The enabling new ways of working group’s primary aim has been to consider and implement new approaches to our working environment in a way that enables us to live our shared values, develop a more enabling culture, and in so doing enhance staff satisfaction, the student experience, and better fulfil the University’s ambitions.   

In June we heard from Professor Michael Brady talk of the group’s guiding principles and the work the group were doing.   

In this second edition of People First Conversations, we now hear from Peter (Pete) Mitchell, Assistant Director – End User Computing who talks about the work the Technology sub theme are doing.  

Explaining how the technology theme fits with the group Pete shares, “we want to bring the benefits of new ways of working to all, to this end we have coalesced around three themes, People, Space and Technology. Through the technology theme we will look at how technology can support us through transformation, with a new suite of services and tools designed to complement our new needs.” 

Looking at what’s to come from the technology theme, Pete describes a new project Eos and the specific actions the project will deliver: “Project Eos, which is the name for the project board delivering Enabling New Ways of Working’s technical features, will replace our existing ways of procuring and supporting personal computers, with a laptop first approach. By centralising the procurement and management of all Mac and PC laptops, we greatly improve our ability to secure our data and services whilst tracking and improving our environmental footprint.” 

Pete advises and encourages those responsible for implementing new ways of working in their local areas to reach out to the end user computing team for advice and support: “Our end user computing team within Information Services have been working with partners in agile technology transitions for some time, notably in the ARC.  We maintain a hardware manifest of recommended hardware with lead times and pricing for both mac and pc and are happy to speak directly to anyone looking to replace existing systems on any scale and provide bespoke advice.” Colleagues can get in touch with the End User Computing team through our university IT helpdesk.  

During the conversation Pete also mentions the University’s major IT investment project – Network Infrastructure Improvement Programme, which will run separately to the Eos device project. Colleagues should be aware that the Network Infrastructure Improvement Programme is a large and longer-term programme of work expected over several years due to the size of the campus. Colleagues can follow the project on the Network Programme webpage. 

Watch the conversation with Pete to find out more about how technology will support our new ways of working, project Eos and the parallel Network Infrastructure Improvement Programme.  

Find out more about the Enabling New Ways of Working Group on our webpages, and if you have a story to share about how you are implementing new ways of working within your area get in touch with the group at people.first@glasgow.ac.uk.  

First published: 15 August 2022

<< 16 August 2022