Streamlining Software Delivery at Hochschule Bochum

The Goal

Hochschule Bochum is a mid-sized higher-education institution in the Ruhr region of Germany. The school is comprised of approximately 7,500 students and 350 faculty members.

Like many higher-education institutions, Bochum deals with numerous software vendors and licenses a wide range of digital products for its students, faculty, and staff. This includes products from Microsoft, Adobe, Sophos, Oracle, and VMware.

Bochum decided to revisit how they handle the distribution of this software. The university was in the process of redesigning their existing software-download site, which they saw as an opportunity to assess third-party options. The goal was to find a more efficient way to distribute digital resources – one that was more secure, easier for end users, and a centralized portal with one single sign-on (SSO) mechanism that will be less of a burden to manage than the institution’s existing system.

Michael Tomath, a member of IT at Hochschule Bochum, was given the job of determining how this could be done.

The Challenge

Bochum already had a process in place for distributing software. However, they wanted to improve their security and more efficiently manage license delivery. Here were the key things they needed their new solution to achieve.

• Centralize Distribution
  Bochum was distributing software via two separate sites, in two different ways. One was a Kivuto WebStore that they previously used to deliver licenses under an academic program they were subscribed to. The other was a software site they had developed in house. Having resources split between two locations discouraged adoption, because students and faculty weren’t clear on where they had to go to obtain each resource they needed.
• Improve Security
  Bochum’s in-house solution used SSO user verification, but everyone with school credentials had access. The site also had no means of differentiating between users, so everyone could download any product offered on the site, regardless of whether or not they were eligible for it. Bochum’s main security office had decided that this was no longer acceptable, and a more secure solution was required.
• Automate Distribution
  Another challenge was that Bochum’s software site did not include a means of distributing product keys or activation codes. Users could download the software they needed, but the keys to activate that software had to be distributed manually by school staff. This distribution took place in an ad-hoc fashion that varied by product. This made it all the more confusing and frustrating for students and faculty to acquire the resources they needed, which further contributed to low resource adoption rates.
• Simplify Management
  Maintaining two separate sites for distributing software required a large amount of time and effort. Bochum’s in-house solution, in particular, was a constant struggle for the IT team to keep running smoothly. Actual management of the two sites was only part of the burden. The IT team was also being inundated by end-user support requests, particularly regarding Microsoft Office 365.

The Solution

Mr. Tomath reached out to Kivuto to determine if they could help meet Bochum’s software-distribution needs.

Bochum had previous experience with Kivuto, and Mr. Tomath was impressed by how easy their platform was to use and manage. Other factors that led Bochum to consider Kivuto included the company’s membership in Germany’s Shibboleth federation which eliminated any data privacy and GDPR concerns, and the fact that they offer their platform, products, services, and full end-user support in numerous languages.

To address Bochum’s needs and concerns, Kivuto recommended Kivuto Cloud – a single, centralized platform that allows easy management and distribution of any academic assets.

The Result

Bochum had a long list of requirements for their new software-delivery solution. Here’s how Kivuto Cloud met each of these needs.

• Centralize Resources
  Kivuto Cloud provides a single platform where students, staff, and faculty can get all of the software, cloud services, eTextbooks, and other digital resources they need. This single access point makes it easier for end users to find their digital course materials – so much so that resource adoption rates at Bochum have risen by 40-50% since the school started using Kivuto Cloud.
• Improve Security
  With full SSO integration, Kivuto Cloud provides a secure means of distributing digital resources. Kivuto Cloud’s advanced rules engine and ability to filter products based on user eligibility also drives compliance by enforcing the terms, conditions, and restrictions associated with all products distributed through the platform.
• Streamline Delivery
  Bochum’s in-house software site provided access to assets, but not the product keys needed to activate them, which created extra steps in software delivery. Kivuto Cloud automates the delivery of these keys, so Bochum staff no longer need to distribute them manually. Kivuto Cloud also automates the provisioning and deprovisioning of named user licenses for cloud products like Office 365. This has saved the Bochum IT team even more time and trouble, while making it easier for end users to get the tools they need.
• Simplify Management
  Consolidating all digital resources on Kivuto Cloud has allowed Bochum to stop supporting the software-distribution site they’d developed in house. Having half the number of sites to manage has drastically reduced the amount of time and effort Bochum’s IT team spends on maintenance. And, because Kivuto has taken over providing end-user support, Bochum’s IT team received 250 fewer support requests in their first six months using Kivuto Cloud compared to the same period the previous year.

Today, Bochum is using Kivuto Cloud to centrally manage and distribute digital resources to nearly 10,000 students, staff, and faculty. Mr. Tomath and the Bochum IT team appreciate Kivuto Cloud’s hands-off management and the visibility into adoption rates offered by its reporting functionality. Students and faculty like how the single platform has taken the confusion and frustration out of getting access to digital resources.

“Kivuto addressed our criteria; it met our security requirements; the platform is extensible to support what we need in the future, and due to reporting we now have better insight. We were able to free up resources, and the end-user support saves us even more time.”

Michael Tomath, a member of IT at Hochschule Bochum

About Kivuto

For over 20 years, Kivuto has transformed the way academic software is pioneered and delivered. Today, Kivuto streamlines academic software and digital resources in one central platform, providing students, faculty, and staff with a one-stop shop to seamlessly access their resources.

For more information, visit www.kivuto.com.

About Kivuto Cloud

Manage, distribute, and recover costs on any digital resource in a single cloud-based platform. Kivuto Cloud removes the challenges of resource and license management.

For more information, visit www.kivuto.com/cloud.