Royal Holloway Statement
Customer Summary
From: Mel Gomes - Head of IT Commercial Management and Contracts
Royal Holloway University was founded over 170 years ago by two Victorian social pioneers who wanted to make a difference. Formed from two colleges, these were among the first places in Britain where women could access higher education, so their rich history is deeply rooted in providing equity in opportunity, transforming lives through education and creating positive change.
Fast forward to the present day, Royal Holloway is one of the top 30 UK universities, according to the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.
RHUL has been a customer of Exponential-e since 2019.
How does the solution / technology / service (use the most appropriate) Exponential-e provide benefit your organisation and your customers?
Royal Holloway was founded over 170 years ago, with the aim of transforming lives with education.
It now serves over 12000 students and over the last 5 years has been consistently ranked in the UK's top 30 universities, in that period Exponential-e have won a number of contracts including merging Microsoft Teams during the pandemic to help students collaborate, also installed Azure Virtual Desktop, transformed our telephony as well as being a trusted Cyber partner. The IT Services team build the foundations for which underpins the university, and we have a digital program which is continuously looking to deliver a seamless service to staff and students. All of our partners including Exponential-e are a vital part of that.
What qualities do you believe are important in a technology partner?
I look for technology partners that are transparent in their business model, as well as their deliverables and obligations to us and how they are going to deliver their services. I want a service that delivers value, innovation, and continual improvement. Exponential-e explain what they're working towards, they look to continually improve the service, they give us wider thinking from different verticals and sectors and most importantly they listen to feedback and act on it.
How do you see the future of your partnership with Exponential-e evolving?
The Higher education sector has been under a lot of pressure recently, student fees are worth 30% less now than they were in 2017. What I want from a partner is to reduce total cost ownership so we can work together to provide services in the most efficient way possible.
Could you share a "stand-out" moment where Exponential-e excelled?
During the pandemic, Exponential-e helped us move to a single tenancy in a very short space of time, that was critical for us and most importantly did it on the terms I required which mitigated the risk and took the fear out of the business.
Are there any individuals at Exponential-e you feel consistently go above and beyond?
Neil Smith joining the Account team has really helped Royal Holloway, we have multiple services on different contracts and different technical service owners and Neil brings that all together.
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