What teams make up IT Services?

About Us

We provide essential technology support for students, faculty, and staff. We work to make sure everyone has reliable access to the tools they need for learning, teaching, and administrative tasks. Dedicated to the University’s strategic priorities, we respond to our users’ diverse needs, ensure effective use of IT through training and support, and deliver high-quality services.

Our Strategy

The University has developed an IT Strategy to address the challenges facing the delivery of effective information and technology provision and enabling the University to achieve excellence in IT provision. The strategy will also enable UON to achieve its key priorities: having a social impact, effective and efficient operation, excellent student experience and developing minimising risk.

IT Strategic Priorities 2023-2028

The University has developed a new IT Strategy to address the major challenges facing the delivery of effective information and technology provision and enabling the University to achieve excellence in IT provision. The strategy will also enable UON to achieve its key priorities: having a social impact, effective and efficient operation, excellent student experience and developing minimising risk.   Eight strategic priorities will be pursued, as follows: 

1. IT for efficiency and effectiveness: Improve departmental service delivery through effective, tailored tools.  Reduce resource required to carry out departmental operations, enable effective team working, both inter- and intra- team, thus reducing pressure to increase headcount. Free up staff to provide strategically aligned, University improving, customer focused departmental services

2. Reliable and simple IT, consistently: Departments enabled to do their work easier in the modern hybrid working environment through easy access to the right tools, the right systems and accurate data for all staff and students.  IT systems will reduce user stress, angst and frustration and provide a consistent user experience regardless of working location

3. Information and business intelligence that improves awareness, understanding and decision making: Increased and improved information available to decision makers to support making effective decisions.  Also, improved data accuracy and integrity, enabling improvements to departmental planning, support efforts to increase retention through, for example, alerting to where interventions with students in need

4. Improved academic IT:  Improved technology used for teaching, learning and research enablement, leading to increased NSS scores for satisfaction with IT and learning resources.  This will be achieved by improving the effectiveness, capability and user satisfaction with the technology toolset used for all aspects of teaching (VLE, timetable, dashboards) and the performance of these tools

5. Improved student administration:  This will be achieved through effective student and course management systems, processes, data and management.  The spearhead will be a new student records system that encompasses all aspects of student and course administration

6. Enhanced information security: An effective overarching security regime that has levels of protection commensurate with institutional value of asset being protected.  The right balance will be struck balance between security and accessibility, through a balanced mix of protection, education, consequence and advice

7. User empowerment: Users will be empowered in their use of information and technology by the provision of tools and access to the right information with minimal of hassle.  Users will also be allowed to get going quickly, keep going without interruption and get back up and running quickly if they encounter a problem.

8. Improved student experience: Technology will be a key enabler in the university becoming an exemplar University for student learning, particularly in technical courses.  We will provide tailor made IT services where required for student needs.  Our technology provision will contribute to excellent student experience through great connectivity, suitable equipment, technology enabled teaching spaces and forward-looking approach to innovation.

IT Services Structure

IT Services is structured into the following areas:

Application Services

• ​​​Database Management: Ensuring the availability, integrity, and security of databases that store critical University data

• Development of CRM Dynamics: The Academic Systems Team develops and customises CRM Dynamics for the university, provides technical support and training, manages CRM data accuracy, and arranges support or enhancements for CRM projects

• SaaS Management: Manage and support Software as a Service (SaaS) applications used across the University.

Change and Relationship Management

• Business Partnering: Collaborate with University departments to understand their digital goals, challenges, and requirements. Ensuring a transparent and consistent line of communication
• Change Management: Help manage organisational change related to IT projects and technology implementations
• Project Management: Manage a portfolio of IT projects, ensuring alignment with strategic goals, balancing resources, and tracking overall performance.

Cyber Security and Compliance

• Data Protection: Protect University systems and data by monitoring and managing technical threats
• Security Awareness: Provide support, guidance and tools to enable staff and students to proactively keep themselves and the University secure
• Incident Response: Providing rapid response and mitigation strategies for security breaches and cyber incidents.

IT Service Desk

• Help Desk Services: Offering troubleshooting and support for hardware and software issues, password resets, and general IT enquiries
• Self-Service Portal: Providing online resources, FAQs, and guides to help users resolve common issues independently.

Technology Operations

• Network and Connectivity Services: Providing reliable and secure internet access across the campus. Enabling remote access to University resources and systems securely from off-campus locations. Providing network and wifi services for all users
• Infrastructure Services: Providing the University with the under-pinning compute services like cloud, physical and virtual servers, back up provision and secure onsite support of on prem hosted systems
• AV, Digital and Collaboration Services: Managing campus telephone and digital solutions. Supporting video conferencing tools and facilities for remote teaching, meetings, and events. Supporting your AV needs in the teaching spaces and around the Waterside Campus. Ensuring that we are maximising the use of our digital tools and display boards
• End User Computing: Supporting all the University-owned devices from a tablet to the gaming towers. Managing and distributing licences for academic and productivity software. Maintaining and updating teaching spaces with the latest hardware and software for student and faculty use. Working in tandem with faculties to ensure the best possible student end device experience.

IT Services Leadership Team

Director of IT Services

• Alex Vujcich

Business Services Manager

• Peter Dunk

Head of Application Services

• Navinder Kaur

Head of Change and Relationship Management

• Julia James

Head of Technology Operations

• Stephen Oliver