AOSEC KTP Blog

Apologies if you find this post a bit geeky – I promise I’ll put a limit on the tech-talk.

In the last month I’ve been working to further implement some of the more advanced features of Google Analytics.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Google Analytics allows companies to track everything to do with their website. From finding out what the most popular browser is, to tracking how people got to your site, Google’s completely free service has got it covered.

Now you may be thinking, ‘that’s a lot of private information you’re capturing’. Well yes, it may be private data in some respects but in reality there’s nothing which allows a company to track information back to an individual person.

The fact is that just about every commercial website on the Internet is using some sort of tracking software to see how you’re interacting with their site. The collected information
is used to support decisions to improve sites for example; we noticed that people were abandoning sign-ups when they were asked to upload an avatar for their profile – even though they could skip the request. We removed this step from sign-up and immediately noticed an increase in completed site registrations.

Website tracking is much better than surveys and focus groups in some respects as it allows company to have a full and immediate picture of everybody visiting their site – not just a cross-section of people.

If you’re working for a company that doesn’t track website traffic, I strongly recommend that you find somebody to set it up for you. If you’re a not-for-profit organisation, there’s even a new scheme that’s been set up to pair students and mentors with you in order to get advanced usage set up completely free of charge!:
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-initiative-connects-analysts-with.html

A large part of my KTP project is to do with creating a brand new front-facing website for my partner organisation as well as developing facilities to support online communities: groups, forums, document sharing etc.

Working with my company and academic supervisors, we decided that it would be best to use a content management system (CMS) so that there was minimal technical training required with AOSEC’s staff and that updates would be available post-KTP. After creating various prototypes to test and demonstrate site capabilities, the decision was made to use WordPress as the site’s CMS. Not surprisingly, the two months that followed flew over and by September 2011, AOSEC’s brand new site was launched to the public.

Between September and January, traffic to the site has more than tripled and visitors are spending 67% more time browsing through pages compared to before. The online communities available to Further Education College staff across the South East are also proving popular with active users up by a whopping 2400%!

The challenge now is to keep traffic to the site at a constant level and for it’s users to feel to keep coming back. Obviously this is going to be a pretty big task and is definitely something which I can’t do alone. For me, this part of the project is about the ‘Knowledge Transfer’ activities which come with KTPs. Over the next few months, I’m planning to work even closer with the team at AOSEC in order to fully embed the systems that are now in place.

Check back soon for progress updates and be sure to take a look at www.aosec.org.uk in the mean time!

After a short (ok…nearly a year) delay, AOSEC finally moved in to its new offices last week. Although there is now a 30-40 min commute each morning, I do now have a rather swish-looking new desk and the same fancy office phone / CTU ringtone that Jack Bauer from 24 has…WIN!

In terms of the KTP, I was in charge of making sure that all the IT equipment would work once we moved in. Because of the slightly ingenious decision we took earlier in the year to move on to a cloud computing infrastructure, this task was made a lot simpler than it would have been if AOSEC were still using their own server. In fact, all that I had to do was to ensure that everybody had live Internet and telephone ports next to their desks.

After tackling a certain telecoms company’s voice recognition system with my half southern, half northern accent, engineers were on their way to install telephone lines and broadband connections. About a week before the official move, I took a computer over to the new office in Bracknell to check that everything was working – which it was. All good.

Although I was pretty confident that everything would work straight away, on the actual day of the move I was slightly nervous in case I’d forgotten to do something. As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about as everybody managed to set up their computers and phones within about 20 mins in total.

Considering that the company’s previous office move led to their IT systems being down for around 2 – 3 days, I’d say that’s pretty good going!

I thought I’d use my first post on this blog just to give you an introduction as to who I am and what my project is about.

My name is Andrew Spencer and I’m currently working on a KTP project between the University of Reading and AOSEC (Association of South East Colleges).  The aim of my project is to increase the value of the services AOSEC provides to its member colleges through the introduction of effective communication systems.  In short, the project is trying to create systems which will allow AOSEC to communicate effectively with its members (colleges) and also allow college staff to share information amongst themselves to improve best practices.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Spanish at the University of Chester in 2009.  From there, I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to study a MSc in Software Engineering at the University of Sunderland, and started my KTP project less than a month after finishing.

With the project being my first ‘real’ job after University, I can remember worrying about whether I would have the skills and knowledge to do what was required from my new role.  After starting, I quickly realised that the support setup within KTPs really do provide you with everything you need.  I meet regularly with my academic and company supervisors to discuss project progress and any training needs I have.  I’ve already used money from my personal development budget to complete a gain PRINCE2 project management qualification, attend a change management course at Henley Business School, and attend numerous conferences.

Since the project kicked off in January 2011 I’ve helped to; introduce a brand new cloud-computing system in to the business, design and launch a new company website and communications platform (www.aosec.org.uk), introduce social media tools such as twitter (@AOSEC) to the company as well as many other business process efficiencies.

Check back soon for posts on KTP residential courses and some of the other experiences I’ve already had as a KTP Associate less than 12 months in to my project!