Ithaka S+R provides strategic consulting and related services to help universities, libraries, museums, membership organizations, scholarly publishers, foundations, and other not-for-profits effectively navigate the digital landscape. Our experience shows that many organizations aim to use information technology to meet needs in research and teaching but do not always have the time or the expertise to develop their strategies fully.

What we do:

• Market Research and Analysis. A sound strategy requires a thorough understanding of the surrounding environment. We conduct focus groups, literature reviews, surveys, and online research to provide both quantitative and qualitative data analysis for our clients.

   

  In 2012, we introduced the Ithaka S+R Local Faculty Survey giving academic leaders the opportunity to implement our 2012 US survey at their own institutions. Our aim is to help librarians, provosts and others formulate strategies based on a deep understanding of their own faculty member attitudes and practices related to the evolution of their work in the emerging digital landscape for scholarly research, publishing, and teaching.

   
• Strategic Planning for Organizations and Programs. We provide assistance in developing short and long-term strategic plans that help organizations adapt to and benefit from the rapidly changing digital technology landscape. We help our clients identify goals, priorities, business models, organizational structures, and implementation strategies that will position them to succeed and grow.

   

• New Product and Service Design. We help our clients to translate ideas for new products and services into solid offerings that respond to their constituents’ needs. Building upon market analysis, we help our clients to define the “Who/What/When/Where/and How” of new product and service models.

   

• Business Modeling.Financial sustainability is a major concern for innovative digital projects. We know that there is no simple formula for achieving sustainability; a custom approach is required. We work with our clients to help them understand the unique value of their digital resource programs, to plan for their ongoing costs, and to evaluate an appropriate mixture of earned and donated sources of support.

   

• Grant writing. We help our clients from the earliest stage of their projects by helping them identify funding sources and developing grant proposals to help support research projects, new programs, and products.

   

• Project Management and Facilitation. Launching an online resource or program initiative is difficult, and the organizational processes that have worked in the past may not suffice. We provide project management and facilitation services for innovative initiatives and partnerships. We help with meeting design, discussion facilitation, work planning and coordination, and other services to help projects move forward effectively and efficiently.