A Road Map to Achieve Digital Ambitions

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

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.

THE CHALLENGE

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 Mitra team took the time to understand the context of where we were in our digital transformation programme and showed us how we could realise our ambitions with a tailor-made integration platform. Not only do we now have an architecture blueprint that will enable us to increase our ability to be agile and responsive, but we also have a roadmap of how to get there.

Karl WalkerHead of Architecture at University of Exeter

THE SOLUTION

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.

Collegiate Approach

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.

Integration Roadmap

Mitra took the time to understand the context of where the university was in its digital transformation programme and showed how it could realise its ambitions with a tailor-made integration platform.

Digital Empowerment

By training the entire Exeter team and designing a detailed architecture blueprint and integration roadmap, Mitra has empowered Exeter to design and build systems and platforms that are fit for purpose, secure, fully integrated and achieve the overarching goals and mission of the university.

THE RESULT

At the end of the week, the Mitra team was able to present the university with a fully actionable roadmap, that would help it realise its digital transformation ambitions.

The way that the workshop was carried out, meant that the university team understood the detail of the blueprint and the way to achieve it. The approach empowered the team at the university and enabled Mitra’s experts to create the most effective roadmap possible.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

Tailored integration architecture
blueprint

Roadmap of how to achieve its cloud migration ambitions

Better understanding of their current context and any barriers

Realistic plan that can be used to manage expectations