Empowering the University of Kent with the Power Platform: A Success Story

The University of Kent have 3000 staff and hundreds of manual processes that needed automation, apps that need enhancing and developing, and ultimately, student’s lives and careers that need enriching through the use of technology.

• The aim: to enable citizen and professional development, ensuring maximum use of current licensing and appropriate use of Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Power Virtual Agents to all staff across the University. 
• Criteria: as there was no technical experience within the project team, it was critical that the solution incorporated  resource with technical expertise, to ideate a strategy, implement a solution and incite meaningful technological change across the university. 

Since the start of COVID, the University deployed many Microsoft 365 services to staff and students, including email, Teams and SharePoint Online. As one of the more complex services, Power Platform was kept until phase 2 and remains disabled for user access until the rollout is complete. This aspect of the project commenced in March 2022 and after a short period of time The University of Kent engaged Cognitive to develop an appropriate strategy for a gradual rollout of the Power Platform service. 

Initially, the university engaged multiple generalist IT agencies to fill the role but soon discovered that they did not fully understand the requirements, and were therefore sending through contractors that were unable to successfully fill the brief. It was at this stage that Sam Saunders, Principal Consultant at Cognitive Group, reached out to Izzy Linthwaite at the University of Kent to offer his services as a specialist recruiting in the Power Platform space. Cognitive Group is a Microsoft specialist recruitment agency with 15 years' experience in this space, so were perfectly placed to support in the requirement to build a Power Platform CoE.

As part of the initial meeting with Izzy Linthwaite and James Cordery - both of whom are key members of the implementation team and had been responsible for the rollout of M365 at the University -  Sam reassessed the project brief and ran through aspirations for the platform, matching deliverables accurately to a refined requirements specification. After the appraisal, Sam suggested that the university would benefit from a more holistic approach to the project, detailing Solution Architects instead of Developers. 

Within a week of the call, Sam utilised his network to successfully match 4 highly skilled candidates to the requirements; all of which were subsequently invited to interview. Izzy and James then leant on Sam's expertise and guidance throughout the process to ensure they hired the right candidate both in terms of skill and fit for their growing team. 

The successful candidate hit the ground running, rapidly installing the CoE kit, core modules, and add-ons. An interim strategy was established to ensure continuous progress and value from the platform. Long-term tasks, goals, and milestones were outlined, culminating in a comprehensive business appraisal. This reimagined how the University would use the Power Platform to not only meet but exceed its business needs.

Cognitive Group's expertise and the specialist recruitment approach ensured that the University of Kent had the right talent to unlock the full potential of the Power Platform. The successful partnership between the University and Cognitive Group serves as a testament to the importance of leveraging specialists in the recruitment process, leading to tangible and transformative results.