As part of its digital transformation strategy, Staffordshire University has chosen to implement Blue Prism Cloud, the market-leading intelligent automation (IA) platform. Blue Prism intelligent digital workers will soon be deployed across multiple functions in order to deliver an exceptional experience across all facets of student life at the university.
Staffordshire University has built a strong reputation for innovation and sets itself the goal of being the UK’s leading digital university. It was the first university in Europe to launch an eSports degree and has also led the way in its operations, being the first to migrate fully to the cloud and to introduce an artificial intelligence (AI) coach for students. Now the university, which has 15,000 students, is pioneering the adoption of Blue Prism’s enterprise robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent digital workforce software. This gives generalist users the ability to direct digital workers that automate complete process lifecycles.
Andrew Proctor, Pro Vice Chancellor Digital at Staffordshire University, sees the potential for IA to transform higher education. “Automation is the key to reducing bureaucracy and transactional workloads from our staff. It frees up our talented lecturers to spend time more teaching and allows them to create a stronger social connection with our students. Now more than ever, it’s important for students to be assured of high quality, one-to-one attention in order to guide them successfully through this critical point in their development,” he said.
“It’s important that we are highly responsive to the unprecedented level of digital change we are witnessing in society to create a student experience that meets their expectations and sets them up for future success. At the same time, we need to create efficiencies wherever we can to remain competitive and relevant in the market. Automation can help us to achieve both of these objectives. For example, we’ll be alleviating pressure on back-office resources by introducing self-service capability, staffed by digital workers, which will be available to students 24 hours a day to resolve requests faster,” says Proctor.
The digital workforce will also support the university’s longer-term plans to increase its support to the region. The vision includes courses aimed at adults looking to acquire new digital skills, such as automation development, for which there is high demand. By establishing strength and depth of experience in applying IA to its own operations, Staffordshire will have a stronger foundation for launching these offerings.
“We are delighted to be working with an organisation that is at the forefront of transforming higher education. Andrew Proctor’s bold leadership is sweeping away pre-conceptions about where and how to deploy automation. Instead, he is ushering in a more comprehensive and human-centric approach to leveraging AI, Cloud and IA to open up new possibilities for University staff and students alike. We are excited to work with teams that stretch the positive impact of Blue Prism Cloud beyond immediate quick wins and into long-term success,” says Terry Walby, Chief Executive, Blue Prism Cloud.
Blue Prism Cloud is the industry’s leading SaaS based intelligent automation platform. Boasting a complete suite of pre-integrated cognitive skills and advanced AI-enabled management tools, it allows organisations to accelerate their transformation strategies without the burden of managing an underlying infrastructure.