Case Study

Group of 8 University: Platform Strategy

Bridging the gap between technology and the University to focus effort and investment on valuable outcomes.

At a Glance

DigiRen partnered with a Group of 8 University to redefine its Core Platform Strategy, shifting it from fragmented and reactive investments to a future-ready and business-aligned capability. Through a structured assessment of the existing platform landscape, DigiRen co-designed strategic principles, prioritised capability uplifts, and delivered a three-year transformation roadmap. The engagement established clear alignment between technology investment and institutional goals, enabling more sustainable platform management, improved financial transparency, and modernised hosting decisions.

Yes
Socialisation and buy-in to the Platform Strategy​
Yes
Guiding principles for core platform decision-making and investment​
3
year path for uplifting the platform capabilities ​

Challenge

This University faced significant challenges driven by outdated technology and unfocused investment in its Core Platform. Without a unified platform strategy, the University had slipped from a position of technological leadership to one of stagnation. Key symptoms of this outdated model included:

  • A lack of strategic focus resulted in fragmented efforts and reactive investment decisions.​
  • Minimal standardisation and highly manual processes introduced significant operational risk.​
  • The inability to trace costs or evaluate the effectiveness of platform spend created uncertainty around value.​
  • Continued investment in legacy technologies contributed to a culture of maintaining the status quo, hindering innovation.​
  • A planned hardware refresh threatened to lock the University into these inefficiencies for another 5 years, creating urgency for change.

The challenge for DigiRen

To position the University to evolve by establishing a clearly defined platform strategy, grounded in business alignment, financial transparency, and future-ready capability uplift.


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Approach

To support the University’s transition, DigiRen led a comprehensive review of the Core Platform ecosystem, capabilities and investments. The engagement involved:​

  1. A strategy, capability and platform assessment, drawing on data analysis, targeted interviews and document review, to build a holistic picture of the current state. This involved identifying of key misalignments between the University’s platform spend, business strategy, and technology roadmap.​
  2. The co-design of strategic principles to guide future investment and platform decision-making, ensuring alignment with the broader IT and University strategies.​
  3. The development of prioritised and measurable objectives to close capability gaps, alongside a cost baseline to identify realistic savings opportunities. A 3-year roadmap was defined in conjunction providing a structured pathway to address critical technology challenges and enable a scalable, modernised platform environment.

Outcomes

  • A clearly defined and broadly endorsed Platform Strategy, aligning platform goals with the University’s broader IT and institutional strategy.​
  • Guiding strategic principles to inform future investment decisions, including better understanding of cloud costs and long-term value.​
  • Enabling more sustainable platform management with prioritised capability gaps for uplift, reducing dependency on ad-hoc effort. ​
  • A 3-year transformation roadmap was delivered, outlining actionable steps and milestone dates to guide the University’s platform evolution, alongside a refreshed hosting strategy informed by cost baselining and identified savings.​
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