Shared Infrastructure Services Programme Update

The Shared Infrastructure Services Programme (SISP) is a Digital Transformation funded programme aimed at enhancing the University's IT infrastructure. The programme was formed following the Infrastructure Service Review with some of the following objectives: 

  • Improve our user experience, thinking about how our staff and students interact with infrastructure services 

  • Make better use of economies of scale – not just financially but better resilience of services by sharing technologies and platforms 

  • Reduce complexity and improve efficiencies through sharing processes and having fewer ways of doing the same thing across divisions and departments 

  • Reducing our risk – particularly our cybersecurity risk through initiatives such as implementing a shared device management platform 

In this update, we'll provide insights into what's been happened so far within each workstream and initiative, as well as details on what’s coming up next. 

Shared Device Management  

This project is a direct response to how to improve how devices are currently being managed across the university. With many different teams using tailored, local solutions, there is significant duplication of effort and cumulative costs. This new service is being built using Microsoft Intune and is designed to create a more efficient device management solution that meets the needs of IT teams in departments and faculties, while also being useful and available to teams throughout the University. 

What is it?

In simple terms, the project is building a service that includes: 

  • understanding what good end-to-end device management looks like - aka the 'Device Management Lifecycle'. This is an attempt - through research done with several department/faculty IT teams - to understand the high-level, technology-agnostic phases and steps that are common in device management at Oxford 

  • the use of Microsoft Intune to provide the functionality that supports many of the activities identified in the Device Management Lifecycle 

  • an Oxford-specific configuration of Microsoft Intune, to ensure it provides the appropriate permissions for each device management team to manage devices they responsible for and not affect the management of devices outside of their control 

What is Microsoft Intune and why has it been chosen? 

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based tool that helps organisations to manage and secure devices and apps across different platforms. It supports both company-owned and personal devices, ensuring safe access to corporate data while maintaining user productivity, 

Adopting this tool would bring the following benefits: 

  • a consistent experience with a Single Sign On (SSO) logon 

  • protects company data and can enforce compliance across devices 

  • it simplifies device and app management from one consol 

  • reduces IT workload through automation and cloud-based management 

  • it's scalable across the university and can integrate with Microsoft 365 and other security tools  

  • it lowers costs overall by consolidating management solutions 

What's happened so far? 

The SDM team have been working hard this year led by the project sponsor, Pete Jones (Technology Lead in MSD). The team have been working with a selection of departments across the university to understand the different needs across the divisions. Using the agile methodology by working in 2-week sprint has allowed the team to take an iterative approach and to designing, building and testing the product and service. The team now have a prototype of the platform that will be used to inform a pilot rollout. Learning from the pilot will help with iterations on the product and service to support its delivery.  

What’s happening next? 

Over the summer months, the team will be focusing on delivering the Minimal Viable Product (MVP). An MVP delivers core functionality with enough value to gather user feedback and iterate quickly - central to Agile and lean approaches.  

Other priorities include:  

  • further refining the ‘As Is’ blueprint with MPLS findings and inputs from other divisions  

  • finalising the file and print solution requirements and presenting them to the project’s new technical governance Committee 

  • completing the first draft of our discovery report, which will guide decisions for both product and service design  

The team have presented updates on the project and their ways of working in various updates and forums, including the following: 

  • IT Staff Spotlight Series – 25 June. Watch recording. (IT Services staff access only) 

If you’d like updates on the SDM project directly into your inbox, please fill out this form. 

Shared Apprenticeship Scheme  

What is it? 

The IT shared apprenticeship scheme represents an enhancement of the existing Level 3 IT apprenticeship, which was previously limited to individual departments or divisions. This pilot program, set to commence in 2025, aims to develop shared resources across various departments, including IT services. The scheme will offer a Level 3 IT apprenticeship, providing apprentices with industry-standard IT qualifications from our approved training provider, Basingstoke ITECH. 

What’s happened so far? 

