Northgate Managed Services Supports ICT for every Secondary & Special Education Needs School in NI
05 October 2009
Teachers and students at 238 Northern Irish post-primary and 47 special educational needs schools are to continue to benefit from an ICT managed service and technology refresh from Northgate Managed Services
Teachers and students at 238 Northern Irish post-primary and 47 special educational needs schools are to continue to benefit from an ICT managed service and technology refresh from Northgate Managed Services (www.northgate-is.com/managedservices) as part of a £24milllion investment by the Department of Education and Classroom 2000 (C2k).
Northgate will install 22,000 new workstations and 1,600 printers, and continue to manage the ICT infrastructure to ensure teachers and students can rely on technology in their schools. Northgate manage all school based technology from the network to access devices and curriculum software. As part of the new service, Apple Macs will also be integrated into the managed network and supported by Northgate. .
Northgate manage the schools ICT across Northern Ireland from their centre of excellence in Newtownabbey. Dedicated teams constantly monitor the school based systems intervening to resolve any problems often before schools are aware there is an issue either remotely or through the team of engineers. Schools now rely on availability of technology in the classroom and Northgate works hard to ensure that teachers and students are provided fully access to the technology.
Providing further peace-of-mind for schools, Northgate will implement advanced security updates with encrypted backup to protect school networks and data from unauthorised access due to hacking or unpermitted usage.
Jimmy Stewart, Director, C2k, commented: “I am delighted to announce Northgate’s continuance as the main partner on the C2k network. The company has played a pivotal role in the implementation of Northern Ireland’s Education Technology strategy and opening new e-learning pathways into further and higher education. By removing the burden of managing and maintaining IT systems from the school and replacing it with a reliable, supportive and more effective alternative, Northgate has demonstrated its true leadership in the education sector.”
David Hyland, Managing Director, Education, Northgate Managed Services added, “I am delighted that C2k has taken the decision to further extend our partnership to help transform teaching and learning for students in Northern Ireland. It is an honour to continue working with such forward-thinking schools and we remain dedicated to ensuring that our ICT solutions work to provide the Department of Education and C2k with the flexibility and enhanced services needed by students and teachers alike.”
Northgate Managed Service has been working with C2k since 1998 providing over 1,200 primary, nursery, post primary and special needs schools across Northern Ireland with the ICT infrastructure to access a wide range of education technology content and services to support the Northern Ireland curriculum.
Pictured above Stuart Gunning, Regional Director, Education, Northgate Managed Services; Mary Kane, Schools Implementation Manager, C2k and David Hyland, Managing Director, Education, Northgate Managed Services.
