A wonderful success story has developed at the Tygerberg Campus of the University of Stellenbosch, where the Department of Health Sciences has taken an inadequate and overworked IT infrastructure and transformed it into a marketable and educational advantage for the University.
A combination of the superior products of HP, the efficient services of First Technology and the vision and insight of Mr David Wiles (Manager - Gerga - Health Science Faculty) has provided some 3000 students not only with a leading edge Computer Lab, but also an Electronic Classroom for multimedia presentations and tutoring in order to enhance their education.
Some five years ago, in 1997, the Medical Campus owned a total of 20 Desktop computers for the educational purposes of the entire fraternity. The conditions surrounding the laboratory were far from satisfactory, and students were not gaining the types of benefits that a fully-fledged computer laboratory should be providing.
Mr Wiles took the initiative and approached the Dean of the faculty about the new curriculum for 2000, promoting an overhaul for the computer education systems within the faculty. With the acceptance of his proposal, the partnership between the Medical University, HP and First Technology was formed.
The requirement for the project far outweighed the available capital budget that the faculty had access to, but HP Financial Services provided a platform on which the new IT department could be built.
Over the last year, the combination of HP and First Technology have provided the university with 106 networked workstations, 6 networked laser printers and a back office fileserver to administrate and govern the network. Internet access is provided and the network is protected by a firewall. The firewall has a statistical database that allows the administration to bill each individual student for access time and download quantity from the Internet. Students are billed bi-annually and the money goes to the IT department at the main campus to pay for the University`s annual Internet bill.
The entire infrastructure was leased via HP`s Finance options, and allows for a three year warranty cycle, with technology refresh and updates after two years.
The computer laboratory and electronic classroom are now controlled by access smartcards in order to keep maximum control and security within the environment.
David Wiles comments " I have worked with the IT workshop at the main campus for 4 to 5 years where turnaround times on hardware was chaotic and extremely slow but the relationship now built with First Technology has been wonderfully refreshing, with turnaround times being very impressive. Francois De Kock (First Technology Account Manager) has provided fantastic support and follow up, and the hardware from HP has not given us any problems to date".
Francois de Kock concludes, " After working closely with the University for so long to realize their dream, the function held in order to open the new computer lab gave a great sense of satisfaction to all involved in the project. Each person involved in bringing technology closer to education was mentioned, and the press gave sparkling reviews on the success of the project. This project has been a fantastic opportunity to lead the way for other faculties to follow suit, and the recommendations are already pouring in."
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