OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2011. Fujitsu has enabled the University of Bath to expand the scope of its Innovation Centre by migrating its business network system to a Cloud-based solution. This move has seen the Innovation Centre increase the number of its business networks, leading to more rapid identification of new technology start-up clients and spin-outs from University research.

With a research portfolio worth over Ј100 million, the University of Bath is ranked tenth in the UK in the 2012 Complete University Guide league table. Its Innovation Centre provides access to expertise, skills and quality contacts in a flexible business environment in which new ventures emanating from the University work along side privately-owned start-ups in an Entrepreneur-friendly environment. It operates a number of business networks, including SiliconSouthwest.co.uk, LowCarbonSouthWest.co.uk, OpenMIC and the Assisted Living Action Network. Over the last five years, ventures from the University of Bath’s Innovation Centre have created 160 new jobs and brought Ј15m into the City’s economy.

To manage these networks and their members, the Innovation Centre previously used a spreadsheet--based system which led to significant business constraints: little ability to easily cross-reference network lists, a lack of visibility of potential clients interested in other networks and missed cross-selling opportunities when planning events. There was also an inherent data security issue surrounding the storage of offline spreadsheet files on a public server. With a small team of five staff organising around 25 events across the networks per year, the need for a more robust and effective method of tracking memberships was identified. After investigating various solutions, the Innovation Centre chose to implement a solution from enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com.

Simon Bond, director of the Innovation Centre, said: “We’re passionate about the innovation and research that goes on within the University of Bath’s walls and its impact on the real world, but until now, simply maintaining this many networks has been a full-time job for my team. Salesforce.com has allowed us to not only manage our subscribers in a fraction of the time but as a result, we have been able to expand our business, launching two new networks for our clients.”

The Innovation Centre employed Fujitsu as a system integrator due to its proven expertise in minimising downtime during the transition phase. By employing a staggered transition over a week period, known as a hot-migration, Fujitsu ensured that the Innovation Centre was able to continue working as usual until the Salesforce.com implementation went live.

The new system has brought immediate benefits to the Innovation Centre. By providing different team members with varying levels of access within the secure, Cloud-based system, security has been improved significantly, while access to the system is now possible from mobile devices thanks to Salesforce.com’s iPhone app.

Simon Bond continues: “Salesforce.com is an incredibly sophisticated and comprehensive product, and it would have been extremely difficult for us to know where to begin. Fujitsu was integral in sculpting the installation into a manageable package that suits our current needs – and if we need more power in the future, it’s there.”

Mark Peplow, senior consultant at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said: “In recent years, we’ve helped a number of education establishments move from spreadsheet and manually-intensive systems to the latest Cloud-based solutions. It’s great to see this implementation not only expediting the University of Bath’s processes but actually enabling it to expand its business.”

Fujitsu offers a range of services for business-critical applications including CRM. Fujitsu also offers information management and application outsourcing services and works with leading providers such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.