The University's Heads of Technology approved the role, job description, and placement options for the 2-year scheme. Two apprenticeship places were assigned: NDORMS and IT Services. The position was advertised in May and received 130 applications; nine candidates attended an assessment day that included teamwork and presentation exercises, followed by interviews. Two candidates were selected and offered positions, with start dates in September 2025. 

What’s happening next? 

The apprentices will begin in September with a one-week induction that includes tours, meetings, and mandatory training. They will spend six weeks on the University service desk managing calls and gaining experience in IT, followed by their first placement. At the end of the first year (September 2026), they will transition to a different department. The induction also provides information sessions and workshops about the university. Induction suggestions or relevant contacts can be sent to sharedinfrastructureservices@admin.ox.ac.uk. 

This initiative aims to support the university’s objectives and facilitate collaboration across divisions. 

ITSS Induction and Development   

What is it?  

SISP identified and prioritized a key desire amongst ITSS to have a revised ITSS induction. Early input from divisional IT clarified that we need something that goes beyond a simple welcome and orientation pack, covering details of Oxford's IT configuration and continuing to support ITSS as their career develops. This will be a professional development programme for all IT support staff that can be grown and continuously improved over time.  

Aims  

  • Enable new ITSS to become effective quickly 

  • Refresh and update knowledge for existing ITSS  

  • Surface information about Oxford’s systems that can be hard to find  

  • Establish a modular curriculum that can be built in stages and extended in future 

  • Create learning pathways that highlight content relevant to specific ITSS roles 

What's happened so far?  

A working group has been formed, comprising SISP team members and ITSS from divisions, departments, colleges and IT Services. A launch workshop agreed the aims above, generated an initial curriculum, and drew up a delivery plan. We selected some initial modules for development that include replacement of the current online induction, and introductions to Oxford IT support model, networking, SSO/MFA, and Microsoft365 collaboration tools.  

What’s happening next?  

Work is well underway on the initial set of modules, and we expect to start publishing these to ITSS in late summer. We will provide a briefing to ITSS on the plan so we can gather feedback and adjust accordingly. The group is also considering long-term maintenance of the modules to ensure they stay current.  

ITSS Experience  

What is it? 

The programme team is building out a backlog of items which can be investigated and fixed to make the lives of our IT support staff easier. This could be helping to support gaps in knowledge, new services, or updates to existing services, or revising things that we do that don’t really make sense anymore.   

What's happened so far? 

So far, we are working to roll out the ‘User Lookup tool’ - providing the capability to allow administrative staff to quickly and easily view the card record details (e.g. expiry date, issue number, department, and college affiliation) for people requesting support with identity and access issues. We are also collaborating with the Identity programme to explore how to make some key processes – such as resetting SSO and updating MFA factors – more accessible. These processes may require a small amount of training to go alongside them, to ensure that the University remains as secure as possible. Ultimately, we are aiming to enable IT support staff to handle more of these tasks directly, and we are seeking input to help identify which processes are best suited to this approach. 

What’s happening next? 

We will continue to work through the list, making updates and talking to the ITSS community regularly. We would welcome any feedback and problem statements for the backlog. Please feel free to contact the Shared Infrastructure programme team with ideas for items that might make infrastructure work better around the University. We would appreciate being able to speak to you and your teams further about what success would look like for that item. Email us at sharedinfrastructureservices@admin.ox.ac.uk. 

Another integral part of SISP is having the Heads of Technology involved from the beginning. Some reflections from John Mead, HoT: 

The Head of Technology role has given a clear point in which departments can gain support, and divisional input can be focused to then engage with IT Services, other divisions and other associated with Digital Services.  

SISP has given importance and a generation of momentum to enacting the outputs from the service review. This has meant the ability for departments to consider consolidations of services and collaboration in tackling divisional issues.  

 

We hope this has been a useful and interesting insight into how the SISP programme has developed so far this year.  

If you would like to find out more about SISP, or any of the individual initiatives, please reach to us on shared.infrastructure@admin.ox.ac.uk 

We’ll be back with another SISP update in Michaelmas Term.  

 

 

 

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