Project Implementation Timeline
Draft a 3-year budget based on defined needs and funding models
Given your expected funding sources, consider the scale of your initial implementation. During the planning phase, you made many decisions based on your idea for an “ideal” repository. Now that you are actually approaching the implementation phase, you may have to revise some of those ideas to fit within your timeline and budget.
Based on the work done by the Leadership and Strategic Planning Groups, you should have a clear idea of the structure and requirements for the repository. When planning the budget, refer to all of the planning you have done up to this point, and include items that must be funded. The Operational Planning Teams should have provided enough information to put together a rough draft of the project budget.
When drafting the budget, here are some considerations:
- Software
Based on your research, your project should have a pretty clear idea of which software product will be used in the repository and a rough idea of its cost. If your project engaged in a formal RFP, then you should have clearly identified guidelines for selecting from among the submitted proposals. - Network Requirements
Using the information gathered by the Technology Planning Team, it should be fairly straightforward to develop a budget for the technology costs of the repository project, such as servers and other equipment needed to house and run the repository. Also consider costs to acquire necessary bandwidth to support the planned number of users for your expected resource types. - Staff
When budgeting for staff, include salaries and benefits for all full-time employees of the project. You might wish to research salaries are being offered for comparable positions, both in your state as well as with other repositories. Conducting similar research on contractors may also be helpful.
If you are sharing staff with another project or organization, establish the portion of the employee’s salary that your project is responsible to pay and what portion of the employee’s time your project will receive or if the employee’s time will be considered an in-kind contribution to the project - Marketing
The amount of funding needed for marketing will vary based on your marketing strategy. If you plan to use a professional market firm, you will need to budget for their services. You will also need funds for printed materials, advertising, promotional items or similar marketing tools. - Training
Training will be a critical success factor for your repository project. Generally, users will not benefit from the repository until they are confident in their ability to locate and contribute resources. The Orange Grove continues to conduct or host regional training sessions throughout the state and to produce online training materials. - Travel
Travel expenses will be incurred by the repository staff as part of its ongoing coordination, training, awareness, and marketing efforts for successful implementation of the repository. The ability to meet in person with contracted individuals and teams coordinating the discovery of learning resources will be critical to the project’s success, as will the ability to travel to workshops and conferences. - Expansion & Maintenance
Depending on funding, it may be necessary to charge for at least some of your repository services. It is important to consider that, as you add users, your need for licenses, bandwidth, and storage will increase. You may require your statewide member institutions who use the repository to pay a fee or to make in-kind contributions. You might wish to consider a tiered system, whereby some services are available free of charge, while others are made available to those who have contributed financially (i.e. a regular vs. premium services arrangement.) Another service that can generate a small amount of income while assisting others is to host other groups or states on an interim basis as they gear up for full implementation of their repositories. For example, The Orange Grove has hosted SREB-SCORE project, University System of Georgia, and the Kentucky Learning Depot.
