As one of the top 150 universities in the world, according to The Times Higher Education World University Ranking, the University of Exeter combines teaching excellence and high levels of student satisfaction with world-class research at its campuses in the South West of England. Its inclusion in the Russell Group, a self-selected association of 24 public research universities in the UK, means that Exeter attracts the very best students from over 130 countries.

In 2019 Exeter University revealed a £2.5 million investment in digital technologies to help give it the edge in an increasingly competitive higher education sector. To maintain its status as a leading research university, Exeter determined that it needed a fully integrated Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. The new integration strategy would prioritise migrating legacy systems to the cloud, providing students and faculties with a better overall experience and giving the university the agility to meet stakeholders’ evolving needs. With internal pressure growing to deliver change, Exeter needed an effective solution that could be implemented quickly and efficiently. Limited by existing technology, Exeter required a new integrated, data-led approach. After analysing its own in-house capability, the university team determined that the most effective option would be to outsource the management of any future SaaS solution. The university scoured the market for an external team of integration experts that could review its systems and provide a roadmap for its digital transformation.

The University chose Mitra Innovation to run a week-long ‘discovery’ workshop to review the university’s systems and design a comprehensive digital strategy. Mitra spent two days training the university’s team, including enterprise architects and everyone responsible for implementing processes within the organisation on integration methodology and techniques. The workshop promoted a collegiate approach to the project and allowed the university team to build an understanding of digital transformation before focusing on Exeter’s systems. This step was fundamental in addressing the issue of how to integrate each campus seamlessly. Given the disparate nature of its assets and infrastructure, Mitra’s programme included a plan for how to move the university’s legacy systems to the cloud. The workshop ensured that everyone involved understood their role, the expectations of the digital transformation and the scale of the challenge ahead. Mitra was able to create an effective roadmap, whilst empowering the university to drive the changes going forward.