Zoom booms the University's connectivity

15 Apr 2020

Media Services power our normal way of working

Zoom, the cloud-based audio and video conferencing platform many of us hadn’t heard of a few weeks ago, has enabled over 9,000 colleagues across the University to work, meet, teach and learn from home, thanks to the efforts of the dedicated Media Services team.

It was originally intended that the stable, straightforward and secure communications platform be rolled out across campus in due course. Trevor Byrne, Media Services Manager says: “Previously, the drivers behind obtaining additional licences for Zoom were environmental sustainability and reducing unnecessary travel. However this month it quickly became a necessity for keeping the University going; its features including polling and breakout rooms are essential for group teaching”.

The team worked tirelessly to migrate staff to full licenses, and during this period, were processing in excess of a thousand support requests per day. They also created a dedicated support page, providing instruction for staff and a bespoke user guide. Both the Senior Leaderships Team and the Professional Services Leadership Team are now chairing large remote meetings, with President and Vice-Chancellor, Nancy Rothwell describing Zoom as now being her ‘normal’ way of working.

Since launch day and the time of writing, 17,482 meetings have taken place consisting of 3,636,308 meeting minutes with 92,687 participants.

Not all hard work

Whether you take part in a #StayInWorkOut session courtesy of UoM Sport or you have a virtual coffee break with your team, the University is keen that Zoom isn’t just seen as an aid to enhance work communication and collaboration, and encourage us to use it as a way to stay connected to the University community in this unprecedented time. 

Trevor advises staff to keep visiting the Zoom website for information and updates, and his team can offer guidance via email for those who need supporting through the process. He adds: “I personally feel that when the crisis has passed, working at the University will never fully be done in the same way again. We now have a platform which makes meeting, working and collaboration much more accessible."