Bid number (for EG use) | |
Lead bidder | UHI Millennium Institute
Alun Hughes, Director of Learning & Information Services
alun.hughes@uhi.ac.uk
01463 279324
07796930017 |
Brief description of the aims of the project | To develop a thin-client infrastructure for the delivery of IT services to educational institutions and other organisations in the Highlands and Islands, reducing ongoing IT infrastructure costs, and also reducing support costs which can be very high across sparsely populated areas, while improving the quality of support to service consumers. |
Clear description of what the EGF money would be used to buy | Central costs of establishing the infrastructure - servers and associated software; Citrix licences; staffing support for dispersed sites to enable the rollout of the technology; staff training to enable support of the new infrastructure. Thin-client terminals to provide an initial installed base. |
Partners to the project likely to commit resources | - UHI Millennium Institute and its academic partners (see narrative)
- Highlands and Islands Enterprise
|
Names of other organisations with whom the project has been discussed (to assist the introductions process) | Other UHI Academic Partners (see narrative) in the context of the completed pilot project |
Evidence that suggested approach has been deployed successfully elsewhere | Common in distributed commercial organisations with well-understood business benefits. |
Are there any restrictions to enlargement of the project ( i.e. number of partners) | Technically, no, but the optimum size of the project may be constrained by organisational and manageability factors. |
Benefits projected from the project | The project will enable the delivery of a standardised, up-to-date portfolio of software applications to a wide variety of users, improving the consistency and quality of delivery as well as enabling more responsive support. Quality of user support is a significant issue in remote locations This project will allow learning centres in particular to receive an equivalent quality of support to a large institution. This level of service would otherwise require a suitable number of local technicians and cost well over £1m a year; this support is neither available nor affordable. |
Estimated financial projections | Total | 2004/5 | 2005/6 | 2006/7 | 2007/8 |
Overall project cost | £1.39m | 0 | £1.19m | £200,000 | 0 |
Estimated projected benefits | £2.12m | £430,000 | £530,000 | £530,000 | £630,000 |
Is a pilot required - see guidance notes | We have already undertaken a technical pilot. |
Additionally: why is EG funding required | The project requires significant up-front investment for the projected benefits to be achieved, and indeed the greater the extent of up-front investment possible the earlier the benefits can be realised. As a service provider to its Academic Partners ( APs) and to its students located within them, UHI will incur significant additional costs but most of the savings will be realised within APs. EG funding is therefore needed to protect the income stream of APs while enabling the necessary central investment to be made. |
Does this project complementary in anyway to other EG work | Not that we are aware of. |