Our staff and users
Oxford Brookes has a user base of approximately 17,500 students and just under 2,500 staff. The Chief Information Officer is Seamus Shaw.
The number of University employees is listed annually in our published annual accounts which you can find on the University's publicly available webpages.
IT Strategy 2020
This IT strategy 2020 outlines a set of objectives that will ensure the successful delivery of information technology services across the University in the coming years. As well as supporting the Student Experience, Research and Knowledge Exchange and International and Partnership engagement, this strategy will contribute to the University’s infrastructure and services by:
- delivering IT platform excellence with solid foundations and a secure and reliable infrastructure,
- enhancing educational technologies with forward-looking learning systems and tools to support educational excellence,
- facilitating transformation and information delivery with integrated systems, enterprise applications and improved online processes,
- enhancing IT service excellence through our staff, our skills and the practices and methodologies used to govern service delivery.
For more details please see the IT strategy webpages.
IT policies
You can see all of our related policies on the policies, procedures and legislation webpage.
IT budget and expenditure
The bulk of the ICT budget is held by the University's IT directorate on behalf of the University. You will find some relevant information relating to the University's IT expenditure in our publicly available financial statements. A small part of the ICT budget is devolved in the University to allow, for example, individual faculties and departments to purchase IT equipment and consumables.
University expenditure on IT related equipment, supplies and consumables for the financial year ....2016 was £2,932,000, in 2015 was £3,266,000 and 2014 was £3,094,000.
With regard to the ICT budget held by the University's IT directorate, overall expenditure on the IT Programme over the past two years has been less than budgeted although a small number of projects have required additional funding due to delayed timescales.
IT procurement
The point of contact for IT procurement and purchasing information is Melissa Day, Finance Manager: mday@brookes.ac.uk or 01965 48 3336 but for information requested under the Freedom of Information Act please contact info.sec@brookes.ac.uk
The University's framework agreements are run by the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium which lists and provides details of some of the University's agreements with suppliers.
Hardware disposal
Our current suppliers are Computer Disposals Limited and the age of disposal equipment is 5 years old. The quantity disposed of annually is approximately 3,200 kg. For more details please see our secure disposal of IT equipment policy webpage.
Telephones
We are currently in the process of moving the University over to VOIP telephony.
| FIXED LINE | British Telecom | Contract date 29/5/15. 5 years | Average annual spend £82,000 | 38 analogue lines, 60 DASS, 90 QO31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIXED MINUTES | British Telecom | Contract date 29/05/15. 2 years (with option to extend for 5) | Average annual spend £12,000 | 3000 extensions |
| FIXED BROADBAND | British Telecom | 1 April - rolling contract | Average annual spend £240 | |
| WAN | JANET - main ISP | Contract renewal date 1 August - 5 years. Review 29/05/18 | Average annual spend £39,000 | 19 sites |
| MOBILE | British Telecom | Contract date 16 May 2013 - for 3 years | Average annual spend £99,000 | 440 mobiles |
| CONTACT CENTRE | UNIFY | Contract renewal date 31 July 2015 | Average annual spend £89.000 | 13 agents |
| Intelecom | Contract renewal date May 2017 | Average annual spend £10,000 | 5 agents |
Computers
| DESKTOPS/LAPTOPS | Dell, HP, Apple, Viglen | 2,018 student PCs 2,700 staff computers |
|---|---|---|
| LAPTOPS | Dell, Google Chromebooks | 105 Chromebooks |
| DESKTOP OPERATING SYSTEM | All managed PCs currently run Windows 7 but are in the process of upgrading to Windows 10 for September 2017 | |
| DOCUMENT STORAGE | Google Apps for education is our main document storage provider |
Network
| BROADBAND | British Telecom | 1 April - rolling contract | Average annual spend £240 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAN | JANET - main ISP | Contract renewal date of 1 August | Average annual spend £39,000 | 19 sites |
| BT - leased line connectivity | 5 years - review 29/05/18 | Average annual spend £82,000 | ||
| WI-FI | eduroam | 7,000 concurrent onsite users | 5 sites | |
| Datacentres | The University operates two datacentres |
Printing
The University has just finished a significant project to move over to a managed print service with Canon. Using multi-functional devices with 'anywhere print' functionality, that will print, photocopy and scan. We use large format plotters in our Print Unit and Architecture Studios. Read more about the printing project on the Brookes Print website.
