Teamsolve help University of Wales, Newport achieve 100% uptime whilst reducing system maintenance costs
University of Wales, Newport is one of the leading Higher Education institutions and continues to experience phenomenal growth. Having first engaged with Teamsolve in late 2004, they reap significant rewards for entrusting their mission critical Oracle systems with Teamsolve.
As Newport's Trusted Oracle Advisors, Teamsolve manage their entire Oracle infrastructure - ensuring that their systems and associated applications stay live for staff and students alike. These include business critical applications such as Oracle 10g RAC Database - which provides a highly available robust platform for its student records system, Oracle Portal - a self-service and communication portal for staff and students delivering business efficiency and Oracle Discoverer - Oracle's real-time business intelligence tool which enables strategic decisions to be made on immediate business analysis.
Reducing costs, whilst becoming more customer focused in an increasingly competitive market, is a key strategy within most Higher Education institutions. Teamsolve support has enabled Newport to lower their operational and maintenance IT costs, focusing their own internal skills progressive development strategies.
Michael Webb, Head of IT and Media Services explains, "Over the last three years we have seen our full-time undergraduate applications increase by as much as 38.5% - four times the national average, so this obviously has wider implications for our IT systems. We see IT as a key enabler for us to be more strategic and competitive and more responsive with our staff and student communities alike. It's therefore paramount that we make maximum use of the resources available to us.
"For the equivalent cost of a single DBA salary, we have a highly dedicated team of Oracle professionals with vast technical knowledge who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week".
Teamsolve support extends to each side of Newport's core business hours from 8.30am - 6.30pm with support increasing to 24 hours a day - 7 days a week throughout August and September, ensuring business continuity through Clearing and Enrolment peaks of activity. With international student recruitment being critical to the University's success, they need robust systems to communicate with students across the globe in different time zones.
The flexibility that Teamsolve provide gives Newport ready access to additional resource for periods of absence, holidays or staff changes. Couple this with breadth and depth of Oracle experience and knowledge and skills available from Teamsolve and it's easy to see why Newport are enjoying increased efficiencies with their Oracle operations.
With a dedicated team ensuring Newport's systems stay live, their staff are free to concentrate on core business and demonstrate how IT contributes strategically to the University's success.
Michael explains, "Availability and performance of our systems is critical to our success. With Teamsolve managing our Oracle systems, it's one less thing for my staff to worry about - and frees us up to drive innovation in education to keep Newport at the forefront of the UK Higher Education scene".