Customer Story: University of Adelaide

Data^#3 helps the University of Adelaide streamline its licensing environment to reduce cost, complexity and compliance risk.

Objective

To simplify and consolidate the University’s licensing landscape and transition to a Unified Communications (UC) platform that supports business agility and growth.

Approach

Design and implement an Enterprise Agreement (EA) that enables the University to adopt new Cisco technology and seamlessly provision new licenses as and when required.

IT Outcome

A comprehensive roadmap to migrate the University’s legacy PBX platform to a new Cisco UC platform, plus the consolidation of all licenses onto a single contract.

Business Outcome

Streamlined procurement and provisioning of licenses, improved visibility and control across the licensing environment, and reduced cost, complexity and compliance risk around user licenses.

The Background

The University of Adelaide is a world-class research and teaching institution, pursuing innovation and preparing the educated leaders of tomorrow.

As Australia’s third oldest university, it has a reputation for excellence and progressive thinking, with the University proudly ranked in the top one percent in the world.

The University of Adelaide has 27,000 students from more than 90 countries, and over 500,000 online learners through is MOOCs (massive open online courses). Through ThincLab, the University supports entrepreneurs and start-ups to get their ideas off the ground and take their business to the world.

The Challenge

Due to business growth and increasing user demand with respect to technology, the University recognised the need to upgrade its Unified Communications (UC) environment. Essentially, this meant a migration from their legacy PBX platform to a newer, more powerful Cisco UC platform.

As part of this upgrade, the University also sought to streamline the procurement, provisioning and management of software and hardware licenses.

Previous licenses were purchased by various users at different times for different devices, resulting in a disparate mix of licenses across the University. As expected, multiple contracts and renewal dates made for an extremely complex and inefficient environment.

In terms of support, there was poor visibility over what was covered and what wasn’t. There were different levels of licensing support across the organisation, including some that had no support or maintenance, exposing users and devices to potential vulnerabilities.

Not only was this disparate mix costing money, it was also putting the University at a significant compliance risk.

“It got to the stage where our licensing situation was becoming a time-consuming exercise” says Peter Hughes, Manager – Network Services, University of Adelaide.

“It was clear that we needed to consolidate our existing licenses onto a single contract, streamline and simplify our procurement process, and ensure we met all our licensing compliance obligations moving forward.”

IT Outcome

With extensive experience working with customers in the education sector, including an existing relationship with the University, Data^#3 partnered with Cisco to devise a solution that would best meet the University’s needs both now and in the future.

Following a comprehensive consultation process, Data^#3 was charged with designing and implementing a coordinated Cisco Unified Collaboration Enterprise Agreement (EA). This also took into consideration the University’s IT path and included a roadmap to migrate the University’s legacy PBX platform to a new Cisco UC platform.

The EA provides a framework that enables the University to deploy any Cisco device or endpoint without having to purchase additional licenses. In other words, the University can generate and provision licenses to users and devices on the go as opposed to procuring licenses externally.

What’s more, the EA ensures that users are licensed instead of devices. This means a reduction in the overall number of device licenses required by the University, removing the complexity and confusion around the different types required.

This consolidation and uniformity simplifies licensing, and leads to improved efficiencies across the University’s entire UC environment.

Additionally, the new solution also includes a Cisco Maintenance Agreement, which provides for ongoing maintenance, support and health checks for the new UC platform from both Data^#3 and Cisco for the life of the agreement.

Business Outcome

Following the migration of the legacy PBX platform to the new Cisco UC platform and the implementation of a new EA, the benefits to business have been quickly realised.

The ability to generate and deploy licenses on the go means the University saves significant time, money and resources by not having to go to market to procure new licenses or pay substantial re-instatement fees on expired contracts.

Licensing uniformity also means the University isn’t wasting money on licenses they no longer need. Overall, the consolidation of all licenses onto a single contract results in:

• Streamlined procurement and management of licenses
• Reduced complexity around user and device licensing
• Reduced costs
• Reduced compliance risk
• Improved visibility and control across the licensing environment

The new Cisco EA also came with Adoption Services built into its framework. Data^#3 delivered these services as a value add to ensure the University’s ICT team understood how to get the most out of the EA and therefore maximise their investment.

Importantly, the new EA allowed for 20% growth, meaning the University has the flexibility to scale up and down as required. By transitioning to the latest Cisco technology, the University has the agility to adapt and grow in a highly competitive sector.

Of note is the fact that the solution is delivered via a 3-year Cisco Capital Lease Agreement, which meets the University’s requirement to make a single annual payment.

Conclusion

Thanks to the new Data^#3 and Cisco solution, the University is now reaping the benefits of simplified, efficient and coordinated licensing across its UC environment.

Placing all software and hardware licensing onto a single contract reduces cost and complexity, improves visibility, and makes managing the University’s licensing position much easier.

“Our new EA has optimized the way we procure, manage and pay for our licensing,” says Peter Hughes.

“This has created significant efficiencies across our UC landscape, plus the new platform enables us to provision licenses quickly and easily to meet fluctuating user demand.”

“We’re happy with the service and support from Data^#3 – the team has gone above and beyond to help us deploy the right solution for our needs, and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership well into the future.”

Peter Hughes, Manager – Network Services, University of Adelaide

Download the University of Adelaide Customer Story.

To learn more about how Data^#3 can assist your organisation, call 1300 23 28 23 or enquire online.