Simpson Associates are delighted to announce that following a tender process they have been selected by world leading research university, UWE Bristol, to implement their Data and Analytics project. This project forms part of a multi-year programme at UWE Bristol intended to significantly improve capabilities in this area.
Phase one of the project will focus on developing a new, foundational, university-wide data and analytics platform using Azure cloud technologies, eventually enabling the university to retire its on-premise data warehouse. The key outcome for this phase is on delivering secure and sustainable Student Admissions reporting to support UWE recruitment activities.
Commenting on the new strategic partnership, Paul Cotter, Head of Planning and Business Intelligence at UWE Bristol said: “We are delighted to be working with Simpson Associates. Their expertise was clear throughout the selection process. With their knowledge and experience both within Data and Analytics and the Higher Education sector, they understand our challenges and objectives, so we were confident they’d be able to deliver value from this project. In addition, their approach to knowledge transfer ensures we’re upskilling our internal team too, which was really important to us.”
Dave Kerby, Data & AI Solution Lead, Simpson Associates said: “I’m really pleased we were selected to be the partner of choice for UWE Bristol on this transformational project. Moving them to the cloud and using technologies from the Microsoft Azure Data and Analytics Platform will ensure we can deliver a secure and sustainable student admissions reporting solution. Technologies such as Azure Data Lake and Azure Synapse Analytics will all be optimised for the university to ensure data availability and accuracy, good governance, and will also pave the way to move on to predictive analytics.
Its also great to see Simpson Associates will play a pivotal role in the upskilling of the UWE Bristol internal team during the implementation of the chosen technology stack.”
The Data and Analytics Phase one project is part of a longer programme of work – over approximately three years, the University will develop greater maturity in areas such as the team’s skill sets, evidenced decision-making, Governance, Data Availability, their Data and Analytics Platform and ultimately Predictive Analytics.
Phase one will specifically see Simpson Associates helping to design the platform in the context of the longer-term roadmap. Alongside supporting UWE Bristol with the ingest of structured admissions data, Simpsons will also co-design and co-implement the data lake, data warehouse and ETL processes.
Knowledge transfer and co-development was a really important element to UWE Bristol, and so Simpson’s approach of working closely with the client’s internal teams fitted in perfectly with their expectations.
About The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has a global and inclusive outlook, with approximately 30,000 students and strong industry networks and connections with over 1,000 employers. Research at UWE Bristol focuses on real world problems and the University plays a pivotal role in the regional economy. With over £300 million invested in infrastructure, buildings and facilities across all campuses, UWE Bristol is creating a place for learning that is innovative, ambitious, connected, enabling and inclusive. UWE Bristol is ranked 36th in the Guardian university league table, as well as 4th in the South West of England for student satisfaction.
About Simpson Associates
Simpson Associates is a leading UK Data Analytics Consultancy and Managed Service Provider, specialising in data consultancy, data performance and data management. Their solutions empower forward-thinking organisations to understand and resolve some of the most complex and common challenges. In addition, they offer vast experience spanning a rich business pedigree, combined with an extensive partner network. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, they hold four Gold Competencies in Data and BI. They are also an IBM Gold partner, specialising in Cognos Analytics, Planning Analytics (TM1) and Information Governance, and an Informatica Partner. This ecosystem of technology vendor relationships equips Simpson Associates with a deeper expertise, enabling them to deliver market-leading data management and data performance solutions.