Staffordshire University boasts high availability and innovation through strategic use of IT
The relationship between Teamsolve and Staffordshire University began with reactive support for four Oracle databases, enabling University IT staff more time to work on internal projects. As their trust in Teamsolve’s expertise developed, so too did their breadth of support requirements.
Currently, the University relies on over 10 Oracle databases to support their mission critical systems which include Student Records, Content Management and Blackboard – a virtual learning environment. Teamsolve’s managed support helps Staffordshire to achieve high levels of uptime with a support package that’s agile enough to meet their business needs, with a combination of proactive and reactive support, dovetailing with their internal resources and skills.
A key innovation within the HE sector was Staffordshire’s implementation of Oracle Portal, a secure, solid and scalable online portal, enabling staff to communicate more effectively with each other and their student communities. As a large University situated over three main campuses, and a vast international student presence, the self-service communication portal provides a vital link between students based in any given location or studying on a part-time basis through distance or on-line learning. As a mission critical system, Teamsolve incorporated support of Oracle Portal into the University’s support package to ensure maximum performance.
As part of the support contract, Teamsolve delivers quarterly performance reports to the University, providing an auditable trail for budgetary, compliance and security requirements. Additionally, an annual health check provides core information about Staffordshire’s systems’ performance, security and backup and recovery procedures. This report enables full system visibility and also suggests detailed improvements, recommendations and updates to guarantee that the University continues to achieve best practice.
Future developments
As the relationship between Teamsolve and the University continued to strengthen, the University commissioned Teamsolve’s Technical Consulting and Development Teams to produce a System Road Map.
The Road Map is a strategic document that analyses current and future requirements to suggest how IT can be used as an enabler to achieving their business objectives. It has helped the University to appraise their current and planned investments and secure further funding.
Business Benefits
Teamsolve’s Support ensures the highest levels of uptime, performance and security. Teamsolve tailor support to meet individual requirements and can help reduce total cost of ownership for system management.
Peter Butler, Head of IT at Staffordshire University comments, “Teamsolve’s support provides extra resource to our internal teams and by proactively monitoring our systems, Teamsolve help us to achieve excellent levels of service. On the occasion that there may be a problem Teamsolve respond quickly, which helps us to resume service as soon as possible”.
Why Teamsolve?
“As our relationship with Teamsolve has grown, so to has our confidence that Teamsolve had the Oracle expertise that we were looking for to support our mission critical systems. As our requirements have evolved, so has our relationship with Teamsolve and we have come to see them as a true business partner and our Trusted Oracle advisors” said Peter Butler, Head of IT.
“Over the past three years our relationship with Teamsolve has developed to the point where we discuss our IT strategy, environments and ongoing system developments and how we can best deploy Oracle to help us achieve those objectives. With Teamsolve, we know that we get optimal performance from our current environment, together with expert advice as to how we continue to innovate through strategic use of IT, keeping Staffordshire at the forefront of the UK’s higher education scene”.
