Hummingbird and Eduserv Partner to provide affordable connectivity for UK Educational and Research Institutions

Eduserv is a not-for-profit, professional IT services group with the mission is to realise the benefits of Information and Communications Technology for learners and researchers and the institutions that serve them. Eduserv achieves this mission through the provision of sustainable, shared services and funding research and development.

Eduserv’s licence negotiation and management service, Chest, delivers preferential pricing for software and data licenses on behalf of UK universities, colleges and other institutions engaged in educational or research activities. 97 per cent of UK universities and colleges benefit from at least one Chest agreement, enabling many to obtain software they would otherwise be unable to afford. Hummingbird – the Open Text Connectivity Solutions Group, has been participating in this program for fifteen years. Exceed®, Exceed Freedom™, NFS Maestro™, HostExplorer® and Connectivity Secure Shell™ are among the products Hummingbird offers through the Chest service.

A win-win scenario
“Hummingbird is a fantastic company to work with,” says Johanna Fyfe, Supplier Relationship Manager for Eduserv’s Chest service. “The company has a solid understanding of the needs of colleges and universities, making this a good partnership. We can rely on Hummingbird to look after the institutions that use their products, and in the event that anything goes wrong, Hummingbird is able to provide excellent technical support. Enabling institutions to purchase Hummingbird products through the Chest service also benefits students and researchers in the long term. As they graduate from their courses, they will be proficient in using Hummingbird products, which may be helpful in their chosen careers.”

The partnership provides benefits to all parties involved—institutions, Eduserv and Hummingbird. Eduserv’s commission on each sale is used to support its charitable mission in learning and research, while Hummingbird benefits from easier access to a fragmented market characterised by unique challenges.

Rod Desmeules, Regional Sales VP for Hummingbird comments: “Eduserv is widely recognised as a not-for-profit organisation that understands the needs of the education and research community, with established contacts across the sector. We have a very good and open working relationship and there is genuine camaraderie between Eduserv and Hummingbird.”

“The University has had a strong relationship with the Hummingbird Exceed package through Eduserv’s Chest service for over fifteen years, and it is fair to say that it has always been delivered in a timely fashion and we consider it to be very good value for the money.”

Dr. Kate Jeary
Senior PC Support Specialist, University of Cambridge, Computing Service

Supporting Eduserv’s customers
In order to provide efficient support to the various sites, each institution names two contact people who can call Hummingbird support department with any questions. This relieves pressure on the support department who otherwise would have to field thousands of similar support requests from every new user. Dr. Kate Jeary, Senior PC Support Specialist at the University of Cambridge, Computing Service, is typical of the named contacts that work with the world leading PC X Server, Exceed.

“Exceed is a versatile and well-documented product in the heterodox environment within the University of Cambridge, where a multiplicity of users with little experience of ‘real’ UNIX need to talk to a wide variety of UNIX machines via a graphical user interface without wishing to acquire a deep understanding of a complex system. For this class of users once it is set-up it ‘just works’ well,” says Jeary.

“On the other hand Exceed offers the experienced user and system administrator, especially for those concerned with security, a wide variety of network and other tools for use in their environment,” she continues. “The University has had a strong relationship with the Exceed package through Chest for over 15 years, and it is fair to say that it has always been delivered in a timely fashion and we consider it to be very good value for the money.”

Fyfe echoes the praise from the field, “Hummingbird always deals with any issues that we have and ensures that all updates are delivered on time. Having a close relationship with a supplier makes our job easier and helps universities and colleges to make the most out of their products.”

Chest and Hummingbird
Eduserv was established from cooperative shared services developed in UK universities. The Chest program started about 20 years ago as a way to leverage the combined negotiation and buying power of a large number of institutions. Today it provides preferential terms and conditions for around 4,000 products from 80 suppliers via chest agreements, which enable universities and colleges to save around £25 million annually.

Institutions can use the Chest Wish List to request an agreement for a product of their choice. The request will either be added to others already received or provide a new prompt. These requests do form a guide for future negotiations, ensuring that Chest agreements always reflect the needs of colleges and universities. “The university community get together and say ‘this is a great product, but over our allotted budget, let’s see if we can get Chest to talk to the supplier,” explains Fyfe, “That is how Exceed became one of the first products to be added to the program.”

“Exceed is a product that many people in the educational and research areas need to use, but can’t necessarily afford at the regular prices,” says Fyfe. “So it made sense for Eduserv to get involved, negotiate preferential pricing, and make sure that the universities could get the software they need through our Chest agreement without having to worry about counting licences or pennies.”.

Partnership grows stronger, deeper
Eduserv has just added Exceed Freedom to the products it offers through the Chest agreement. Exceed Freedom is Hummingbird’s newest product, released in February 2008. Exceed Freedom is an add-on to the Exceed that extends the value of the millions of Exceed licenses now in use. This new solution is designed to improve user productivity and reduce downtime by extending the reach of graphical UNIX applications to Exceed users at home or on the road.