Microsoft Surface for hybrid working spurs digital transformation

London Metropolitan University has a rich history with strong educational roots dating back to 1848. The University as we know it today was created in 2002 by the merging of London Guildhall University and the University of North London. Across its two London campuses, London Met delivers high-quality higher education to more than 9,000 students. Like many institutions during the pandemic, it responded quickly to enable business as usual through the early days. However, as it became clear that a ‘new normal’ of hybrid working and teaching was emerging, the university’s IT team sought to take a more strategic and transformational approach.

“We could reduce complexity, the devices would be easier to manage and, ultimately, that makes the Microsoft Surface Laptops more cost effective overall.”

Ed Spick, Director of Information & Technology Services, London Metropolitan University

“The pandemic era shone a light on the inequity that exists in terms of access to information and technology,” posits Ed Spick, Director of Information & Technology Services at London Metropolitan University. “Here at the University, IT is a key enabler in how we can bridge the digital divide for our users and communities.”

A university deeply embedded in its local community

Prior to the pandemic, the University environment included around 100 Windows laptops which had to be connected to the University network for licencing purposes. The rest of the staff used Chromebooks or desktop PCs, which were completely unsuitable for hybrid or flexible working. When the work-from-home directive came, the IT team sent out whatever they had to hand to keep staff online and able to deliver lessons.

Ed Spick recalls, “In the first year of the pandemic, the uncertainty led to planned spend being cancelled. That changed in the second year, when our recruitment really picked up because young adults wanted to use the lockdown period to gain skills. That helped with the financial confidence to invest in new IT. But it was existential – we couldn’t continue to operate with the equipment we had if we were going to succeed in this new hybrid mode.”

Microsoft Surface delivers the ‘wow’ factor while reducing complexity

To facilitate increased mobility and hybrid working, staff required laptops that enabled them to work productively wherever they were working. The London Metropolitan University IT team initiated a tender process, looking at devices from several different manufacturers.

“We had to address the technical debt and this was one way to improve the reputation of the service,” admits Ed Spick, “the ‘wow’ factor and the look and feel of the Microsoft Surface devices very much worked in their favour.”

The team saw that, by providing staff with premium devices, they could win user acceptance and create enthusiasm for the wider digital transformation programme.

The build quality, robustness and durability were also important reasons to choose Microsoft Surface. These were increasingly important factors because the need for hybrid working meant staff would be regularly transporting the devices between working environments.

“The vertical integration between the Windows operating system, equipment and Microsoft 365 and the Microsoft Surface devices is also very attractive,” emphasises Ed Spick. “We could reduce complexity, the devices would be easier to manage and, ultimately, that makes the Microsoft Surface Laptops more cost effective overall.”

A better onboarding experience for staff

London Metropolitan University invested in around 800 Surface Laptops, matched to the compute needs of users. These were then sent directly to users’ homes and were configured for the user via Windows Autopilot and the pre-provisioning service. By using Autopilot and Microsoft Intune to manage the rollout, the IT team greatly simplified the process of onboarding users and their devices.

“In the early days of the pandemic we were literally struggling to connect,” remembers Ed Spick. Initially, the team sent out wireless dongles. They then pulled together a remote access network. Ed Spick says, “It was complex; there were lots of different technologies under the bonnet, it was difficult to support and difficult to use.”

The connectivity of the Microsoft Surface devices and the associated Microsoft Azure identity and security services were, therefore, another key boon for the IT team and the staff using the new devices.

“It meant we could deliver a new experience to staff,” advises Ed Spick. “They had a device that was their own and that they could depend on. It meant the device would be couriered to them and they could simply connect to their wireless network and it would all be managed for them. They wouldn’t have to do anything with the licencing. It’s streamlined that process.”

Cloud-based device deployment and endpoint management

“The improved onboarding experience has had a number of knock-on effects,” Ed Spick continues, “for us, it has transformed what we’ve been able to do as a comparatively small team. We're configuring polices in the cloud to easily manage all 800 devices, rather than needing to update 800 different devices in person.”

Members of staff no longer need to bring their devices onto campus to be configured or updated by the IT team. Upgrades, updates, policy changes, onboarding and offboarding are all managed remotely via Windows Autopilot and Microsoft Intune.

