University of Huddersfield
Best of both worlds: The University of Huddersfield achieves substantial cost savings and broader IT support by switching to Phoenix.
The University of Huddersfield is an award-winning university located in West Yorkshire with a mission to be an inspiring and innovative university of international renown
The University is made up of a diverse community of over 20,000 people from all walks of life. The University is right at the heart of a vibrant town centre, and its work has been proven to make a difference within the UK and around the world. A close-knit and friendly campus welcomes people from around the world, where award-winning academics work with students at all levels of study to ensure they are well-prepared for the world of work and highly sought after as graduates.
The University’s IT Team manages an expansive IT infrastructure comprising of over 7,000 devices used by more than 2,500 staff and the wider University population including students, researchers, and affiliates. The IT infrastructure consists of a broad range of Microsoft and non-Microsoft software within a hybrid IT environment that integrates both on-premises systems with cloud-based Azure services.
Key facts
22,000 students and 2,500 staff
Over 7,000 devices
Central computing and library services team of 180
Solutions: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft, ECM, Intune
Sector: Higher education
The university faced significant challenges with the incumbent provider of IT support for its Microsoft estate, with generally slow response times when tickets were raised, and some issues simply not being resolved or taking too long to reach a meaningful resolution. Specific problems included persistent issues with collaboration solutions and difficulties in escalating support tickets to the appropriate level of expertise. The university needed a reliable partner to provide timely and effective support for their predominantly Microsoft-based environment.
“With our previous supplier, we often felt stuck and unable to get past the first level of support. It felt like we were endlessly supplying log files and sending multiple chases before our issue would be taken seriously and escalated to the relevant expert. Ultimately, we didn’t feel they understood the urgency of the challenges we faced.”
In 2019, the university began its transition to be a cloud-first organisation, beginning with the migration of its data centre workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud and switching to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions whenever feasible. As part of its cloud-first journey, the university moved its Azure estate onto the OCRE framework in 2021, for which Phoenix is the sole supplier.
The OCRE framework not only provided the university with a 40.5% monthly discount on its Azure services, but the onboarding process also provided an opportunity to experience how Phoenix works with its customers. As a result of this positive experience, the university invited Phoenix to participate in the tender for its IT support contract.
In October 2023, the university transitioned to a Phoenix support contract consisting of:
- Reactive 3rd line support with 10 support calls per month and 18 Microsoft escalation hours per year
- 24/ 7/ 365 coverage with a 1-hour urgent incident response
- 26 days of proactive consultancy time for workshops, migration services, and health checks with Phoenix specialists
- ‘Hyper Care’ for the first three months, featuring more frequent support reviews
The university was able to trial the Phoenix support contract service for a three-month period prior to committing to its first one-year contract with Phoenix. As a result of its positive experiences, the university renewed onto a three-year agreement in October 2024 for the Phoenix Managed Reactive IT Support Service.
Discover managed IT support for your organisationBenefits:
The partnership with Phoenix has delivered several key benefits:
The university saves approximately £20,000+ per year compared to the previous support contract, representing a very significant cost saving
Issues are resolved much more promptly, enabling staff to stay productive and get on with their day
The university benefits from 12 proactive days per year with Phoenix consultants which can be used for a myriad of tasks, from training to health checks, planning for new technologies or specific technical deployments.
“The Proactive Days not only allow us to stay up-to-date with technology developments as an organisation, but with the added bonus that Phoenix’s expertise extends beyond Microsoft so we can leverage their expertise and guidance around many other technologies.”
The university has used some of its Proactive Days for training purposes, including a “Train the Trainer” session on Microsoft Planner which enabled the team to provide Microsoft Planner training courses to the university’s staff
Technical support staff now have the autonomy to raise and manage their own tickets directly with Phoenix, while managers are provided with a dashboard to keep tabs on the status of all tickets
In contrast to the incumbent which could only support Microsoft software specifically, Phoenix provides the university with support for the vast majority of its IT estate, providing additional peace of mind, enhanced value, and a quicker resolution of issues since having a single supplier that knows your IT estate and how it all fits together can typically diagnose issues more quickly
Regular reviews ensure any concerns with the support provision are addressed promptly, while providing a regular forum for more strategic discussions around the university’s IT priorities and how Phoenix will support them
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