NI&S installation technician at work
NI&S completed changes to its business model to improve user experience and cost effectiveness for its customers across campus.

Network Infrastructure & Services (NI&S) implemented a new business model at the end of FY 2024, completing a years-long project to bring its business model in line with the current technological landscape at Virginia Tech. This new model streamlines the provision of services for departments and employees, saving time and effort for all parties. 

For decades, NI&S had operated on a cost-per-connection model, in which departments placed an order for each new connection needed, and were billed monthly for those connections. This worked well in an era where most individual employees were communicating via telephone. Nowadays, however, more comprehensive connectivity for voice, video, and internet services is required.

The new business model is “person-centric,” meaning that services are allocated as a package for each employee when they join a department, and the department is billed annually. This provides all faculty and staff with the essential network and communications services that allow them to make their contributions to the university’s mission without having to navigate complex funding, ordering, and approval processes.

This new business model is expected to significantly reduce the overall volume and complexity of administrative transactions associated with telecommunications planning, funding, ordering, and billing. In conjunction with the new model, the NI&S customer portal web application was launched to simplify service requests and fulfillments.