A university’s enterprise service provider model

Following a series of reviews, the university’s leadership team agreed to transform the way ICT services are provided to faculties, researchers, staff, students and external parties, and to align these services to support the university’s strategic plan.

With approximately 1100 network devices and in excess of 14,000 network ports providing connectivity to over 22,000 students and 2000 staff spread across 15 sites, the voice and data network infrastructure was struggling to support the university’s research and teaching activities.

The university needed to update its strategic direction. In particular, it lacked visibility of the capability of the current network, end-users and stakeholders had little confidence in the infrastructure, there was a lack of funding and support for investment in new infrastructure, and technology delivery was inconsistent with ongoing support issues.

Frame assisted the university to define the strategic network vision, and to develop the high-level architecture design supported with a model for operation.

The strategy and design took an enterprise service provider (ESP) approach to delivering services to the various communities inside and outside the physical boundaries of the university’s campuses.

A key element of the strategy was a financial model that aligned to the strategic direction and planned for transformation into an ESP in 12 months. The model allowed for provision of services and ongoing maintenance based on full cost recovery within 5 years from commencement of deployment.

The model was proven with Frame designing and project managing the deployment of systems on one of the university’s smaller campuses, with a demonstration deployment on the main campus.

Frame conducted interviews with C-level managers and heads of department and faculty. A primary business driver was to facilitate creativity, research and teaching outcomes.

End-users needed a secure environment with ubiquitous network access, locally and remotely, with significantly increased video services, secure access for students and research partners, and flexible access to lecture content.

The ESP strategy aligned the network with characteristics typical of many service provider environments to yield a number of advantages.

• maximising cost recovery with pay-for-use and quota management of services
• improving security
• optimising the use of shared resources
• introducing a structured, ITIL-based operations model
• enabling services to be provided simply and quickly without affecting existing services
• providing next-generation wireless connectivity whilst minimising ongoing infrastructure costs
• enabling effective management of service delivery and support levels.