Tell us about UCD…
University College Dublin is Ireland’s largest university and was founded in 1854. It’s one of Europe’s leading research-intensive institutions and has made a substantial contribution to the creation of modern Ireland through the study and discussion of people, society, business, economy, culture, languages and the creative arts, as well innovation.
What were some of the main IT challenges you faced?
Our department specifically deals with supporting the IT requirements for the University’s library sites. Prior to us installing DNA, our main challenges were asset management and tracking – in particular, keeping track of all the various pieces of IT equipment we have spread across different library sites, and being able to quickly and easily determine which machines were approaching their end of life and needed to be replaced.
Did DNA help you to meet those needs?
Yes! We use it to keep an up-to-date, accurate hardware and software inventory of all the machines we manage – and they’re all sorted by library site within DNA. For instance, we can see all Dell-specific asset information, which we can then easily export from DNA and query with Dell’s warranty tracking system. This saves us a lot of time. We also occasionally re-purpose or move machines to different locations where they may be better suited. It’s easy to do this with DNA as the data it gathers provides us with an
accurate and detailed list of the hardware in each machine, so, for example, if someone needs more RAM or a larger hard drive, we can quickly and easily identify a machine from our pool that will meet their needs.
How has DNA contributed to your department?
DNA has really helped by saving our technicians a lot of time in eliminating manual processes and, therefore, it has increased our productivity. Of course, this means that our department saves money too, as we can work so much more efficiently than we did before. We would definitely recommend DNA to others.
What do other staff in the university think of DNA?
Most staff aren’t really aware that the DNA client is on their machines; it works invisibly for us and doesn’t get in their way, which is great!
What is it like working with our support team?
We’ve only had to work with the Support Team on one occasion. They were incredibly helpful with getting our problem resolved, due to an incorrect configuration at our end.
How do you see your DNA solution supporting your IT into the future?
Now that we’re up and running with DNA, we’re going to start using more of its functionality. We’re currently investigating doing more remote management – such as pushing out files or installer packages to remote machines – which should increase our efficiency even more.
