Impressive Digital Transformation Case Studies from the Educational Sector

Demand for digital transformation in the education sector is accelerating, driven by the rise of new technologies and new generations of students. One study found that 91% of students now believe the digital services offered by their higher education providers should be just as intuitive and strong as the face-to-face lectures delivered on campus.

To deliver exceptional student experiences, empower faculty, and ensure ongoing innovation, educational institutions need to invest in the latest cutting-edge cloud technologies and services. However, with a host of unique challenges to consider, many educational vendors often struggle to find the right vendor to support their needs.

Today, we’re looking at some of the most impressive case studies and customer success stories, shared by our partner vendors, for an insight into how leading organisations can ensure a successful digital transformation strategy in the education sector.

Kettering Buccleuch Academy, Avaya, and UC Advisor

Award-winning educational establishment, Kettering Buccleuch Academy nurtures and educates children from ages 4 through to 18, empowering entire generations to excel in society. The core of the organisation’s success is rooted in its ability to effectively communicate with all key stakeholders, from partners and suppliers, to faculty members and parents.

Working with Avaya, KBA’s systems had enabled remote communication for many years. However, their aging technology suffered from a range of issues, making it difficult for the organisation to scale. KBA wanted to implement a new, cloud-based system, that would simplify administration, and bridge the gaps between their teams.

They shared this vision with UC Advisor, and Avaya, and were introduced to the benefits of Avaya Cloud Office, a versatile unified communications solution. Avaya Cloud Office gave the group a flexible and reliable multi-tenant platform in the cloud, capable of minimising the administrative burden of IT staff, and centralising the group’s communication strategy.

UCAdvisor was able to deliver a fixed cost deployment, inclusive of new handsets from Avaya, that delivered advanced functionality through a familiar interface. With this upgrade, KBA was able to access the low-cost, high-efficiency cloud ecosystem they needed to continue delivering exceptional educational services to a growing community.

Grange Primary Academy, 8×8, and UC Advisor

First opening its doors in 1956, Grange Primary Academy was the first school built in Kettering after World War II. Aware of the importance of a comprehensive communication and collaboration system in the educational environment, the Academy had relied on a combination of Microsoft Teams and Skype for 6 years. However, the team frequently suffered with issues regarding call reliability, sound quality, and telephony functionality.

The group approached UC Advisor for help formulating a plan for them to easily transition from their existing solution into an upgraded ecosystem, leveraging transformation funding. Our transformation fund meant Grange could refresh their hardware with no cost to the school.

For the upgrade, Grange Primary School chose 8×8 Work, a platform based on the cloud that would deliver the comprehensive reliability and clear voice quality the facility needed. Switching to 8×8 meant staff could access work calls from their personal device, and easily communicate with parents and stakeholders whenever necessary.

According to the school, 8×8’s technology has given them the confidence that their first point of contact with parents and community members will always deliver an excellent experience.

2U Inc, and Talkdesk

2U is an educational group that partners with the world’s top universities and colleges to help ensure that higher education is available to everyone. Major institutions, such as Yale and Harvard build entire degree programs for online learners using the company’s platform. This makes technology a critical part of 2U Inc’s strategy for success.

Despite offering a cutting-edge learning platform to educational vendors, 2U was still running on a legacy on-premises communication system. It was unable to integrate with the tools they used for customer relationship management, and offered problematic call quality.

Fortunately, 2U discovered Talkdesk, a leading CCaaS provider, at a Salesforce World Tour Event, and discovered the benefits of a cloud-native platform that would integrate seamlessly with their CRM. The Talkdesk solution offered the group a scalable ecosystem, that offered industry-leading call quality, and end-to-end reliability.

Implementing Talkdesk, alongside a Salesforce integration, allowed 2U to increase agent satisfaction among its employees by 34%. At the same time, it’s contact rates increased by 12%, and NPS score was boosted by a fantastic 5 points.

The University of Delaware and Lifesize

The Nurse Managed Health Centre (NMCH) at the university of Delaware is dedicated to offering both student training and treatments for various episodic illnesses and injuries, chronic illness management, and more. At NMHC, physicians and nurses know that patients don’t always know where to go to get support with their treatment, and struggle with navigating the healthcare system.

