Introduction. EQUELLA offers a range of professional services that deliver structured, methodical, and successful deployments of EQUELLA.

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1 Services Catalogue

2 Introduction EQUELLA offers a range of professional services that deliver structured, methodical, and successful deployments of EQUELLA. Our proven methodology, adopted and refined by EQUELLA teams around the globe, maximises the effectiveness and benefits from institutional use of the EQUELLA digital repository. The EQUELLA methodology incorporates best practices from deployments to university, vocational, school, government, and corporate clients. The high quality services the EQUELLA consulting team delivers include: Strategic Implementation Content Migration Training Production Monitoring Hosting Solutions

3 Strategic Services Strategic Planning Workshop Institutional repositories can be a challenge to implement as such solutions can require involvement, assets, and cooperation from a variety of teams, including teaching and learning, library, research, IT, content production, academic departments, marketing, and various others. It is critical to gain the support and cooperation from all institution wide teams and a clear communication strategy can greatly assist with this important process. A key to the successful deployment of EQUELLA is a strategic approach to its implementation. Whether an institution is implementing EQUELLA for the first time, or is looking to re-evaluate and expand their existing educational technology architecture, a Strategic Planning Workshop will provide a clear pathway to ensure a balance in interests and objectives for the institution s digital repository. Experienced EQUELLA consultants will lead an onsite Strategic Planning Workshop covering a variety of topics ranging from current content management practices, institutional objectives, content auditing, content life-cycle, change management, to staffing requirements, and more. In addition to the best practices shared and worksheets completed during the engagement, the EQUELLA consulting team will create a formal recommendations document based on the workshop discussion and outcomes. A Strategic Planning Workshop will enhance the institution s central management of digital resources, and develop selective consolidation for all users. Strategic planning and analysis of an institution s individual and tailoured implementation of EQUELLA builds a solid foundation for the institution to continue to build upon with the EQUELLA consulting team throughout their implementation of EQUELLA. This process also enables the institution to follow on from a successful pilot and strategically plan to minimise risk and incorporate feedback, leading to various benefits including reduced overall system maintenance costs, increased consistency across the institutional systems, and greater value for student, academic and research communities. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 3

4 Inclusions Review of Current Content Management and Future Content Management Objectives EQUELLA Content Management Lifecycle Review Exploration of Content Migration Alternatives LMS Integration User Interface Customisation Training Requirements Implementation Planning Case Studies TAFE/FE/Community College Sector A leading TAFE Institute established a clear long-term vision for transforming the delivery of teaching and learning across the Institute, through replacing a legacy learning management system with an integrated platform including EQUELLA, Moodle, and Wimba. The Institute and the EQUELLA consulting team have developed a strong long-term relationship, recognising the importance of an integrated team and approach incorporating strategy, change management, technology, and other aspects. The engagement was launched with an on-site strategic workshop, eliciting the institution s online teaching and learning objectives and business outcomes, whilst ultimately mapping these back to EQUELLA functionality. The engagement continued with a variety of remote and on-site activities, including installation, configuration, content migration, load testing, disaster recovery planning, EQUELLA certification, and documentation. The EQUELLA consulting team have also deployed remote application monitoring, which includes 24/7 monitoring and response on their EQUELLA servers. The relationship incorporates feedback from the Institute into our EQUELLA solution as well as the dynamic integration with Moodle. HE/University Sector A well established university conducted a current content management review, which involved an analysis of an existing repository, and their other institutional systems, coupled with a review of their EQUELLA pilot, with the goal of intelligent consolidation of platforms. The EQUELLA deployment objectives focused on content authoring requirements, workflow processes, content sharing, federated searching, copyright management, reporting, training and staffing requirements. The university s Strategic Planning Workshop explored EQUELLA architecture design: load considerations, scalability, review of system architecture options, and disaster recovery. It also featured content migration, current content locations, migration mechanisms and lifecycle, workflow requirements, and contribution lifecycle and participants. The university also emphasised search capabilities, federated search, Blackboard integration, and developing an implementation plan for consolidating a number of content management needs into an integrated EQUELLA platform. Technical University An acclaimed technical university s goal was to ensure their EQUELLA repository would contain a wide variety and high quantity of materials, to meet a range of requirements across the university. The content areas that were addressed were: the Institute s Images collection, itunes U content, multimedia learning content created by the university s various media production groups, the library s ereserve and CAL content, and other institution wide content. Core to the Strategic Planning Workshop was to identify key business requirements such as enabling easy and rapid content discovery and then demonstrating to academics how EQUELLA could provide a solution. The Strategic Planning Workshop focused on the way the institute would support media-rich content, ereserve and copyright materials, academic-created content online, as well as with the encouragement of academic contribution into EQUELLA, incorporating change management and additional content types, course outlines, and research materials. 4 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

