Curtin Uni has digital advantage with local technology solution
The 30-year partnership between Curtin University and TechnologyOne provides a landmark case study in sustained collaboration, shared vision, and navigating a complex technological transformation in higher education.
Since 1995, Curtin and TechnologyOne have been developing, deploying and refining enterprise resource planning systems tailored to the university's evolving needs.
Through the two businesses' shared commitment to enhancing the student and staff experience, the longstanding partnership has influenced the evolution of the technology, which has in turn, informed the institution's approach to student administration.
The partnership took a significant leap forward in 2019 when Curtin became one of the first major universities in the country to move both its finance and student management systems to TechnologyOne's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.
'The move to SaaS has been really beneficial. In fact, I think probably one of TechnologyOne's real strengths is that SaaS environment,' said Curtin University's chief student services officer Neville Hiscox.
'So it has enabled us to do upgrades a lot more easily. It allows us to expand the storage as needed, and it has benefited Curtin in several other ways. Like not having to maintain infrastructure such as servers and not having to have our IT and systems areas constantly doing upgrades and weeks of testing. We think the SaaS environment is one of TechnologyOne's really strong offerings.'
TechnologyOne's executive vice-president for education, David Cope, said the provider not only offered a local technology solution given it was Australian-based, but also unlike most vendors, it owned the solution from end to end.
'Most software vendors sell a piece of software and then you get a third party to integrate it, so you get somebody else to help you with other parts. We are very proud that we design, build, sell, implement, run, and support our end-to-end SaaS solution. What that means is we develop very close, long lasting relationships with our customers,' he said.
'Because you don't have that middle man, we hear directly from our customers on their challenges and opportunities, and we can feed that directly into our product development and turn that around quickly for customers. We refer to it as the 'Power of One'. It does play on the TechnologyOne name, and the power of one means it's only one hand to shake.'
The co-creation of one of Australia's most widely adopted student management platforms, known as StudentOne, has highlighted the enduring partnership between TechnologyOne and Curtin University.
'That was not without its challenges but we worked with TechnologyOne to build a system that is extremely functional, and you are now seeing those benefits across the sector, with many institutions in Australia using StudentOne as their student management system,' Mr Hiscox said. 'Over time, the relationship with TechnologyOne has become more honest. In my view, TechnologyOne has started to really engage and understand that what we're using here isn't pain-free. They're open to talking about it and hearing from the customers, and it really is about them engaging with us, more so than us engaging with them. That is being seen in several different changes that are happening inside the company, particularly this year. Bringing on new people and new positions to listen to and support their customers.'
The TechnologyOne Student Management software supports student administration with a solution for the unique and differing needs of both higher and vocational education institutions.
The software enables student recruitment and admission processing, engages and retains existing students, interacts with alumni and empowers staff, partners and students through a variety of self-service capabilities.
It also offers a mobile solution that has increased convenience for students and reduced paper-based processes for administrative staff, enabling them to focus on value-adding activities.
Tasks and forms can now be completed digitally, instantly reaching the right person or department through automated workflow with the touch of a button from any desktop or mobile device.
Mr Hiscox said the move to StudentOne became especially important and value-enhancing for Curtin when the Covid pandemic hit.
'The partnership with TechnologyOne really enabled us to get some things done in what was an extremely fluid environment. For example for vaccination certificates, we worked with TechnologyOne and their consultants and developers, and the University of Melbourne – another TechnologyOne partner – to implement business process automation and RPA, to allow our students to upload government approved documentation, and for us to then validate those certificates, so they could continue studying,' he said.
' That partnership with TechnologyOne proved invaluable. They quickly understood our system and the impact we needed to make, allowing us to move forward efficiently and focus on our core business.'
Looking forward, both Curtin and TechnologyOne see fertile ground for continued innovation. Using artificial intelligence, particularly in the admissions space, is a hot topic.
'AI is a broad term, encompassing machine learning, GenAI, LLMs, all those types of things. But we really hope that TechnologyOne will embrace all of those AI sorts of functions and apply them right across their suite of products,' Mr Hiscox said.
Damon Kitney
Columnist
Damon Kitney has spent three decades in financial journalism, including 16 years at The Australian Financial Review and 12 years as Victorian business editor at The Australian. He specialises in writing the untold personal stories of the nation's richest and most private people and now has his own writing and advisory business, DMK Publishing. He has published three books, The Price of Fortune: The Untold Story of being James Packer; The Inner Sanctum, and The Fortune Tellers.
@DamonKitney
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