From the grapevine - insights from higher ed IT events

March was a busy month for AppsAnywhere, with events galore both in the UK and the US. It was great to catch up with our customers and talk to so many people across the UK and US about the key challenges and opportunities in higher ed IT.

Some of the events included the UCISA Leadership Conference and Awards in Edinburgh UK, where we hosted a fantastic whiskey tasting experience on our stand and sponsored the Rising Star Awards, followed by the AoC Higher Education Conference in London. In North America, we exhibited at the ACCS Annual Conference, in Portsmouth VA, and NERCOMP Annual Conference in Rhode Island.

A few themes stood out across a lot of the conversations, which we hope will resonate with you and help you feel more connected in navigations some of these challenges.

1. Cybersecurity: it’s very important, but no resources or funding is invested in prevention, to avoid attacks.

2. Skills shortage: institutions struggle to hire or upskill IT staff to deal with the rapid advances in all the different technology areas.

3. Collaboration: the sector deals with common challenges, including reduced resources, so it would make sense to tackle them jointly.

4. Working in partnership: the sector is looking at suppliers to fill in the capacity and capability gaps, and be honest and transparent about the effort, time and resources it takes to implement their solutions.

5. Doing more for less: the motto of the year so far, the thread across all the discussions. Pressure on universities to cut costs while maintaining service levels and adopting newest technologies.

6. Rising cost of VDI and exploring alternatives: another variation on the “doing more for less” theme, this is an immediate priority for many IT departments whose contracts with VMware are due to expire.

7. Cloud strategy: a lot of hype around cloud migration, its benefits and lessons learnt. Opportunity to leverage dashboards for insights and better management.

8. AI strategy, governance and policy: interesting perspectives on Australia, EU and other regions on requirements around AI regulation, frameworks and ethical use.

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How can AppsAnywhere help with that?

1. Cybersecurity: our clients use AppsAnywhere to achieve and maintain cyber essentials, by easily updating and patching software, and instantly removing access to apps with vulnerabilities. With increasing demand for BYOD policies, we are one of the very few providers who can deliver software access to student and staff devices at a fraction of the VDI cost.

2. Skills shortage: AppsAnywhere saves IT teams on average 80% of the time spent on rebuilding or reimaging devices, and around 50% of packaging time, with pre-packaged apps. This releases time to focus on other priorities. The AppsAnywhere Academy offers regular training to ensure clients get the most out of our versatile product.

3. Collaboration: we bring our clients together twice a year to share learnings, discuss key challenges and learn from each other, through our SUMMIT events.

4. Working in partnership: we work in true partnership with our clients and incorporate client feedback in every iteration of the product. Our aim is to make life easier for institutions, remove the heavy lifting in software delivery and management, so they can “do more with less”.

5. Doing more for less: this is a key driver in our future direction of travel, and we are incorporating this mantra across our product and service offering. From pre-packaging apps, to automating licensing, to in-app upgrades, our mission is to help IT professionals deliver software to students and staff in an easy and efficient way.

6. Rising cost of VDI: our technology helps right-size your VDI and reduce your reliance on it for a small number of use cases. Our scalability means your baseline cost will be the same whether you service 1,000 or 10,000 devices – you only pay for additional user licenses.

7. Cloud strategy: whether on-prem on in the cloud, AppsAnywhere can support every delivery environment.

We would love to hear if any of these topics resonate with you and discuss how we have helped over 300 institutions in 22 countries to navigate them. Get in touch!

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