5 Change Management Change management is key to the successful deployment of a digital repository. The most successful EQUELLA deployments balance individual and institutional needs to provide easy access to valuable resources, while enabling broad overviews and more effective management of content. The introduction of new processes, systems and approaches to content management can be met with resistance as is often encountered during a change process. Clear communication, education, training and other mechanisms are required to properly convey the benefits of the rollout and provide proper support to the community to benefit the institution, the educators, and ultimately the students. Change management can be a critical factor in maximising the effectiveness of the rollout of an institution s EQUELLA repository. There are multiple aspects of change management required for this particular project: strategy, communications plan, sponsorship/champions, training, support, as well as reporting and feedback processing. While the scale of the change management required for the pilot may differ across various institutions, it is still worth considering change management formally, and envisioning how it will scale for future phases of the deployment. Given the indepth nature of change management, EQUELLA typically partners with institutions for joint planning and delivery of change management. Inclusions Conducting a Change Readiness Audit Development of a Communications Plan Project Management EQUELLA Direct and Train-The-Trainer Certification Creation of Administration Videos Establishment of On-Going Communication and Change Management Regime Documentation Case Studies TAFE/FE/Community College Sector There were a wide variety of change management processes implemented within a state-wide TAFE institute prior to the official deployment of the institution s EQUELLA repository, including a formal Change Readiness Audit, official EQUELLA certification for the Institute, further EQUELLA configuration and optimisation, configuration for EQUELLA installation, and project management. The value of EQUELLA increased for the TAFE institute as additional sources of content and delivery mechanisms were added to the repository and other institutional systems. An integrated architecture delivered greater value from each individual system as well as introducing an overall solution that will continue to grow and evolve. The addition of various sources of content included both internal resources, such as library and SharePoint content, as well as external collections, repositories, and systems. This rollout provided a wealth of valuable resources but also significant changes to processes. The initial reception, adoption, and success of the platform were all improved as a result of the formal change management program. HE/University A client university achieved a successful deployment of EQUELLA by building upon the strengths of the repository in accordance with the strategic evaluation of the solution. Through the extensive integration of the institution s LMS, and the development of research collections, users across the university will now benefit from continuous research collaboration and wider dissemination. The strategies utilised, including efficient training, a fully supported deployment, and detailed reporting, alongside CLA enabled the university to extend their research capabilities and achieve further search outcomes, including external/ national library systems. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 5

