Digital Technologies

Who are they?

The Digital Technologies Directorate are made up of three teams; Digital Experience, IT and Reprographics.

• The Digital Experience Team support and promote the development and use of learning and information technologies such as Microsoft Teams and Moodle. They also research existing technologies and are currently exploring Google Classroom, VR/AR, and Artificial Intelligence. The team can be contacted on: digitalexperienceteam@bedford. ac.uk

• The IT team looks after the network, PCs, software, classroom screens etc. They have a range of roles and services in the team, from technicians, to specialists in areas such as the Cloud, security, and governance. If you have any issues or questions, please contact the team via the helpdesk on itsupport@bedford.ac.uk or Tel: 01234

291999 (Ext: 5999)

• The Reprographics teams are located at the Bedford College and Tresham College, Kettering campuses and help with larger scale printing or photocopying needs that can’t be accommodated by the local printers. They also look after the post, franking, and some deliveries at these locations. They can be contacted by visiting them on the ground floor of the Tower Block or behind the IT office in Kettering.

Some of what we do...

Over the last year, significant strides have been made in improving our IT infrastructure by implementing the OneDrive, MFA for staff and students, Teams telephony, etc.

They’ve also improved our IT security posture, achieving Cyber Essentials (CE) certification. This has led to some tensions with hardware/software that was used historically, but couldn’t be used going forward, due to security concerns and non-compliance with CE. A Digital Steering Committee (DSC) now meets regularly to review new initiatives and make collective decisions to balance the risk and reward of implementing new proposals.

Sometimes the Group isn’t using the latest versions of software. This is usually down to the infrastructure not being able to adapt quickly enough or it can’t meet the specifications of the new software. They are looking to address this for the future (see below). Equally, sometimes it isn’t appropriate to upgrade to the latest versions due to the cost benefit or the industry not using the latest versions. There is a Capital bid process in place with requests going to Principals. Where these requests require IT equipment, these will also be reviewed at DSC.

The Digital Technologies Directorate are going through a period of significant change, (particularly within the IT department) to update the infrastructure to provide a more, resilient, reliable and scalable infrastructure which is fit for purpose for the strategic aims of the Group. Once in place, it will allow them to build our capabilities and ensure we are able to use the latest versions of software (where appropriate) and offer capabilities such as Virtual Reality (VR), AI and other technologies, without the need to worry about bandwidth or specification issues. You can read more about the teams Top 10 Priorities for this summer in this CONNECT intranet news article.

To read more about the Digital Technologies Directorate, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet pages: IT Services, Repographics and the Digital Experience Team.