Universities often face significant challenges with fragmented and duplicated collaboration tools, leading to two major issues: a lack of a unified platform for staff and students, and unnecessary overspend. Addressing this is complex—universities operate in diverse environments with varied use cases, external audience requirements, licensing constraints, security and privacy considerations, and deeply ingrained user preferences (often shaped during COVID).

The University of Wollongong undertook a strategic consolidation initiative to tackle this problem head-on. This presentation will share the journey of that project—what we discovered, the obstacles we overcame, and the strategies that delivered success. Attendees will gain insights into the benefits realised, lessons learned, and how we secured stakeholder buy-in for lasting change.