Software
The software provided on all managed PCs for staff and students general use is delivered virtually to desktops using Cloudpager. We offer over 200 separate pieces of software.
| WINDOWS | Microsoft Campus and Select-Civica Group | Annual re-newal - November |
|---|---|---|
| ANTI-VIRUS | SOPHOS Endpoint Control provides security and management features for the endpoint client. Also available for own devices, for staff and students. | 3 year contract - expires February 2020 |
| POWER MANAGEMENT | Certero | |
| BACK UP SOFTWARE | NET Backup, Microsoft Shadow 7.5, ZFS, Snapshots, VM Ware Snaphots, HP Data Protector Xpress, Windows NT Backup, UFS Dump. | |
| Google Apps for education | Ongoing contract |
Business Applications
We have 11 core business applications that staff and students use at Brookes. They are:
| Google Apps for education | |
| MOODLE | The University's Virtual Learning Environment |
| eCSIS | Student record System |
| CMiSGO | Room bookings and space allocation application |
| SERVICENOW | IT Service Desk web portal |
| CORE HR | Central HR and Payroll application |
| E5 FINANCE | Finance application |
| EKTRON | The University's content management system |
| TALIS | Library management system |
| RAISERS EDGE | Our alumni database |
| APTT | Business reporting application |
Virtual Learning Environment
Our VLE is MOODLE and externally hosted at University of London Computing Centre (ULCC.) It supports 17,500 student users and approximately 900 staff. Our contract is reviewed annually in December.
Servers / Infrastructure
| PHYSICAL SERVERS / SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS | 155 on site | 50 Microsoft, 65 Oracle, 40 Linux | Oracle annual renewal in November. Contract value = £130,294.03. | Primary Windows vendor is VM Ware. Contract runs until 2020. Average annual spend is £71,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIRTUAL SERVERS | 310 | Primary software is ESXi, VM Ware | ||
| STORAGE | Hard Drive 190 TB capacity | 124 TB of data | Oracle Net App | |
| DATABASES | Oracle, Microsoft, SQL, PostgreSQL | |||
| FIREWALL | The University uses enterprise-grade firewalls, clustered for high availability, and backed by full third-party support contract covering both hardware and software faults. |
Cloud-based systems
| Google Apps for education - email, document storage, groups, sites, calendar | Annual rolling contract - no charge to education | ||
| SERVICENOW | IT Service Desk web portal software | Contract renewal date February 2018 (5 year contract) | Average annual spend £90,000 |
| INTELECOM | Telephone contact centre | Contract renewal date May 2017 | Average annual spend £10,000 |
Audio Visual equipment
Our Audio Visual (AV) suppliers are chosen from the supc.ac.uk (Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium) framework agreement - Audio Visual Productsand Services - AV60002 HW Lot 3. Recently we have worked with Reflex AV and Snelling Business Systems to upgrade and install AV kit into 90 0f our 230 teaching rooms. We currently have no support contracts for our AV estate as this is providedin-house.
Videoconferencing
| HEADINGTON | Pollycom Realpresence Desktop | In-house support |
|---|---|---|
| HARCOURT HILL | Cisco C20 Quick Set | In-house support |
| WHEATLEY | Pollycom Realpresence Desktop | In-house support |
Our videoconferencing service is supplied and supported in-house.
IT Projects
Financial responsibility for IT projects resides with the IT Programme Steering Board headed by the University's Registrar. The University's IT directorate has a Programme Management Office for the governance of IT programmes and projects within the directorate.
You will find details of the IT executive team, including the IT Programme Manager on our team webpage.
You can also find out more on the University's strategic programme of IT projects webpage.
Information Security Office
Oxford Brookes University
Headington Campus
Gipsy Lane
Oxford OX3 0BP
+ 44 (0) 1865 484354
info.sec@brookes.ac.uk