.

Unique Market Technology: Worktribe is a market-leading research management system. Through examination of the market and discussions with staff at other institutions, there appear to be few main options currently available for consideration.

Return on the University's Investment: Since first procuring Worktribe, the University has made a substantial investment in terms of integrations into the rest of the technical estate, working processes and staff training, as such the impact of moving to a new system would be significant, such as:

• System Integration Data: Migrating data to a new system entails significant financial and non-financial costs, including data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) processes, data cleansing, validation, and ensuring data integrity during the migration process which would entail significant internal UoB resources to support.
• Staff Training: Transitioning to a new system would require comprehensive training for staff members to ensure they are proficient in its use. Extending the contract with WorkTribe allows us to leverage existing staff expertise and minimise the need for extensive retraining, thereby reducing overall training costs.
• Project Managing Implementation: Implementing a new system necessitates effective project management to ensure a smooth transition and minimise disruptions to ongoing operations. Project management costs include personnel expenses, software licenses for project management tools, and other resources required to oversee the implementation process. By extending the contract with WorkTribe, we can mitigate the need for additional project management costs, as The University team is already familiar with our systems and processes.

Customisation and Integration: WorkTribe's systems are customised to The University's specific requirements and seamlessly integrated with our existing infrastructure. Migrating to a new system would require reconfiguring workflows, customisations, and integrations, leading to additional costs and potential compatibility issues.

Conclusion: In conclusion, extending the contract with WorkTribe is the most cost-effective and practical solution to meet our system needs. The substantial costs associated with migrating data, training staff, and project managing implementation make transitioning to a new system financially prohibitive at this time. Furthermore, maintaining our relationship with WorkTribe ensures system stability, reliability, and ongoing support tailored to our business requirements. Therefore, it is recommend to extend the contract with WorkTribe to sustain the University's operational efficiency and effectiveness in the long term.