A prestigious university in Asia Pacific
A decade of consistent digital workplace management through change
The background
One of Asia Pacific’s largest universities, serving more than 53,000 students (scaling to over 77,000 during peak periods) and employing over 13,000 staff, operates across multiple campuses, departments, and administrative units. Its communications environment reflects this complexity, with a multi-vendor telephony and UC estate supporting thousands of users.
Despite its size, the university’s communications infrastructure is managed by a relatively small but highly capable IT team. Over more than a decade, the institution has evolved its operating model- from an in-house solution to a series of managed service providers (MSPs) responsible for the digital workplace. Throughout these changes, one constant has remained: VOSS UC Automation.
Since the mid-2010s, the university has relied on VOSS as the orchestration and management layer across its digital workplace, building a strong and trusted relationship along the way. While MSPs have come and gone, VOSS has consistently provided the control, visibility, and automation needed to manage a complex and dynamic communications landscape.
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The challenge
As the university’s environment matured, so did its expectations. While it valued the technical expertise provided by MSPs, it became increasingly concerned about the commercial model associated with managed services- particularly the cost of ongoing administration and change requests.
At the same time, the scale and distributed nature of the organization introduced operational challenges. Supporting thousands of staff across multiple departments meant navigating complex, role-based access requirements across different user groups, increasing the risk of inconsistent processes, human error, and governance gaps.
The shift toward hybrid working added further complexity. IT teams needed to securely enable remote administration while maintaining strict control over access and permissions. In parallel, onboarding and offboarding staff – especially in a university environment with frequent changes- required efficient, standardized processes to avoid delays and errors, particularly around phone number and voice service allocation.
Ultimately, the university was looking for a way to reduce reliance on MSPs, lower operational costs, and regain greater control over its digital workplace – without compromising on governance, scalability, or user experience.
The solution
Building on a long-standing relationship and trust in the platform, the university recently renewed its commitment to VOSS UC Automation with a three-year agreement.
Today, VOSS acts as the central management and automation layer for approximately 8,000 knowledge workers, independent of the underlying service provider. This gives the university the flexibility to evolve its sourcing strategy while maintaining a consistent operational model.
Flow-through provisioning
Enabling seamless, automated user management across systems
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Allowing precise authorization levels for administrators, which is critical in a large, distributed IT environment
Zero-touch workflows
Reducing manual intervention and accelerating routine tasks
Automated on and offboarding
Including phone number management and voice service allocation
Support for data sovereignty
Ensuring compliance requirements across regions and departments
RBAC has been particularly impactful, enabling the university to support hybrid and remote working models without exposing unnecessary risk. Administrators are granted access only to what they need, ensuring strong governance while maintaining operational agility.
VOSS value
By standardizing on VOSS UC Automation as its consistent management layer, the university has achieved significant operational and commercial benefits.
First and foremost, it has reduced its dependence on MSPs for day-to-day administration, empowering its internal IT team to take greater control. This shift has delivered meaningful cost savings while also improving responsiveness and flexibility.
Automation has streamlined critical processes such as provisioning and user lifecycle management, reducing manual effort, minimizing errors, and ensuring consistency across the environment. Standardized workflows have improved efficiency and reliability, particularly in high-volume tasks like onboarding and offboarding staff.
Governance and control have also been strengthened. With RBAC and centralized management, the university can confidently manage a large number of administrators without compromising security or oversight.
In addition, built-in dashboards and reporting provide valuable visibility into the digital workplace, supporting better decision-making and ongoing optimization.
What the future holds
Looking ahead, the university is exploring a transition to a cloud-based model to further enhance scalability, simplify upgrades, and improve cost management. With VOSS already in place as the automation layer, the university is well positioned to adopt new UC technologies, introduce productivity tools, and expand into adjacent areas such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Defender, and license management, safe in the knowledge that these new additions can easily be managed by VOSS.
Ultimately, VOSS has provided the consistency, control, and efficiency needed to manage this complex digital workplace, enabling the university to evolve its strategy with confidence while delivering a reliable experience for staff and students alike.
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