UNLIKELY heroes emerge in a crisis – and these days they do it with their brains.
This has certainly been the case with Oldham
College’s IT Services staff in recent weeks.
Lee Murphy, team manager, always had a plan for if the ‘unthinkable’ ever
happened, but like most ‘disaster recovery’ scenarios it was theoretical,
optimistic, largely untested – and surely he’d never need it.
Then early March arrived – and with it the rapid spread of COVID-19, which overwhelmed all those assumptions and changed our world in a flash.
“No Pressure – But This Has to Work”
SUDDENLY it was ‘probable’ that Lee and his seven-strong team would have to dust off and enact that plan, with a campus closure looming that would scatter 6,000+ disconnected staff and students across the region.
The enormity and scale of the tasks this presented were daunting – because failure was not an option.
First they had to consider remote access.Who already had it, and exactly how could these all continue to be served + prioritised using a combination of Gateway, VMWare and VPN?
The next challenge was equipment – and a shortage of it. Exactly who had College-owned kit that would work, who had their own at home, and did they all have Internet access?
STAFF rounded up around 100 Trakker laptops which students borrow around campus, and recommissioned them all with ‘standalone’ access to systems.
Next, the planned purchase of 145 Chromebooks was brought forward. Some of these are still being set-up and connected before dispatch to learners.
But that was only the start of the challenges to solve…
Some students, including ESOL learners, had no kit, so good old-fashioned workbooks had to be printed and – with the Post Office now refusing bulk jobs – then they somehow had to be hand-distributed to every student’s home.
Some staff had no home broadband, so each had to be sorted with new access to a mobile network.
Administrators and Programme Leads all needed to contact learners regularly but, for safeguarding reasons, were not allowed to use their personal equipment to do this.
This meant the team had to source 40 new mobile phones from somewhere – again, no easy task with many organisations all scrambling to do the same, and making them like ‘gold dust’ to buy.
IN TOTAL the team has either had to buy, source, build, prepare, install, test, protect and deliver more than 300 separate pieces of kit.
One staff member is visiting campus each day to check all central infrastructure is functioning as it should.
Working online the rest of them are monitoring user activity, identifying issues and logjams, and dealing with the inevitable flurry of queries: measuring more than 500 phone calls, 50+ emails and 25 IT Service requests for new jobs to date.
Allan Tyrer, Finance Director with responsibility for IT, says their work has been “astonishing”.
“Lee and his team set the system up in way that made this all possible, but it had never been tested – they were essentially running a Live Test of the theory.”
“They’ve worked long, hard hours and their success is a real testament to their skills. I know that literally nothing hasn’t either been done, or tried, to get everyone connected. It’s just been a brilliant job.”
CRISES occasionally have a funny side – and a sense of humour is often necessary to get people through adversity…
With no Oldham College staff on-site to take deliveries, every single one of the IT team’s purchases of hundreds of laptops, phones and other equipment has instead all had to be sent direct to Lee Murphy’s home in Rochdale.
“My house has been like an Amazon depot”, he laughs.
“I’ve had delivery after delivery of laptops, Chromebooks, phones and the rest.
“My neighbours just keep seeing huge IT delivery trucks coming and going from my house at all hours. They must think I’m running some incredibly dodgy racket from home – I might have to move!”
WHAT HAS been achieved by this team in such a short space of time is remarkable – and it has given Oldham College invaluable experience that will make dealing with future ‘crises’ like Snow Days seem a comparative cinch.
“Every day you feel like you are ‘blagging’ what you do because no plan could ever prepare you for all these circumstances”, says Lee.
“But the system has held up really well for the users, and the team and I are grateful for all the fantastic and positive feedback we’ve had from people across the College.”
Alun Francis, Principal, said: “We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lee and his team for their incredible work during this period.”
“They are always positive, full of solutions and never shirk a challenge. To be honest we would have failed without them in the last few weeks. They have been truly astonishing every day.
“So a big thank you goes to all of them from myself, the Governors, the senior team, and all the staff and learners at Oldham College.”