6 EQUELLA Agent Design EQUELLA Agents enable institutions and partners to extend the EQUELLA platform to fulfil additional business requirements. The EQUELLA Agent Design engagement was developed to enable organisations to best architect their extension to the platform. Experienced EQUELLA consultants will work with the institution s team to clarify the requirements and design a solution using EQUELLA s flexible APIs. The EQUELLA Agents Framework is the suite of services that make it possible for third parties to integrate and build applications utilising EQUELLA functionality. The types of EQUELLA Agents include the EQUELLA integration interface, the SOAP interface, and the Advanced Script Control. EQUELLA Agents connect EQUELLA to additional content and other services in an integrated, seamless manner. EQUELLA Agents, including Advanced Scripting Controls, present the institution with the following benefits: Leverage powerful scripting libraries to solve a variety of challenges Enables users to search and consume from external sources Introduces custom functionality, either integrating external systems or new capabilities inside EQUELLA Provides users with strong support from documentation and other client usage examples Inclusions EQUELLA Agent Design Session Requirements and Approach Recommendations Document As Required, Proof-Of-Concept Development Case Studies TAFE/FE/Community College Sector Seeking to provide greater access to teachers to online resources, a TAFE Institute desired an integration between EQUELLA and Gale a robust online collection of reference content. The EQUELLA consulting team identified and documented the integration requirements, and developed a proof-ofconcept integration with Gale via an Advanced Script Control (ASC). Following prototyping and initial deployment, the Gale ASC has been refined and rolled out across the institution providing a seamless integration between the two systems that enables the linking of Gale resources inside of EQUELLA, and ultimate delivery through a LMS. University Similar to the TAFE example above, a university required tighter integration between EQUELLA and EBSCO, the research database service. The EQUELLA consulting team prototyped the integration and developed an Advanced Script Control providing the required functionality. The seamless integration eliminates the requirement to log in to EBSCO before searching and contributing the linked content into EQUELLA. 6 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

7 Implementation Services EQUELLA Deployment As an enterprise-wide solution, EQUELLA provides a diverse range of deployment capabilities to address the varying requirements of different client institutions. These may include the following: Pilot: The EQUELLA consulting team combines high level experience in the education sector with product expertise. This service guides our clients through the entire lifecycle of deployment, from an initial kick-off workshop, requirements gathering, system configuration, training, staffing requirements, content conversion planning, deployment, and documentation. Full Deployment: The EQUELLA implementation is inclusive of the various installation and configuration requirements the individual institution has chosen to deliver their content, and may include a range of consulting processes that relate directly to each institution s deployment objectives. Copyright Compliancy: EQUELLA provides a convenient method for institutions to manage content they access and reuse, and fully supports copyright licensing agreements, including CLA (UK) and CAL (Australia). EQUELLA automatically tracks content usage of the activated items and produces the appropriate reports, reducing the reporting work load for institutions. Allowing the institution to share best practice, EQUELLA deployment is based upon numerous clients who have successfully implemented the solution, and fully supports the installation of any new system, which can be complex Institutions can utilise the experienced EQUELLA consulting team who can quickly train the institution s staff in how the solution works on the server, providing the team with the skills to avoid the need to invest largely in future support While on site the EQUELLA consulting team provide log file locations and troubleshooting techniques, ensuring the institution is only required to dedicate a small amount of time early on to save large amounts of time on future support EQUELLA deployment enables integration with other enterprise-wide systems, the EQUELLA consulting team are highly experienced in installation, and have the knowledge base to determine the best process of connecting disparate systems Research Repository: EQUELLA can be utilised as an open access repository for research collections, allowing for new research information systems, providing institutions with open access publications, research administration and management information. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 7

8 Inclusions EQUELLA Deployments typically include the following key elements: Activity Project Management and Planning Description On-going project management, coordination, status reporting On-site Kick-off Workshop System Installation On-site workshop to initiate the engagement, incorporating strategic planning, requirements gathering, knowledge transfer, and planning Installation of EQUELLA for locally-hosted clients EQUELLA System Configuration EQUELLA Identity Management Design Look and Feel Data Migration Custom Reports Configuration of EQUELLA to meet the business requirements, including aspects such as the metadata schema, collection definitions, workflow, taxonomies, power search and hierarchy model Establishment of a scalable security model including users, groups and roles, and integration with an external authentication scheme Customising various aspects of EQUELLA, including Dashboard portlets, navigation links, menu headings, graphics, CSS changes and language packs Conducting a content audit, analysis, and migration of data from a variety of sources. Refer to the Data Migration section below for additional details Creating custom reports to deliver customised business reporting Certification Documentation Formal EQUELLA training and certification courses. Refer to the Certification section below for additional details Formal documentation on the platform and the engagement for handover to the client Testing Deployment Coordination and support during testing, which is often directly performed by the client team to ensure fulfilment of business requirements as well as knowledge transfer to the client. Production launch of EQUELLA Post-Deployment Consulting (ACAP) Ad hoc support and tuning following the launch. Refer to the ACAP section below for additional details 8 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

