HEAT Software, a leading provider of cloud service management and unified endpoint management software, has been selected by the University of Cambridge to centralise IT infrastructures and services across all of its Colleges under one, overarching Service Desk. HEAT Software was chosen following a three-way evaluation with Cherwell and ZenDesk, alongside strong endorsement from the University of Oxford, who is also a HEAT Software customer.
HEAT Software’s ITSM solution will underpin the University’s central IT department, otherwise known as the UIS (University Information Services), which was formed as part of a restructure of IT within the University. The new department brings together two independent Service Desks that manage and support a large number of students, researchers, academic staff and administrative employees.
A key motivation behind Cambridge’s decision to rethink the way that IT is delivered is a desire to automate as much of UIS’ processes as possible to drive institutional efficiencies and simplify services. The focus is on empowering the user via the Service Catalogue and reducing manual IT administration, so that IT personnel are able to develop other key services that will increase the efficiency and productivity of the University’s central IT system. The move towards automation will also enable all users to have a transparent IT knowledge base at their disposal, as well as up-to-date alerts on relevant updates within UIS.
“The HEAT solution achieved the highest evaluation score of the three products shortlisted by our project team” said Stephen Hoensch, Head of Frontline Services in the UIS at the University of Cambridge. “Oxford University’s positive experience in implementing the HEAT solution as their centralised ITSSM toolset was also a factor in the project team’s final recommendations. The ability of HEAT to demonstrate their capability to service the needs of a Collegiate University, together with the unequivocal endorsement by the Oxford implementation team of both the product and the vendor, present a compelling vision of what could be possible within UIS.”
