Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS), a unique higher educational institution in the province of Carinthia, Austria, offers 30 degree programs in the fields of civil engineering and architecture, engineering, management, healthcare, and social work.
Emphasizing innovative teaching and learning methods that increase flexibility, CUAS attracts more than 2,200 students and 140 research projects, generating 300 academic publications per year.
More and more students across five campuses at CUAS study part-time, juggling work and studies. CUAS also offers flexible working arrangements to staff – leading to growing numbers of distance workers.
Christina Unterluggauer, IT System Manager at CUAS, adds: “As we noticed that many students and staff regularly worked off campus, it became obvious that complicated and slow access to files was holding them back, having a negative impact on productivity.”
“Our goal was to make it easier to work on documents from anywhere and to streamline collaboration. At the same time, we wanted to keep full control of data storage, which ruled out cloud solutions.”
To minimize administration overhead and maximize security, CUAS aimed to leverage existing user directories and network folders, in order to offer a seamless experience on campus and off campus.
CUAS had searched for a solution that would allow simple access to files and directories from anywhere, without giving up control. When a team at CUAS found themselves introduced to Filr from Micro Focus through a research project at another university, they asked the CUAS IT team to evaluate the solution – and Filr Advanced turned out to be exactly what CUAS needed.
Christina Unterluggauer confirms: “All the solutions we had looked at previously fell short of our expectations or were backed by cloud storage. Only Filr Advanced met all our core requirements, allowing us to make life much easier for students and staff.”
“Being able to apply custom branding to Filr Advanced is a really nice feature that helps us integrate the solution with our standardized design, and support a seamless user experience across our intranet.”
CUAS was supported by its partner ACP IT Solutions, a leading independent IT service provider with 1,300 employees and 37 locations in Germany and Austria. Christina Unterluggauer says: “After selecting Filr Advanced, we turned to our experienced partner ACP IT Solutions to help with the implementation. Thanks to the appliance-based deployment option, the solution was up and running quickly. And we can always count on the expertise of ACP IT Solutions to answer any questions and enable us to integrate Filr Advanced deeper into our IT landscape.”
The institution rolled out the Filr Advanced client to all 2,500 desktops and laptops used by students and staff at all five campuses.
Moving forward, CUAS plans to take advantage of the integration between Filr Advanced and Microsoft SharePoint for even easier and more flexible collaboration on existing documents across platforms.
To facilitate compliance with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), CUAS is evaluating the integrated multifactor authentication option, to strengthen data security even further.
CUAS was impressed by the easy deployment and update features of the Micro Focus solution. Christina Unterluggauer explains: “The online update of Filr Advanced saves time compared to other systems we operate.”
As Filr Advanced relies on existing infrastructure, CUAS maintains full control over its data and requires no additional storage, keeping the system administration workload low and building on existing data protection.
Students and staff benefit from wide platform support. Christina Unterluggauer comments: “Filr Advanced allows simple access to all documents in home directories and other network folders. Ondemand file synchronization minimizes bandwidth and storage requirements on local devices.”
No complex configuration is needed. Users just install the client which is available for different operating systems and mobile devices, giving them the flexibility they need to work from anywhere, at any time, on any device.
Christina Unterluggauer concludes: “As we take data security very seriously, a cloud solution was not an option. By implementing Filr Advanced with our partner ACP IT Solutions, we delivered all the convenience users expect from modern file sharing, together with full data protection. The feedback has been very positive: students are highly satisfied with the performance and find Filr Advanced very easy to use. Collaboration in teams has become much more productive, helping staff and students get their work done faster.”