9 System Architecture Design and Implementation Organisations typically deploy EQUELLA as an enterprisewide digital repository and plan to source hardware to deliver a robust, scalable experience for their user base. The goal is to design and deliver an extensible platform that will scale appropriately and can be augmented as the client chooses to deploy additional content collections and release the system to a broader user base. EQUELLA supports a number of different operating environments, with clients successfully deployed using each of our core supported platforms. While there are many variables to consider in system architecture, ultimately the EQUELLA consulting team recommends that any EQUELLA architecture leverage client expertise, parallels existing architectures for other systems, and also integrates with existing disaster recovery plans. System architecture components may include: Load-balancing switches Various operating systems Database server(s) EQUELLA application server(s) Utility server(s) High level of availability and performance with service management Maximum flexibility through clustered architecture Knowledge transfer to the client team for optimal performance and stability Improved management and business continuity Case Study Many of the successful EQUELLA clients across all market sectors engage the EQUELLA consulting team for installation mentoring endeavours, including architecture design, hardware sizing, disaster recovery planning and performance testing. Installation mentoring is a service that efficiently and cost-effectively facilitates additional or consequent planning that may arise as the implementation of EQUELLA further progresses. This will often include complex upgrades of EQUELLA, and ensuring there is no functionality or data loss during or after this process. This service can also aid the process of integration with a wide, diverse range of CMS/LMS/VLE solutions, which many EQUELLA clients have discovered to be highly valuable addition to this service. SAN or other storage devices EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 9

10 Advanced Configuration Assistance Program (ACAP) The advanced configuration options presented within EQUELLA enable our clients to achieve the maximum benefits when implementing a digital repository in a complex environment, whilst acquiring the level of customisation required. EQUELLA is a highly flexible solution, and the EQUELLA consulting team provides highly skilled training for the institution s technicians, to overcome challenges in order to reach the optimal results and leverage expert solution knowledge that will support the institution s implementation. When trying to achieve the maximum benefit of implementing a digital repository in a complex environment, sometimes to get to the level of customisation desired requires further investigation, and using the advanced configuration options present within EQUELLA. Strong flexibility can present challenges in gaining access to the right highly skilled technicians with expert solution knowledge that can support you in your implementation. Such skills are often needed on an on-demand basis as implementation progresses by members of an institution s implementation team. ACAP provides flexible support to an institution during their implementation of EQUELLA. ACAP allows an institution to allocate a particular set of hours for either general tasks or specific requirements, by ensuring these needs are met without being time or project schedule bound, but rather being adaptive towards the actual deployment s outcomes and progression. Inclusions Members of ACAP can access advanced configuration specialists that can assist you in the following areas: LDAP and Active Directory Configuration and Tuning Development of XSLT Templates for Display Purposes Re-Branding of the User Interface Advanced Scripting Within the Administration Console Development of Bulk Upload Scripts Integration Assistance with Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard, Moodle Development of Federated Search Plug-Ins, Customisation of User Management Schema Assistance in Creation of Complex Hierarchies, Power Searches or Collections Assistance in Implementing Access Control Policies Server to Server Data Migration Report Design and Creation Case Study The ACAP service has enabled many client institutions to advocate specified and targeted professional service hours, that specifically and actively target project objectives and required outcomes including scripting, load testing, and LMS integration. EQUELLA s flexibility and customisation goes beyond the software solution and can be seamlessly included within any institution project. ACAP is a highly versatile offering of the EQUELLA consulting team, which can be easily and readily applied to any configuration of the solution, and any associated infrastructure within the timeframe an institution has set, or in direct response to an occurrence during the deployment. 10 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

11 Content Migration As organisations seek to enhance their content management, content stored within learning management systems is often a major focus: by extracting the content into EQUELLA, the content can be easily and efficiently discovered, contributed, shared, managed and reused. The EQUELLA consulting team has experience extracting data from, and delivering linked content to, a number of LMS platforms. Flexibility: The EQUELLA tools provide flexibility by working directly from the LMS or course export packages, allowing for the process to be run at any point for any number of courses. This enables an institution to deploy the integrated solution in phases across the institution, as well as performing periodic clean-up, should some courses with local content require the migration at a future point in time. A robust solution: Current EQUELLA client feedback has been very positive, with the solution s application across multiple clients resulting in the tools becoming increasingly robust. While the tools actively facilitate the migration between LMS platforms, and extraction of content into EQUELLA, the EQUELLA consulting team recommends a review of the updated courses, to ensure increased leveraging of the target LMS tools, as well as for quality assurance. Client driven process: The content migration process enables clients to drive the structure and strategy behind the procedure, as while the existing tools provide the underlying functionality, there are always local decisions to be made about specific business rules. There are various issues that the EQUELLA consulting team would work through with an institution during the consulting engagement involving the migration process as part of the EQUELLA implementation. Ongoing, customised success: Automated content migration from LMSs to other LMSs, or even to integrated EQUELLA-LMS environments has been highly successful. The EQUELLA team can extend our technology to meet specific content migration requirements. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 11

12 Inclusions The EQUELLA team utilises the following iterative methodology during a content migration engagement: Requirements Gathering Session LMS Content Mapping Exercise (when migrating between LMSs) EQUELLA Configuration Planning (when migrating content into EQUELLA, and linking to the LMS) Proof-Of-Concept Migration of Selected Courses Customisation of the EQUELLA Content Migration Tools to Meet Client Requirements Test Content Migration Client Review of Migrated Contact As Required, Revision to Content Migration Tools Production Migration Documentation of Solution A typical content migration process flow, working from course backups, is as follows: Interrogate the LMS course backup file Extract all content files that are linked within the course Upload those content files to EQUELLA Replace the reference to the files with links to EQUELLA Remove the files from the LMS course backup file Upload the revised LMS course backup file For selected LMSs, live extraction and conversion is available, which can streamline the content migration process. Case Studies TAFE/FE/Community College Sector A client TAFE institute recognised from the beginning of their implementation the importance of content migration to the success of their deployment. The initial migration of 2,000 courses from their previous LMS to Moodle, with the EQUELLA Moodle harvester successfully processing 25,000 content items, following an iterative development process to ensure appropriate content conversion in accordance with the institute s business rules. Following the initial strategic workshop with the institute s key stakeholders, the EQUELLA consulting team developed tools that harvest content from Moodle courses, upload the content into EQUELLA, and update the Moodle course with links to EQUELLA. The team harvested two semesters of courses in mid 2010, providing a new platform for educators and staff at the institute to build upon. HE/University A client university received additional value with content migration during their implementation of EQUELLA. The EQUELLA consulting team s aim was to facilitate the process of formulating the design of common high level standards for courses across the university colleges, by completing the proof-of-concept in order to publish all content in the test course from the EQUELLA repository environment into the LMS environment. The EQUELLA consulting team configured the solution to accommodate migration of courses from the institution s previous LMS into EQUELLA for publishing into the new LMS. This procedure also enhanced the packaging of media elements and centralised content, with the additional production of blended and online courses, while the deployment of the solution continually supported the university s core business units. 12 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

