• CUSTOMER STORY

    London South Bank University

    • London South Bank University (LSBU) improves student IT experiences—increasing satisfaction rates 25 % — and cuts costs by 60% with flexible payment solutions from Dell Financial Services**

    • Business Needs

    • LSBU looked to transform its IT to deliver its 2020 strategy and become a leading centre of higher education by improving student experiences, driving research and strengthening links with local and international partners. 

    • Business Results

      • Has the IT foundation to be among the top 50 percent of U.K. universities for research and enterprise
      • Delivers 2020 strategy to become leading London university
      • Greater IT cost transparency by moving to opex model
      • 47% faster IT delivery times through hyperconvergence
      • 60% reduction in IT costs compared with legacy hybrid cloud solution
      • 25% increase in student satisfaction
    • With Dell Financial Services behind us, we could press ahead with our transformation— delivering the project in one go.

      Alexander Denley, Deputy Director of Innovation & Transformation, LSBU
    • Universities in the United Kingdom are changing fast. They are transforming their IT infrastructures so they can prosper in a marketplace facing new challenges, including greater competition for students, who want nothing less than fast access to data anytime, anywhere.

    • 2020 strategy goals

    • London South Bank University (LSBU), located in central London, is transforming its IT to successfully meet today’s challenges. LSBU created its 2020 strategy document—a guide to address changes in higher education—giving IT centre stage. The strategy document states that technology is key to improving students’ higher education experiences, driving post-graduate research, and building stronger links with local and international partners.

    • Transformation starts in the data centre

    • To deliver LSBU’s 2020 strategy goals, however, the university needed to overhaul the existing infrastructure. LSBU had a hybrid cloud solution in which the virtual learning environment for students and line-of-business systems, such as human resources and finance, ran from a private cloud. In addition, the university operated two data centres for services including building access control, telephony and a student portal. 

    • Hyperconvergence provides the answer

    • LSBU sought solutions from leading technology vendors, including Dell EMC. The Dell EMC team invited Denley and his colleagues to the Dell EMC Executive Briefing Center in London for a Dell Technologies Advantage and Transformation whiteboard discussion about traditional versus innovative solutions to deliver LSBU’s goals. As Denley recalls, “I felt that Dell EMC really understood what we wanted to deliver, and when the team proposed the hyperconverged VxRail appliance, I believed we’d found what we were looking for. With VxRail, we could increase levels of innovation, and IT could deliver more value to the university.”

    • Flexible financing removes possible barriers

    • Next, LSBU began talks with Dell Financial Services (DFS) so the university could invest in VxRail and stay within budget. “Without DFS,” says Denley, “we couldn’t have delivered such a transformational IT project for LSBU. DFS offered flexible financing options, so we weren’t held back by an existing agreement with a previous provider. With Dell Financial Services behind us, we could press ahead with our transformation—delivering the project in one go.”

    • 2020—signed, sealed and delivered

    • LSBU can thrive in a changing higher education marketplace in line with its 2020 strategy. The university has put in place a transformational IT infrastructure to improve students’ experiences, driving post-graduate research and building stronger connections with local and international partners. “Our solution from Dell Technologies is already having an impact,” says Denley. “We’ve flipped the 80:20 statistic so that no more than 20 percent of our resource goes to keeping the lights on, and at least 80 percent goes to innovation. We’ve also gained complete transparency over IT by moving to an opex model, which means we can provide highly accurate cost analysis on any new service.”

    • 25% rise in satisfaction rates

    • Students are happy with the university’s new IT services. A recent survey showed an increase of 25 percent in the number of students who were highly satisfied with the services. Comments Denley, “Any universities not delivering on their IT will have problems attracting students. That’s why it’s been so important for us to modernise our technology with Dell EMC. Students are seeing more value in our IT services. They are looking at it as a reason for investing not only their money, but also a significant period of their lives studying with us.”

    • 60% cost saving to enable new services

    • Compared with the previous hybrid infrastructure, LSBU’s new IT infrastructure is more cost-effective. This, in turn, frees up resources to invest in new services that will continue to enhance student experiences as well as drive research and forge community links. “We’ve cut our IT costs by 60 percent by transforming our IT with Dell Technologies,” says Denley. “Because we work with DFS and don’t have to cover 100 percent of our IT costs up front, we also have greater opportunity to resource the analysis, development and delivery of new services that will add value to coming to LSBU.”

    • 47% faster IT delivery

    • LSBU has consolidated compute, storage, networking and VMware-based virtualization on a single hyperconverged platform. This has helped eliminate manual processes and accelerate deployment times. “We’ve automated many management tasks with VxRail, simplifying operations to deliver IT 47 percent more quickly,” says Denley. “Now, if we need to make changes, there’s only one platform to go to. Plus, we can scale out the platform because of our financing agreement with DFS.

    • We’ve cut our IT costs by 60 percent by transforming our IT with Dell Technologies.

      Alexander Denley, Deputy Director of Innovation & Transformation, LSBU
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    • Customer: London South Bank University
      Industry: Higher Education
      Location: United Kingdom

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    • **Payment solutions provided to qualified commercial customers by Dell Financial Services (DFS) or through Dell Technologies group companies and/or through Dell’s authorized business partners (together with DFS “Dell”). Offers may not be available or may vary by country. Offers may be changed without notice and are subject to product availability, eligibility, credit approval and execution of documentation provided by and acceptable to Dell or Dell's authorized business partners.  In Spain, solutions are provided by Dell Bank International d.a.c branch in Spain and specific countries within the EU and EEA and in the UK and Switzerland by Dell Bank International d.a.c, trading as Dell Financial Services which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Dell Technologies, DellEMC and Dell logos are trademarks of Dell Inc.