Greener ICT at De Montfort University

Technology going green

IT and communications technology at De Montfort University is constantly being refreshed, reviewed and updated and now their technology is going green!

The IT services the university provides its staff and student's is comprehensive; they include a network that links to national and international information, e-mail, a managed learning environment called myDMU delivering personalised information, a virtual learning environment providing learning materials and a collaborative environment. Access is provided by fixed equipment in IT laboratories and through a wireless network that enables students to connect their own equipment to the university network.

De Montfort University the basics:

• Two campuses in Leicester
• Five faculties offering around 400 courses
• More than 20,000 students and 3000 staff
• A strong network of Associate Colleges

Maintaining the vital tools to support learning and teaching

The Information Services and Systems department consists of 70 people, who have the responsibility of delivering and maintaining the vital tools to support learning, teaching, research and the administration across the University.

Kevin Toone, and his User Support team, provide centralised administration and services for the staff across the University. Responsible for taking 13,000 support calls a year and updating all the hardware, robustness and reliability of the kit purchased is essential.

In partnership with RM Education

The mission of the information services and systems team is to provide effective, efficient and economic ICT for the organisation. To help them achieve this they have chosen RM as a key partner. Kevin as built a relationship with RM Education over the past 9 years, and is happy with the service and quality of products offered, he comments:

"It's not just about the price, a stable image platform is very important, and the support service is vital, all our hardware is purchased with 4 years warranty."

Greener ICT

To date the university has 3,000 PCs, 840 of which now feature RM ecoquiet technology - a number soon to be increased. This energy saving technology has been tried and tested, and is now included in the university's standard PC specification.

The heat and noise reduction ecoquiet technology offers, has benefited the university's learning environment. In particular, the lectures like the whisper quiet workings of the PC; and the lower heat emmissions benefit the room environment.

The energy saving the technology provides means the university is benefiting from reduced energy bills and is a key reason for the switch in standard PC spec.

The green technology has also been included in the RM One PCs used in student open access areas and labs. Kevin comments:

"As well as looking great, the RM Ones are unique. The complete unit has a small footprint, which ensures that work space is maximised. They are easy to install for the support team and offer the students a system which is easy to use. They have lots of features which meet the needs of our establishment. The speaker switch is important in the library and is a modification we asked to be added to the original model."

The future

Kevin plans to continue to refresh the university's hardware and standardise on ecoquiet technology. This standard specification makes it as easy as possible for his team to support ensuring excellent service and as little disruption to teaching and learning as possible.

This growing use of ecoquiet technology will contribute to a greener more sustainable ICT service, using less energy and helping to reduce energy bills further, therefore freeing up money to be spent elsewhere.

The university has an exciting future to look forward to with £170m plans to regenerate an area of Leicester, which will put historic buildings back on the map and create a first class teaching and research Campus.