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Maintenance of the Peppi system ensures the smooth day-to-day life of students and teachers at Lapland’s universities

Netum is responsible for the maintenance of the Peppi ERP of the Lapland University Consortium LUC formed by the University of Lapland and Lapland University of Applied Sciences. Close communication and attentive listening to Peppi’s users are crucial to managing the extensive system.

One of the most essential tools for smoother day-to-day lives for LUC students and teachers is the Peppi ERP system. Peppi and its plugins cover the entire operating environment of students, teachers, teaching planners, and other staff: Peppi is used for producing curricula and course descriptions, awarding grades, and applying for graduation, among other things.

- Everything except teaching and studying is done in Peppi, summarises Merija Timonen, Director of Study and Academic Affairs at LUC Services.

Peppi is also essential for reporting.

- Peppi provides us with all the necessary statistics, such as information related to the progress of studies and the number of students, to be submitted to the ministry, says Timonen.

Since August 2020, Netum has been the driving force behind the continuous operation of Peppi. With a responsibility that extends to over fifteen thousand students, hundreds of teachers, and administrative staff, Netum ensures that Peppi functions seamlessly.

Henkilö baaripöydän ääressä

Merija Timonen, Director of Study and Academic Affairs at LUC Services

Focus on the user

Tero Hietanen, Lead Specialist at Netum, has been responsible for maintaining Peppi throughout the partnership. Hietanen's team integrates new plugins, updates versions, investigates incidents, and develops functionalities. Due to the extensive service package and large number of users, the work has been impressive. According to Hietanen, a partnership mindset is a prerequisite for successful cooperation.

- We carry out maintenance clearly in cooperation with the customer. The core team has remained the same throughout the partnership, says Hietanen.

One of the cornerstones of quality assurance is the use of content specialists. The content specialists have a university background, which means they can provide valuable feedback from the ordinary user's perspective.

- Peppi is such an extensive system that we need to understand, from the perspective of various users, what works and where there is room for improvement. We need more than just technical expertise, says Hietanen.

Henkilö istuu nojatuolissa.

Netum's  Lead Specialist Tero Hietanen

One challenge in maintaining Peppi is that the university and the University of Applied Sciences use a common planning system but their own basic registers and integrations. Sari Mattinen, a long-term lecturer at Lapland University of Applied Sciences and these days also in charge of the development of digital learning services, says that the Peppi ecosystem of higher education institutions has distinguished itself in terms of expansion and development. Lapland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Lapland have nearly forty integrations and plugins in use in Peppi.

- Netum has been able to offer excellent solutions that take the needs of both universities into account. Our systems have remained operational continuously, even in challenging situations, Mattinen says.

Mattinen has been actively involved in the development of services for higher education institutions with Netum Group’s subsidiary Studyo. He describes this work as meaningful.

- We have created functions for the Peppi ecosystem that make students' everyday lives easier. As notable highlights, I would like to mention the electrification of diplomas, reporting tools that promote studies, and the instructor’s desktop, Mattinen says.

Henkilö nojaa kaiteeseen portaikossa.

IT Systems Manager of the LUC Group, Seija Nevala

Trust is built in encounters

One of the most significant efforts during the cooperation between Netum and LUC was replacing the server environment in spring 2023. Seija Nevala, Information Systems Manager at LUC, thanks Netum for its flexibility and adherence to schedules. Face-to-face meetings have been an essential element in building the partnership.

- The fact that Netum’s specialists have also visited Rovaniemi has deepened the partnership and increased trust. The cooperation is straightforward, and Netum knows what needs to be done at any given time for the whole thing to work smoothly before we do, Nevala describes.

A near-term milestone is the deployment of the new 24/7 monitoring service.

- All kinds of anticipation and preparation for different scenarios will become easier, says Nevala.

Netum has long-term experience in the higher education sector, such as information security, application development, integrations and data storage solutions. Solutions using artificial intelligence are also rapidly entering the world of higher education.

- Many higher education institutions are now considering using artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of operational planning. In the near future, we will certainly see solutions for managing room reservations and scheduling, for example, says Hietanen.

Hietanen considers the higher education sector to be a unique operating environment. The cooperation between educational institutions has been a positive surprise.

- Although the universities compete in principle, it has been great to see how much information and good practices are exchanged openly between universities in different forums. This also speeds up technological advances.

Henkilöitä pöydän ääressä, pöydällä avattu kannettava tietokone.

From left to right in the photo: Netum's Tero Hietanen and Mari Helenius, LUC's Merija Timonen, Seija Nevala, and Netum's Outi Pettersson