The University of Delaware wanted to find a way to eliminate these issues, by incorporating a high-quality telehealth system. They wanted a cloud solution that would provide both healthcare students and patients with real-time educational sessions with healthcare professionals.

A physician recommended Lifesize to the company after successfully conducting video consultations with the software. NMHC saw this technology as an opportunity to enrich their education services, and the level of care they could offer to patients.

Today, NMHC uses a combination of the Lifesize HD video systems, and Lifesize Service to connect with remote patients, students, and specialists. The technology has empowered the group to engage and connect with all manner of individuals, as well as major physical therapy classrooms on campus.

The video conferencing offering means NMHC can now connect with specialists and universities all over the world, and ensure students can learn from valuable real-life experiences.

Herts for Learning and RingCentral

Founded to help young people realise their potential, Herts for Learning works to ensure everyone has access to an exceptional education. To achieve this goal, the nonprofit developed a range of products and services for schools, including IT services, and teacher training support. Unfortunately, the team began to struggle to deliver exceptional service as its communications system grew outdated.

The phone system the group had suffered from limited functionality, making it difficult to set up and adjust call groups for support teams. There was no viable remote work option either, limiting the group’s ability to evolve and scale.

The company conducted exhaustive research into cloud communications providers, before eventually discovering RingCentral. With RingCentral, the team could access both a cloud phone solution and contact centre platform in the same unified environment. What’s more, because the admin dashboard is so easy to use, the group was finally able to bring phone support in-house.

Employees across the company were thrilled to see the upgrade to the phone system, and managers and supervisors were able to access more in-depth insights into their communication metrics. Today, with RingCentral, the facility has the resources it needs to support educators everywhere.

Global Knowledge and Zoom

Global Knowledge stands as one of the world’s largest professional development and IT training companies, drawing over 50,000 students to its virtual classrooms each year. The live online classrooms ensure professionals can conveniently learn from subject matter experts, without leaving the office. As demand for their service grew, Global Knowledge found themselves searching for a new platform to better support these virtual classrooms.

The video communications solution chosen by the group needed to support the unique design of its online learning services, offering access to saved recordings, recurring classes, and instructor assignment. Eventually, the team found the Zoom video communications platform, and decided to use its API to build an integrated solution.

Zoom’s API gave the group the flexibility required to manage everything from scheduling irregularities, to host switching with ease. According to the team, the Zoom ecosystem offered seamless flexibility and scalability, allowing them to rapidly grow their ecosystem at speed.

In choosing Zoom’s technology, the group gained a flexible communication platform capable of reliably supporting it’s web-based courses, and vast learner community.

Calvary Christian College and GoTo

Calvary Christian College provides quality educational resources to 900 students from early learning through to Grade 12. Unfortunately, when the Covid pandemic struck, the college faced the same challenge as many other educational providers, struggling to deliver flexible learning to students. The team needed a remote-friendly alternative to its legacy PBX system, but it also had to ensure that the new technology would meet government legal requirements.

After carefully assessing the wide range of cloud-based vendors capable of offering flexible communication systems to educational institutions, the group discovered GoTo. The versatility of the GoTo Connect platform gave the group the opportunity to deploy both soft and hard phones for its hybrid communication system.

The solution empowered the team to create a versatile environment for communication that suitably supports a wide range of faculty members. With GoTo, the group now has the flexibility it requires to support ongoing innovation, without jeopardising security.

Start your Digital Transformation Journey

The case studies and customer success stories above offer a valuable insight into how educational groups and institutions can unlock new possibilities with the right technology. With innovative cloud-based platforms and agile communication tools, your educational facility can deliver better experiences to students and staff alike.

If you need help choosing the right vendor for your digital transformation journey, contact UC Advisor, or use our comparison matrix to narrow down your options. Alternatively, if you’re searching for financial support, contact us to learn more about our Digital Transformation Fund, and how it can help you reduce the expense of technology evolution.