Member Article

Waterstons go the distance with Durham Business School contract

Durham-based business and IT consultants Waterstons are celebrating a decade in partnership with Durham Business School after being awarded a six-figure contract to supply outsourced IT services for at least the next two years.

Durham Business School’s Chief Information Officer, Colin Ashurst said: “One of the main reasons for choosing Waterstons was because of the flexible resourcing they offered. In addition to managing the operational IT service, time is built in for the completion of strategic projects throughout the year. This gives us access to a wide range of resources that we couldn’t possibly match in-house.”

As part of the contract, Waterstons will continue to work on the “Durham Experience” programme. Arising from an IT strategy derived by Waterstons and members of the Business School’s senior management team, the Durham Experience aims to make learning more flexible, interesting and valuable for all their student groups.

Web conferencing technology has been used to connect tutors and other academics with groups of students located around the globe. This has enabled distance learners to attend online tutorials and interact with their tutors as they receive feedback on their work as if they were actually located in Durham.

Waterstons’ Ben Leighton said: “The Durham Experience plays an important role in helping the school progress towards their objective of becoming one of the top business schools in Europe. Students can now access lectures online and they can interact with the rest of the student cohort. We’ve also used some of the latest technology to give them access to the specialist computer programs the school offers from the comfort of their home computer.

“The aim here is to break down geographical boundaries and make the whole learning experience more personable and accessible, no matter where in the world a student is located.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .