University of Western Cape manages complex infrastructure with CA Unicenter

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is one of SA`s national universities. It has a proud history, having played a central role in the democratisation of SA 10 years ago. Today it continues to present critical and creative ways to meet the needs of a society that is still in transition.

To better serve its 14 000 students and 1 500 staff members at its Cape Town-based main campus and two satellite campuses, Madiny Darries, the IT director, embarked on a major project to upgrade the administrative facilities at the UWC.

According to Darries, the university`s administrative systems were no longer adequately supporting its business requirements due to changes within the university and government`s higher education policy, which encourages universities to become more financially sustainable, using `output` as opposed to `throughput` as the key funding mechanism.

"In terms of this policy, it is no longer the number of students assimilated that determines the amount of funding from government, but rather the number of graduates produced," he explains.

Against this backdrop, the university found the cost and time implications of managing its IT infrastructure were becoming prohibitive and unacceptably lengthy. Moreover, the Information and Communication Services (ICS) department was also working reactively rather than proactively.

To address these issues, three areas were targeted: the management and monitoring of the UWC`s campus area network, the management and monitoring of the data centre, from a service excellence perspective, and the management of its more than 60 Web sites.

In a bid to streamline these processes, minimise the need for additional manpower and introduce formal management principles to its environment, the UWC opted to install CA Unicenter.

CA Unicenter is a family of modular, integrated solutions designed to deliver a fast return on investment, powerful automation facilities and the ability to manage the entire IT infrastructure from a business perspective.

Says Darries: "The UWC is the first such institution in SA to implement a complete enterprise management solution and - more significantly - to address the issues surrounding the management of its IT infrastructure professionally."

He confirms that CA Unicenter gave the IT department the ability to take control of, and effectively own, the IT domains under its charge.

"It helped us to eliminate isolated pockets of infrastructure and diverse management platforms. And it has given us the tools with which to proactively manage the systems and sub-systems in our charge," he says.

In order to accommodate the changes necessary to implement CA Unicenter, a restructuring and re-engineering programme had to first be implemented for the UWC`s IT department.

The re-engineering process was based on the model "Process, People and Tools" in which the "process" was mapped and broken down into functions and activities.

Job profiles were then formulated to service these functions and activities and "people" appointed to these roles.

"Tools" is the technology, policy or procedure that enables, defines or automates the process.

"In order for our IT department to became the university`s `service centre`, significant changes had to be made," explains Darries. "In June 2003 we designed a process model. We then positioned the necessary staff and, in early 2004, launched the project.

"In the last few months we have made significant progress, having commissioned the network management model and built a `command centre` for comprehensive discovery, inventory, analysis and reporting functions."

According to Darries, the service centre is the customer-facing element of the CA Unicenter solution, while the command centre is the `rearward-facing` solution designed to keep internal solutions up and running.

"The command centre gives the IT department an insight into, and control of, the UWC`s IT assets. At the same time it provides systems monitoring, management and problem resolution support."

With the implementation of Unicenter, the UWC has experienced considerable benefits, confirms Darries. Solutions that once were unable to satisfy users` requirements - particularly for up-time - are now functioning perfectly well, around the clock.

"With proactive monitoring and management functionality in place, when a problem is identified, resolution is fast and effective. Moreover, we are able to attack a problem and implement a process to effect change on many levels.

"Our IT department has been empowered to effectively manage calls from all sources, quickly resolve problems, share and leverage knowledge and manage the UWC`s more critical IT assets with a greater degree of urgency."

"The project is an on-going one. We view it more as a `journey` than a destination. This is because our requirements are evolving and the solutions brought to bear are being overlaid one on top of another. There is constant restructuring in progress within UWC which also has to be accommodated.

"We are relying heavily on CA products to assist us in our endeavours to deliver service excellence at a low cost of ownership," adds Darries.