13 EQUELLAizer The EQUELLAizer is a Moodle Content Harvester that allows users to utilise the EQUELLA SOAP API to read a Moodle course backup. The user can upload local Moodle content to EQUELLA as items with attachments, adding metadata nodes and values as required. The EQUELLA-izer has the ability to harvest Moodle backup files for learning content, contribute that content into EQUELLA, then modify the backup to reference the newly contributed content. The tool is able to locate attachments, including PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint, Excel, images as well as HTML content, content created by the Moodle book Module, and Moodle quizzes. Contributing these attachments into the repository, it creates a new backup file within Moodle where all of the previously local objects reference the newly created EQUELLA items. Upload Moodle resources into a centralised system Develop an automated process for converting mass courses Move local content from Moodle to the repository Limit the duplication of resources Inclusions The EQUELLA consulting team can assist you in the following areas: Uploading of local file resources (PDF, doc, images, video files) and local IMS packages Conversion and uploading of Moodle Book Modules into EQUELLA navigation nodes with editable HTML pages (each chapter) Parsing local HTML pages and converting them into EQUELLA items with attachments for local links, images and video files As part of a consulting engagement with a Moodle course review, the EQUELLA consulting team determine which content needs to be migrated out of a course, and what metadata will be applied to the content. Those involved in the review also decide which metadata rules will be applied, and scripts are then prepared for this to suit the institution s course review requirements. Case Study In various client institutions, EQUELLA has been used as the platform to contribute Moodle backups, marked for conversion by the EQUELLAizer. The EQUELLAizer searches EQUELLA for available backups across all collections. The tool then downloads these backups: for each backup it extracts the collection it was uploaded to, the owner s details, as well as the core metadata for that item. It then converts/uploads the content selected in the configuration file as new items for the collection, linking these items as attachments to a parent course item, to enable all uploaded items to be easily identified. A new Moodle backup file is created (with EQUELLA links), and creates a new version of the EQUELLA item for the Moodle backup file. It then uploads the EQUELLAized Moodle backup file as an attachment EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 13

14 Training EQUELLA Certification Program The EQUELLA Certification Program is designed to equip users with the skill set to interact with EQUELLA effectively. The EQUELLA Certification Program focuses on effective functional use and management of EQUELLA, in the context of educational technology theory on learning management and learning content management. The EQUELLA training team delivers a consistent, validated and structured set of content through a series of interactive, hands-on workshops. Certification courses benefit individuals in client organisations by recognising their skills and extending those with EQUELLA, enabling those staff to develop expertise and serve as a resource to other staff members. A certificate that incorporates an examination provides a level of validation to organisational management, confirming that the institution s staff have successfully achieved the required competencies and knowledge from their EQUELLA training. Certification courses can be used within the institution as training tools for both new and existing staff. Marked certification courses can identify high quality individuals with the potential to become involved in further EQUELLA developments and projects at the institution. 14 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

