The Midlands learning institution has signed a four-year strategic outsourcing deal to overhaul almost its entire IT and communications infrastructure.
Nottingham Trent University has taken on IT consultancy to help procure, design and implement a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure.
The Midlands-based organisation has signed a four-year strategic deal with systems integrator Logicalis as its exclusive partner to manage the overhaul.
The integrator said the deal is one of the first Higher Education contracts of its kind to provide continual assessment of the contract on an ongoing basis to ensure it provides the best-value framework for the work undertaken.
The work itself will see the university work with its partner to implement a new IT platform, designed to streamline the delivery of information across all three of its campuses.
The scope of the overhaul encompasses almost every IT infrastructure component, including data centres, virtualisation, storage and wired and wireless networking technologies, integrated with unified communications and collaborative applications.
David Swayne, Nottingham Trent University director of information systems said the work was part of a commitment to invest in innovative technology that will enable year-on-year improvements in operating efficiencies.
"Working collaboratively with a strategic partner such as Logicalis we are able to create and implement a long-term information management strategy that benefits staff and students alike," he added.
As one of the largest universities in the country, Nottingham Trent wanted to make sure it could preserve its architectural and design heritage, while updating the high-tech facilities and services it makes available to both students and the local community.
As such, the deal will play a pivotal role in the development of the university's Newton and Arkwright building regeneration scheme.
The IT consultancy will be integrated at the architect and planning stages, to ensure these refurbished university buildings offer state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, while supporting a more interactive student learning environment.
