National College of Ireland

National College of Ireland is a leading provider of third-level education to 3,500 full-time and parttime students. Founded in 1951 with barely 100 students and originally run by Jesuits, the college

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now employs a full-time staff of 200 and occupies a 2-acre site in the heart of Dublin’s prestigious

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Financial Services Centre.

Many universities and colleges use self-service credit top-up systems that enable students to

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purchase print credit on campus. In 2007 NCI acquired one such “money-loader” system so that

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students could buy credits needed to use campus machines for printing their typed notes,

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dissertations for degrees, and other documents.

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While this system was fine in theory, in practice it caused “continuous operational difficulties”,

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which included not always correctly identifying the different monies lodged by students.

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A series of troubleshooting visits by various technicians confirmed that there was a problem, but

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failed to identify a solution. The result was that staff in the NCI library, which houses most of the

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public printers and copiers, were under considerable pressure from students needing change

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because the credit system had failed to deliver.

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After struggling with the system for a number of years in what the college IT Manager described as a

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“horrendous customer experience”, NCI decided to seek an alternative solution.

NCI’s IT manager, Geraldine Minogue, assisted by a team of ten, has responsibility for a centralised

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college IT service and the entire IT infrastructure and support services for college staff and students,

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as well as the residents of the NCI Business Incubation Centre.

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“It would be fair to say that all of this was achieved with the minimum of disruption to both staff and students within the college. Bryan S Ryan fully understood our challenges”

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Professor, Ms Minogue

In search of help, Ms Minogue turned to Bryan S Ryan, the Irish Managed Print Services and IT

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services specialist, whose reputation she learned of through a contact in the IT industry. One

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immediately reassuring aspect was that Bryan S Ryan had many years of experience in the field of

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educational institutions.

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A Bryan S Ryan representative visited NCI to assess the college’s needs and quickly realised that, in

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addition to the immediate challenges, there were other areas that both parties could look at

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enhancing customer services and delivering overall cost efficiencies.

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Bryan S Ryan’s project team quickly moved through the gears in applying their SERVO MPS project

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methodology. This approach, which has a proven track record in large MPS accounts and has been

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fine-tuned over the years, incorporates five key metrics designed to offer clients enhanced

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productivity and cost effective solutions.

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The five key SERVO metrics are: Scope and Evaluate, Educate/Change Management process, Rollout/

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Implementation, Value to the Client and Business Process Optimisation.

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Speaking from her NCI office, Ms Minogue said: “Bryan S Ryan’s Sales Director, Gerry Cheung,

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assured me they would have the replacement solution set up and fully operational in just four days –

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a deadline that we absolutely had to meet. Frankly, I was quite sceptical because of the scale of the

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problem: not just physically bringing in the hardware but also setting up the software, physically

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adapting existing hardware and then transferring the student records to the new system’s

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database".

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The Bryan S Ryan project team met and exceeded all the deadlines and demonstrated their

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credentials in all aspects of what was a hugely positive outcome for both parties.

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Ms Minogue was hugely impressed with Bryan S Ryan’s managed services approach, “It would be fair

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to say that all of this was achieved with the minimum of disruption to both staff and students within

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the college. Bryan S Ryan fully understood our challenges. It was their partnership approach with my

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team that really stood out and which ultimately led to a successful implementation. I now have

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confidence in a solution that is both reliable and resilient and meets all of the needs of a demanding

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Environment.”

This partnership approach has continued and phase two is currently been completed:

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The second module of Bryan S Ryan’s rollout comprised a solution that would enable students to

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print from their mobile devices. This was introduced by NCI in recognition of the growing use of such

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technology, and has proved very popular with students. Ms Minogue said that, as with the cash loader system, “everything has worked faultlessly from day one, with no issues or hitches

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whatsoever. We look forward to phase three with the same professionalism and dynamic approach.