15 EQUELLA Certification Courses EQ101 EQUELLA Digital Repository Certification (Core Principles) This base level certification provides a standard EQUELLA user (i.e. contributing educator or student) with a detailed look at the core functionality of the product through the web interface and through a LMS EQ201 EQUELLA Content Administrator Certification Builds on the base digital repository certification to ensure full understanding of: How to manage copyright collections in EQUELLA Bulk modification and management of EQUELLA items (Item management, Advanced item management, Activation management) Reporting (running reports with parameters, exporting to Excel, PDF) Advanced workflow (i.e. rejecting, commenting, editing within workflow) Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course. EQ301 EQUELLA Application Administrator Certification This level of EQUELLA training is recommended for participants who have a high level of competency as a user and administrator of all basic EQUELLA functionality, including Collections, Schemas, Workflows, Hierarchies and other fundamental elements of the solution. During the course the participant with be required to set up a basic configuration demonstrating their understanding of the basic principles of educational content management using EQUELLA. On completion the participant will be fully aware of the wide range of solution features and configuration possibilities, extending their EQUELLA expertise within their institution. Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course. EQ302 EQUELLA Advanced Application Administrator Certification The 3-day certificate course is designed for staff responsible for the day to day administration and application support of EQUELLA. This course provides the participant with the ability to understand and manage the more technical elements of EQUELLA. This includes an understanding of the EQUELLA security model, advanced scripting, SOAP APIs, BIRT reporting and EQUELLA Data management. EQ302 presents participants with the practical knowledge to troubleshoot issues that the user base may encounter, providing a basis for a support model to be rolled out in the target institution. Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 and EQ301 examinations is a pre-requisite for this course. EQ401 EQUELLA System Administrator Certification A 2-day certificate course designed for an EQUELLA System Administrators and or Second/Third level support staff. This course provides participants with the knowledge to manage EQUELLA as part of their own institutions IT strategy and frameworks, enabling an understanding of how to install, configure and backup EQUELLA within standalone and clustered environments. Participants in EQ401 training will also complete training on how to effectively troubleshoot issues in EQUELLA and be able to restore EQUELLA as part of a Disaster Recovery Programme. Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course. Case Study TAFE/FE/Community College Sector A prominent TAFE institute that has extended their implementation of EQUELLA recently completed a high level of EQUELLA Certification courses in 2011 to further expand the capabilities and technical EQUELLA knowledge of their project team members. Those who recently completed EQUELLA Certification courses in 2011 stated the training was beneficial to the performance of their work, and that an added benefit was the discovery of unexpected techniques and abilities the user may not have encountered individually. Various participants believed the training involved a high level of EQUELLA Administration knowledge and expertise, and that the included exercises were not only useful for their experience with EQUELLA, but the process of being tested was very worthwhile for extending their knowledge base. The training institutions created by EQUELLA have also been well received and utilised during training. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 15

16 Production Monitoring Remote Application Monitoring The EQUELLA repository has been deployed within institutions around the world and increasingly serves as a mission-critical repository for learning content and other materials. Given the integrated nature of EQUELLA with LMSs and various institutional systems, it is important to effectively manage the entire infrastructure. The EQUELLA consulting team has significant experience with the optimal configuration and management of the EQUELLA digital repository. This service is uniquely positioned to offer a cost-effective service for remotely monitoring and managing upgrades for our solution, where clients have opted to host the platform within their network. Expert Administration: The EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring team is specially trained and staffed to provide advanced administration and monitoring of EQUELLA. Reduced Risk: Through engaging an expert team that take a proactive approach to monitoring your EQUELLA application, while on-going risks to your platform are mitigated. Controlled Expenses: The EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring service reduces variable costs from system monitoring, upgrades, restoration of data, and other activities to enable organisations to properly budget and plan for EQUELLA management. Off-Hours Management: EQUELLA s global team streamlines the application management facilitating upgrades and other activities during off-peak hours. Supported local hosting: The team that delivers EQUELLA provides a highly supported and responsive environment during the deployment of EQUELLA, which enables those staff working directly with the repository to have a stronger involvement in, and understanding of the infrastructure in place. 16 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

