“We love the flexibility of the Microsoft Surface Pros because of the type of teaching we offer and the teaching rooms we have,” explains James Cale, Director of Digital Services at UWTSD, “they are really beneficial in a collaborative learning environment.”
Mobility is essential for multi-campus operations
With main campuses in Swansea, Carmarthen, Lampeter, Cardiff and London, as well as a learning centre in Birmingham, UWTSD places a strong focus on mobility. In 2017, as part of plans for two Swansea locations to be consolidated on a new SA1 Waterfront development in 2018, the time was right to redesign the building and IT estates to improve flexibility and enable future hybrid learning.
“There was a whole discussion around the need to move away from traditional academic offices, around space utilisation, budget and flexible working. Because of our multi-campus setup, mobile workforce and new open-plan offices, mobile devices became the default rather than a fixed desktop PC,” explains James Cale.
With a staff of over two thousand, consistency of approach was important for efficiency and ease of management. Furthermore, a universal dock set up – such as that offered by the Microsoft Surface family of devices – was vital to support hotdesking. As part of the selection process, the digital and IT teams and several test users trialled a number of different devices. James Cale states: “We considered the Microsoft devices better because of the spec, looks, usability and integration with our software and requirements, so we invested heavily in Microsoft Surface Laptops and Microsoft Surface Pros.”
Consolidation of devices across the university – and by user
Ben Thorn is Executive Head of IT Service Delivery at UWTSD. He says, “For us, the flexibility that having a single family of devices gives us is essential. What’s great about Microsoft Surface is there are different devices in the fleet. The standard Microsoft Surface Laptop is a general all-rounder for most professional services staff. While the Microsoft Surface Pros are great for academics because they can remove the keyboards, convert them into tablets and present to the screens in the lecture rooms. On top of that, some of the staff in high-end computing areas use Microsoft Surface Books with dedicated graphics cards.”
James Cale confirms, “Regardless of the use case of the individual, there is a Microsoft Surface device that suits them. What that enabled us to do was go to users who had three devices – a desktop, a laptop, and an iPad for presenting in the lecture rooms – and say you can now have all that in one device. That’s a really strong business case for the university to invest in the Microsoft Surfaces because nobody now needs more than one device.”
“It was key for us to get buy-in from staff as part of this project because people can be resistant to change,” adds Ben Thorn. “So we had demo devices with staff and docking stations set up and we showed staff how it worked. As soon as they saw it they said ‘this is brilliant – I can just take this with me wherever I go and then it’s like a PC when I come into the office’. They suddenly saw the benefit of that. Rather than having documents everywhere and having to manage them, or software installed and updated on multiple devices, it was just one single device.”
Increased mobility required through COVID-19
Following successful user adoption on the new Swansea campus, the UWTSD team began a wider rollout of Microsoft Surface devices, enforcing a policy of one device per user across the board over time as devices were refreshed.
“We would assess each case on an individual basis and make a recommendation based on their type of work and where they would be working and how flexible their role would need to be,” advises Ben Thorn. “If they are in any way mobile, or required to work from more than one location, or working at home for any reason, then we recommend a mobile solution to them.”
During the pandemic, everyone suddenly had a work-from-home requirement. Those staff who would like to return to being office based in the future have been loaned a Microsoft Surface so that they could move effortlessly from being office-based to working from home.
The rest of the staff were given a Microsoft Surface device – requiring the team to roll out 350 devices to staff at pace. To make this possible, they leveraged Microsoft InTune, Microsoft’s cloud-based service for mobile device management and mobile application management.
The management of a remote rollout made easy
One of the first priorities was to deploy Microsoft Azure Active Directory services alongside the existing Microsoft on-premises tools, creating a hybrid access management solution.
“That gave us the flexibility to have Microsoft Surface devices sent directly to a staff member’s house from our supplier, they turn the device on, connect to Wi-Fi, log in with University credentials and within half an hour the device is ready for them to use with all software needed installed. That’s done automatically, so it’s essentially zero-touch from a technician’s point of view.”
As well as making it possible to deploy devices more quickly in response to a need, this has massively streamlined the process – saving in excess of 800 hours for the IT team over the last twelve months.
The team plans to enhance this further by making use of the service desk elements around software requests and application management. “We’ve started using the self-service stores to negate the need for users to have local admin rights on the machines. One of the main reasons for staff to request those rights is to install software. Having the store available means we can approve and deploy applications into the store. Staff can now go into the store and install what they need without us having to deploy those applications to everybody. That self-service element is something we’re always improving, and it’s been a great benefit to us as well.”
