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westminster.ac.uk
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Today 2,500 users benet from enhanced search, nd and
content linking capabilities thanks to Alfresco
Around 195,000 documents are being managed using Alfresco
Improved document management capabilities have made it
possible for the University to reduce its reliance on paper, in
line with its green strategy
Secure data storage and collaboration workows have
streamlined working practices
Integration of Alfresco with the universitys web publishing system
has streamlined and improved web content management
Mobile access to documentation means knowledge workers now
have secure access to resources, wherever they are based
Each service unit has the exibility to operate its own individual
business environment
Integration with Google Apps for Education enables staff to
securely login to Alfresco through Google OAuth.
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster boasts a vibrant learning environment
that attracts more than 20,000 students from over 150 nations. Its
practice-based courses are designed to educate graduates for the
demands of professional life and have won international recognition
for excellence.
University of Westminster
University increases business-critical document management and
collaboration capabilities with Alfresco
The University has a large and distributed workforce, and
the ability to access content securely, from any location,
has helped to deliver truly mobile working.
Hiten Vaghmaria, Head of Digital
Development, Information Services,
University of Westminster.
SHAPING
THE
FUTURE
Customer
University of Westminster
Industry
Education
Use Case
Document Management
Team Collaboration
Going Paperless
Compliance
Business
Cloud
Web Content Management
Integrations
SaaS
MySQL
Google Apps for Education
Products
Alfresco in the Cloud
Partners
Zaizi
Case Study
A distinguished 175-year heritage means the University
leads the way in many areas of research, including
politics, media, art and design, architecture and
biomedical sciences. Its academic activities are
organised into ve faculties, within which there are
around 45 departments and 65 research centres.
The Universitys headquarters and original campus
are based on Regent Street in central London, with
additional campuses in the Fitzrovia, Marylebone
and Harrow areas of London. It also operates the
Westminster International University in Tashkent in
Uzbekistan, as well as a satellite campus in Paris
through the Diplomatic Academy of London.
Business challenge
A diverse and dynamic international education
institution, the University of Westminster needed to
replace its rst generation intranet platform with an
integrated enterprise content management (ECM)
system that would enable the more effective and
efcient management of complex information.
Introducing ECM would help take the university beyond
its current use of shared network drives to support
improved internal collaboration between academics
and professional staff teams and, through web-enabled
services, enhance its partnership working capabilities
with external bodies.
Alongside meeting a wide range of institutional demands,
the new solution had to offer integration with a number
of core transactional systems.
Robust and secure, the new ECM solution would need
to ensure the integrity of business-critical documents
and support customised workows, making it easy for
the Universitys varied communities and practice areas
to develop and share materials.
Minimising total cost of ownership was a key
requirement, as was the need to implement support
for knowledge workers wherever they may be
to improve productivity.
Solution
Having reviewed a variety of commercial systems, the
University selected Alfresco as the best open source
solution on the market that met its key criteria, which
included secure document management, ease of use,
and the delivery of a collaborative information environment.
The University has a large and distributed workforce, and
the ability to access content securely, from any location,
has helped to deliver truly mobile working, conrms Hiten
Vaghmaria, Head of Digital Development, Information
Services, University of Westminster.
As an open solution, Alfresco enabled the Universitys IT
team to pursue its strategy of developing and supporting
a new enterprise content management system that could
support internal collaboration and enhance partnership
working with external bodies.
It was a major decision to make the move to an open
source platform for a corporate system of this importance,
explains Vaghmaria. At the time we were looking for
a solution that we could host and develop ourselves,
and Alfresco was the best option.
Following an initial pilot, implementation of the
new ECM system has been managed in a phased
manner over a two-year period. This approach
enabled full consultations with academic and
professional staff users across the organisation to
identify their needs and support any requirements
for turnkey applications. Today, Alfresco is delivered
via a scalable cloud platform, which is fully hosted
and managed by Alfrescos partner Zaizi.
Zaizi have delivered a solution with guaranteed
uptime and none of the overhead or hassle of
ongoing system maintenance or evolution, explains
Vaghmaria. Their subscription-based Software as
a Service (SaaS) model gives us the exibility to
scale with ease to meet future user demand while
keeping our costs consistent and predictable. They
also managed the migration of our content to their
infrastructure in a manner that was virtually seamless
to the end user.
Outcomes
The new ECM system, which is integrated with
the Universitys web content management system,
now supports document, record and knowledge
management and delivers enhanced capabilities
relating to search, nd and content linking.
Today 2,500 users have access to 195,000
documents, and the new ECM system has
reduced reliance on unsecure email attachments
while boosting the collaboration capabilities of
the institutions staff.
Case Study University of Westminster
Data is now stored in an ISO27001 compliant data
centre, and managed by an organisation with the
support and security policies we need to be able
to use a cloud-based service with condence,
conrms Vaghmaria.
Alfresco has also facilitated paperless business
processes that chime well with the Universitys
commitment to green initiatives.
Furthermore, information retrieval, access and
management has been streamlined and delivered
in an economic and consistent manner, as Vaghmaria
explains: Prior to Alfresco we would often experience
organisational issues around version control and
document naming which on occasion resulted
in people updating or sharing the wrong version
of a document.
The university now delivers vibrant new web-based
services to its undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Prospective students can sign up to receive personalised
subject information and updates, invitations to open days
and events, and opportunities to meet other students and
hear about their experiences.
As a public research university, the University of
Westminster is committed to delivering world-class
facilities that enable both professional and personal
development of a wide community of users. The
new ECM system plays a central role in streamlining
enterprise-wide information management and access
and supporting online collaborative project spaces.
It was a major decision to make the move to an
open source platform for a corporate system of
this importance. At the time we were looking for
a solution that we could host and develop
ourselves, and Alfresco was the best option.
Hiten Vaghmaria, Head of Digital
Development, Information
Services, University of Westminster
Case Study University of Westminster