Windows Autopilot is a collection of technologies used to set up and pre-configure new devices, getting them ready for productive use. Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that focuses on mobile device management and mobile application management. Together, they enable London Met to configure specific policies to control the applications and all the devices that are used, including mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

Microsoft Intune integrates with Azure Active Directory user management to enable a broad set of access control scenarios. For example, when a user signs into a device with their organisational credentials, their organisational identity allows access to data that could be denied to their personal identity. As that organisational data is used, app protection policies control how the data is saved and shared. When staff leave, devices can be wiped remotely using Intune before being returned via courier. These features greatly enhance the university’s data security.

“We are a very lean team and this has absolutely transformed the way we operate,” says Ed Spick, “We’ve leapfrogged to delivering a cloud-based service to endpoints to which we send policy. We’re still working through the transformation possibilities of that.”

A new way of working on campus

The switch to hybrid working and more mobile devices has also driven changes on campus. The ten open-plan offices housing the professional services teams, senior leadership and student recruitment and communications teams have been transformed.

“We’ve cleared away all of the fixed workstations, monitors and telephone handsets. We replaced all of that with the docking monitors and a workspace booking system – all over wireless,” explains Ed Spick. “As a result, we’ve saved the time and expense of managing all of those workstations by hand.”

At the same time, the IT team created 15 Teams-enabled meeting rooms, so that staff could come together in a hybrid way. Furthermore, by moving the telephony into Microsoft Teams, the university has made significant cost savings.

“We don’t need the hardware to do telephony anymore – which is great. The savings from the software licencing, the maintenance of the PBX hardware and the dedicated connectivity amount to around £90k annually,” explains Ed Spick, “Now, it’s all done over the network. The next iteration will be for the calls to go straight into Microsoft Teams and we pick them up there. It’s a win-win because it’s just a more resilient service.”

Saving time, money and resources with simpler IT processes

The IT team at London Metropolitan University are now exploring ways to maximise the return from the transformation that has happened thus far. “We’ve delivered the device and the management platform, now the piece is about the migration of services and applications that are delivered over it,” says Ed Spick.

“The feedback I get from my team and from users is ‘why do have so much software? Why do we have so many tools?’” he acknowledges, “So the other part of the journey with Microsoft is to consolidate the different software-as-a-service tools we use and move everything into Microsoft 365.”

This will deliver additional savings for the IT team because they will be managing only one environment. They can consolidate their expertise in that single environment – thereby reducing the technical burden on the team and enabling them to maximise the value extracted from their chosen technologies.

“We’ve been bi-modal for a long period of time – and that’s been very, very stretching in terms of what we have to manage and the cognitive load on my team,” says Ed Spick.

Increased productivity and user satisfaction

To assess the success of the hardware rollout, the university IT team used Microsoft Forms to create a survey to track staff acceptance of the devices and the associated peripherals; every user received a monitor, headset and a wireless keyboard.

“We’ve had a really good response,” says Ed Spick, “and sixty percent of our staff said they are more productive with their new equipment.”

Furthermore, more than three quarters said they found the onboarding service easy or very easy. When asked to rate the new laptop, the average score was 4.37 out of five stars.

Ed Spick says, “Overall, it’s now a much more high-quality and consistent experience for staff and it’s reduced the number of calls we get. Simplifying the device and support side of things has rationalised the support effort for us.”

It’s another way the device choice has reduced the burden on the IT team. Plus, the range of available Microsoft Surface devices offers the choice of varied form factors, while needing to manage only a single device family.

Ongoing digital transformation

“In terms of strategy and transformation, what we’ve been through in the past two years would normally have taken five to six years,” states Ed Spick, “and we’re now on a cloud roadmap.”

“The support we have received from Microsoft has really helped to move things on,” he continues. “Microsoft is very responsive. Even though we are quite a small university and this was quite a minor purchase, they made us feel like our custom mattered.”

As well as exploring how to move more services into Microsoft Azure and leveraging Azure Active Directory and Azure Labs across campus, the team is moving towards a managed service approach for their Microsoft Surface devices. The changes to date have kickstarted a rapid and successful beginning to the university’s digital transformation journey.

“The London Met vision is about transforming lives; it’s a university with a social mission,” emphasises Ed Spick. “We are now better placed to deliver on our ambition to transform the London Met community through information and technology.”