Ensuring that staff do not have local admin rights is an important part of the Cyber Essentials audit. To improve things further, the team has implemented Microsoft Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) in Microsoft InTune to eliminate the need for local admin rights on the IT estate’s few remaining Apple devices.
Ben Thorn explains, “LAPS gives a specific user local admin rights for a certain amount of time or for a certain usage. Once the member of staff has used it for that particular function that password is no longer valid anymore.”
UWTSD’s mission to improve digital access
The university has also invested in a further 1,000 Microsoft Surface devices in order to make them available to students through the university’s digital access bursary programme. Students at UWTSD can access a number of scholarships and bursaries to support their studies and make the most of the student experience. The digital bursary fund is the latest measure to support students during these challenging times.
Around half of the Microsoft Surface Go devices have already been distributed, leveraging Microsoft InTune for zero-touch delivery to students’ homes. In conjunction, the university has worked with broadband network operators to support students with connectivity as part of the digital bursary – helping to close the digital divide and ensuring no UWTSD student suffers digital poverty or inequity.
“Managing these Microsoft Surface Go devices through their lifecycle is just as easy as it is for staff devices,” says Ben Thorn. “They simply turn the device on, connect via Wi-Fi, login and away they go – all set up with the university’s security policies and software deployment. And they get all the protection we get with our Microsoft 365 services.”
The future of work
“The way everyone has been working over the last year has really opened up everybody’s eyes to how we’re going to continue working,” says Ben Thorn. “Having that flexibility and mobility will be crucial for the way we work moving forward.”
To supplement the work in the sector by JISC and QAA, UWTSD has undertaken an engagement programme with staff to look at the future of working. “I would say with almost certainty, there is likely to be a change,” admits James Cale. “We’re currently transitioning to Microsoft Always On VPN to support flexible working and working from home. Certainly, the remit is to take the good stuff from what we’ve delivered through this period to enhance the student experience and the staff experience.”
The team is now exploring the best ways to support hybrid learning, when there is a mix of students working from home and in the lecture rooms. James Cale says, “We’re looking at Surface Hubs now and utilising Microsoft Teams within that.”
James continues, “I’m not aware of anything we’ve done during the pandemic that isn’t going to benefit us moving forward, particularly around the Microsoft Surface devices and the cyber security elements.”
Building cyber security knowledge
During this period, the team has made a big push on cyber security, attaining Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and making use of the phishing awareness training available with their Microsoft licences.
“All the work we’ve done to improve security and remote working abilities was already on our roadmap; it’s just been massively accelerated,” Ben Thorn explains. “We’ve implemented a lot of new services and security features, including Azure Active Directory, multi-factor authentication, network hardening, automation of security policies, safe links and safe attachments. The phishing exercises and the training that Microsoft provide have been a brilliant help to us.”
The phishing exercises have been sent to all staff and students on a quarterly basis. Anyone who does click on the links is automatically assigned training and the IT team can monitor who has clicked and who has completed the training and follow up with additional support where necessary.
“We’re using Microsoft tools for threat management and we’re using Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint protection. We’ve rolled that out to Apple devices as well as Microsoft devices, so that’s been brilliant,” explains Ben Thorn. “It’s much better than standard anti-virus for the machine because it provides the extra functionality and the reporting. It gives the security team a high-level view of any issues that are occurring and has really helped with advanced protection. I can’t even put into words how much that has given us in terms of improved security on the devices.”
Looking to the future
The team is very happy with the decision to standardise on Microsoft Surface devices, not least because of the support they have received from Microsoft.
“The Microsoft Fast Track team have been hugely valuable to my team,” says Ben Thorn. “They have assisted and aided us in implementing the new services. No doubt we could have implemented them without their assistance, but they’ve really helped fine tune things and make the installation much faster than we would have achieved without them. They’ve given our team extra guidance and knowledge and that’s been really well received.”
As for the future, the team say it will be more of the same.
“The Microsoft Surface devices are robust and well-built. We’ve had no fundamental issues with the devices, and they’ve worked well,” says James Cale. “It will be the default device going forward. Microsoft InTune will be supporting that. And the cyber security elements we’ll keep moving forwards. It’s now a case of developing policies and standardising what we’ve developed so we can carry them forward.”
“Regardless of the use case of the individual, there is a Microsoft Surface device that suits them… That’s a really strong business case for the university to invest in the Microsoft Surfaces because nobody now needs more than one device.”
James Cale, Director of Digital Services, UWTSD
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