Infosys : UCAS appoints Infosys as its core technology partner up to 2021

UCAS appoints Infosys as its core technology partner up to 2021

London - 15 February, 2018: Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that UCAS, the admissions service for UK higher education, has extended its existing partnership with the company to support its business strategy up to 2021.

UCAS delivers critical admissions and information services to students, schools and higher education providers. Every year it supports more than a million applicants from over 100 countries; 6,000 registered centres; 1,200 schools; and 388 universities and colleges.

Every summer UCAS runs and delivers the single biggest infrastructure event within the UK education sector. Its systems manage millions of applications; process over 10 million exam results; answer 35,000 customer calls on A level results days; and respond to 15,000 social media enquiries. Not only is this period critical for the life chances of individuals, it has huge implications for the future prosperity of the UK society, economy and beyond. During the five critical days, including SQA Results Day and leading up to A Level Results Day, UCAS supports the placement of students equating to around £6 billion (around $8 billion) in tuition fees alone.

In the last three years, UCAS' partnership with Infosys has reaped immediate dividends, with system outage times slashed by 90 per cent, while UCAS customer satisfaction scores with UCAS peak periods of confirmation and clearing, have jumped from 60 to 94 per cent.

As part of the renewed engagement, Infosys will provide a wide range of digital services that will enable UCAS to continue to develop technology capabilities that connect learners to multiple destinations, such as universities, awarding bodies, schools and other organisations, using a dynamic digital suite of systems that responds to a rapidly changing higher education sector in the UK. Infosys will now concentrate on helping UCAS achieve its ambitious targets on lowering costs, optimising and enhancing services for students, delivering more robust security, and providing business-as-usual (BAU) services between legacy and new digital systems.

UB Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, 'The renewed engagement with UCAS bears testament to the success we have helped the organisation achieve to date. We're very enthusiastic about the journey ahead and welcome the opportunity to power UCAS' vision for the future of Education, by developing a truly agile digital enterprise, that is able to cater to the requirements of increasingly demanding students. We look forward to working with UCAS and helping the organisation deliver its 2020 strategy and vision.'

Clare Marchant, UCAS Chief Executive, said, 'This is a significant milestone for UCAS. On joining in 2017, one of my first impressions was the strength and professionalism of the partnership with Infosys. This has enabled substantial service improvements and stability around key business events, particularly for confirmation and clearing when hundreds of thousands of students are using our services simultaneously to find out if they have a university or college place.'

Fatuma Mahad, Director of Technology and Operations and UCAS, said, 'This is absolutely right for UCAS. Our ways of working together have cemented a partnership which I feel helped us create a model for future success.'

Infosys has managed UCAS' core application and IT infrastructure since 2014, enabling the delivery of technology services to customers and the business, including three successful confirmations and clearing periods and other high-volume, time-critical events.