Yousif Al Imamy working on device retrievals.
The University of Otago Digital Workspace Programme (OUDW) has transformed IT management at Otago.
OUDW centralised the University’s IT procurement processes and budgets, improved IT security and access to tools and services and established a new operating model for desktop support.
OUDW Project Manager Tony Rac says at its peak the project was performing 90, 30-minute workstation assessments and 130 deployments of IT devices a week.
“Full credit to the deployment team onboarding during the frenetic period of commencing the large-scale deployments, their dedication to customer service throughout the project, and ability to pivot in at times, trying circumstances,” Tony says.
OUDW has redeployed around 60 per cent of recovered devices and sent 40 per cent to e-waste.
The OUDW implementation team.
“The project has halved the time spent by staff on IT procurement, seen an 85 per cent reduction in physical visits by staff to resolve IT related queries and reduced the resolution time for software installations by two-thirds.
“Very positive survey results were consistently received from participating staff on all indicators, and notably the overall device replacement experience averaged a rating of 4.4 on a five-point satisfaction scale,” Tony says.
Project Sponsor Sciences Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Barker, who stepped in to lead the project after former Sponsor Professor Robin Gauld moved to another role, says he’s pleased to see the project succeed.
“It has been a very successful project, I came in halfway through and it’s been really inspirational to be part of this project, which has met and exceeded most of its goals,” Richard says.
Project Owner Wallace Chase says the strong support of the University’s senior leadership team helped ensure the project was a success.
“The OUDW project has been a significant undertaking, and we’d like to thank all staff that have participated in it.”
During the project, both the former OUDW Project Manager (Current Otago Head of Digital Strategy and Partnering) Rasha Abu Safieh and Manager Digital Workspace Infrastructure Damian Beresford were awarded Operations Division Staff Excellence Awards.
Kōrero by Kerry Dohig Communications Adviser Projects