A leading UK university, De Montfort University sought to modernise its IT estate to better support a diverse academic environment, enhance device performance, and deliver a seamless experience for students and staff across multiple campuses.
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INDUSTRY: Education
VERTICAL: Higher Education
OBJECTIVE: Optimise the learning environment by aligning devices with academic needs, enhancing endpoint deployment, and improving technology investment strategies.
APPROACH: Introduce a more proactive, insight-led approach to managing devices. By centralising visibility across the estate, accelerating the transition to Windows 11, and reducing disruption through preventative maintenance, De Montfort University moved away from reactive IT towards a more experience-focused model.
SERVICES PROVIDED: Device Management with HP Workforce Experience Platform (WXP), accelerated Windows 11 roll-out.
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IT MATTERS: By introducing a centralised, real-time view of its multi-campus IT estate, De Montfort University gained a clearer understanding of how devices were performing in practice. This shift has enabled more accurate device right-sizing, proactive maintenance, and a more controlled rollout of Windows 11. The result is a more responsive, streamlined IT environment that better supports academic delivery while reducing operational complexity and risk.
BUSINESS MATTERS: The transition to Windows 11 and proactive device management has significantly reduced hardware support tickets and improved end-user satisfaction. Staff and students now benefit from seamless, uninterrupted access to the tools they need, while IT resources are freed to focus on strategic initiatives. A proactive support model has also helped avoid costly overprovisioning by aligning devices more precisely with academic requirements — ensuring smart, data-driven investment decisions.
ENSURING A SEAMLESS TRANSITION WITH MINIMAL DOWNTIME
With around 8,500 devices and over 400 applications across multiple campuses, De Montfort University needed to modernise its environment without impacting day-to-day operations. Working with DTP, the university introduced a more centralised and insight-led approach to device management, supporting a smooth transition to Windows 11. This enabled proactive hardware replacement and issue resolution, often before users were aware of any problem. The outcome was a low-risk transition to a modernised environment, with improved visibility and minimal disruption to teaching and learning.
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Following this transition, De Montfort University used these insights to better understand how devices were being used across its estate. De Montfort University leveraged the platform to conduct a deep analysis of device usage across its estate. This insight revealed opportunities to eliminate costly overprovisioning and reduce the number of hardware models in circulation—from more than 100 down to around 50—while still meeting the needs of 27,000 students and 3,500 staff. Faculties with high-performance requirements, such as architecture and game animation, retained powerful devices, while standardisation was introduced in less demanding areas. This strategic alignment of resources has not only improved efficiency and performance but also laid the foundation for smarter investment planning and long-term scalability across the university’s expanding footprint.
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Speaking about the collaboration, De Montfort University’s IT leadership praised DTP’s role in driving the transformation forward: “The journey started off from working with DTP to right-size the estate and optimise our investment,” said Associate Director Ram Basra. With decades of experience and a longstanding partnership, DTP provided the strategic guidance and technical expertise to ensure the project’s success. “It’s so simple, especially with a partner like DTP,” added Senior Technical Analyst Scott Wells. “When you’re responsible for the system, it’s great to know its health is way above benchmark and we’re ahead of the game.”
AMPLIFYING PERFORMANCE AND STREAMLINING OPERATIONS
With the proactive approach fully embedded, De Montfort University has experienced noticeable improvements in day-to-day IT operations. Tasks that once required multiple manual checks, such as verifying Windows 11 readiness, are now handled instantly, eliminating the need for cross-checking reports and reducing human error. Early in the rollout, the platform resolved a critical misidentification of processor generations, highlighting its value in improving oversight and decision accuracy.
Device maintenance has also become more seamless. Rather than waiting for a device to fail, IT can now forecast issues and prompt users to back up data and prepare for replacements in advance—removing last-minute disruptions and reducing time lost to hardware failures. These operational refinements have freed up the IT team to focus on strategic initiatives, while ensuring academic delivery remains smooth, timely, and disruption-free.
FUTURE-READY OPERATIONS: ACCELERATING PRODUCTIVITY
De Montfort University is now in a stronger position to make informed, forward-looking decisions about its technology estate. With a full year of device utilisation data on the horizon, the university will soon gain deeper insight into real-world academic demands, enabling more precise provisioning and significant cost-saving opportunities. This long-term visibility allows DMU to align investment directly with usage patterns, ensuring resources are routed where they deliver the most value.
The IT team is no longer reacting to outdated systems or guesswork. Instead, they’re proactively shaping a scalable, efficient infrastructure that supports evolving educational requirements across campuses in Leicester, Dubai, and soon, London. The foundation laid by this modernisation effort ensures DMU can continue to expand and innovate while maintaining high levels of IT performance, user satisfaction, and operational agility.