17 Inclusions Upgrades and Patching: this service includes the application of any applicable Quality Assured releases, hot fixes, or major releases of EQUELLA. This service will be applied on the development, staging, and production environments, as requested. Monitoring and Reporting: the EQUELLA consulting team will perform weekly monitoring of the application log files and system usage, identifying minor issues before they can develop into more significant issues. We will deliver a regular report to the client with our findings. Performance Tuning: based on the above monitoring and client usage profile targets, the EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring team may periodically recommend and adjust, in conjunction with the client team, server-side parameters in EQUELLA configuration files to enhance performance to better fulfil client business usage requirements. Restoration of Data: The EQUELLA consulting team will provide advice on the setup and scheduling of regular backups of EQUELLA, including the database and file store, and will assist in the restoration of content from client-maintained backups to restore lost data up to four times a year. Communication: The EQUELLA consulting team will conduct regular communication with the client covering the above activities. Protocols will be established on the client approval process prior to the EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring team applying any changes to the client environment. Proactive Monitoring and Response: 24 x 7 proactive monitoring and response Case Studies TAFE/FE/Community College Sector A TAFE institute is utilising the EQUELLA Managed Application Service, and receive 24 x 7 monitoring and response, extensive log analysis, server upgrades, and server fault response. The EQUELLA support team receives SMS and call notifications, as well as an for alert monitoring services, and also applies the EQUELLA Service Monitoring of application log files and system usage to identify minor issues and deliver regular reports to the institute on the outcomes. Any configuration change is passed through a detailed change request process, and are approved by the client before the EQUELLA team proceeds. HE/University Complementing the work the EQUELLA consulting team has completed for a client university leading up to their deployment, the institution is now benefiting from the supported management of their EQUELLA installation. The remote application monitoring services are proving valuable for the university that still needs to host locally, but does not currently have all the staff or the expertise required to manage EQUELLA directly. The university receives a weekly log report and associated remediating actions, upgrades to EQUELLA, and other assistance. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 17

18 Hosting Solutions Hosting Solutions To support the implementation of EQUELLA within an institution, the EQUELLA hosting partners provide a range of managed hosting solutions. As an institution-wide repository, it is important that EQUELLA is hosted in a secure and supported environment. The EQUELLA team recognises that institutions require certain infrastructure support to successfully implement EQUELLA, and via our hosting partners the company can provide an institution with various options to host EQUELLA. The flexible options provided will remove the need for the institution to invest heavily in dedicated staff and infrastructure. Maximise the availability of the EQUELLA repository while mitigating the risk associated with implementing complex systems. EQUELLA hosting solutions can be deployed with limited lead time and allow for custom branding of EQUELLA to comply with the client requirements. EQUELLA hosting partners have specialised knowledge in EQUELLA managed hosting, based upon well established relationships with the EQUELLA team, ensuring a highly resilient service. EQUELLA hosting partners offer a stable technical team providing institutions with a constant point of contact, which eliminates the recruiting burden caused by internal staff turnover. EQUELLA is hosted at secure facilities around the globe, guaranteeing high application availability, fewer outages and more consistent uptime. By engaging with EQUELLA managed hosting, the client organisation will have a lower and stable total cost of ownership. The ability to utilise and work closely with a team that has extensive EQUELLA knowledge and experience who present high quality technical services reduces the risk of adopting a new system, and disrupting other institutional projects. Extend the quality of service to the institution s end users with a team that has established best practice for a scalable solution. 18 I EQUELLA Services Catalogue

19 Inclusions The hosting solutions available have been developed to suit a range of institutional requirements including: EQUELLA Pilots Production Level EQUELLA Hosting Development / Test Server Hosting Case Study HE/University A university decided to further enhance the quality of its online assessment and learning by developing collaborative systems in which a core learning environment could be extended through an advanced set of elearning tools. Everyone at the University with access to this hosted solution is set to benefit from its highly resilient service, its scalable solution, pricing predictability, and access to EQUELLA and LMS expertise for higher education. The hosted environment will eliminate the need for large investments in staff and infrastructure and in licensing and hardware fees associated with the maintenance of the previous LMS, allowing the University to achieve significant cost savings. This provides the University with the additional advantage of discovering new elearning outcomes. These include an upgraded Library Reading List system and pilot Apple Podcasting system, increased technology specifications for all teaching rooms and eportfolio systems, advancements in digital literacy initiatives, as well as media streaming, and corporate document storage. The partnership with EQUELLA will expand the possibilities of the learning environment for both educators and students, creating stronger opportunities for their future digital education and improve control and ownership of institutional content. EQUELLA Services Catalogue I 19

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