Case studies

Bedfont experiences a smooth transition for its ICT support

AzteQ often starts working with a school on an ad hoc basis, perhaps as the result of a call out to fix a specific problem; very often this leads to a longer and deeper relationship.

A good example of this process in action is AzteQ's relationship with Bedfont Primary School in Hounslow; at the beginning of March 2012 AzteQ took a call from the school’s Deputy Headmaster asking for a quotation for a wireless solution.

AzteQ provided a free site survey during which some issues with the existing infrastructure were highlighted and discussed, and the overall issue of ICT support came up. The Deputy Headmaster described the ICT issues that most affected the pupils, and highlighted concerns with the way staff were utilising ICT during the teaching process. After a brief meeting with the Headteacher, AzteQ offered to send in one of their engineers to rectify these priority issues with a fixed number of support days. The school agreed to this and after the allotted number of days the school requested that the engineer stay on permanently at the school on a fixed yearly contract to maintain the Administration System hardware and software, the Curriculum systems (remote hardware and software support), Helpdesk logging and weekly engineering site attendance (per the SLA).

In addition, AzteQ carried out a complete hardware and software asset review that included specialist application installations.

Beyond providing ongoing support, AzteQ has performed an extensive software audit and review, ultimately recommending a change in licence procurement; in particular Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010. This resulted in a saving for the school of nearly £8000.

Finally, AzteQ re-engineered the backbone fibre infrastructure, ensuring all cabling was correctly routed, specifying the cabinet size for the router, checking IP address schemes, gateways and DNS entries.

Ann Broughton, Headteacher at Bedfont, commented; "Having been with the same ICT support company for many years, we decided it was time to look at alternative options and invited a number of companies in to the school for discussions. We were very impressed with the consultant from AzteQ who had significant experience with other, similar schools and understood our needs very quickly.  The pricing structure was very competitive, working out cheaper than our current provider. Since the start of the contract earlier this year, AzteQ has been very proactive, installing a new wireless system, relocating an ICT suite and creating new ICT hubs, as well as dealing with the purchase of more than 100 netbooks. This has all been achieved working alongside our current provider until the expiry of their contract. We have been very impressed with our engineer, who has excellent technical knowledge, endless patience and an unfailing cheerfulness whatever we throw at him.  AzteQ takes over our ICT completely after half term and they have been proactive in ensuring a smooth handover, as well as providing us with an exciting vision for our future ICT capacity.  I can thoroughly recommend them."

Bedfont School, in Hounslow, is an expanding school with more than 500 children. In September 2012 it increased its capacity and became a three form entry primary school. The school is proud to draw pupils from diverse social, economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Douay Martyrs School speeds things up

Douay Martyrs IT backbone needed a significant upgrade to cope with the increasing number of users and the associated data throughput. During the summer break, AzteQ was engaged to install a number of core and edge switches, linked together by SFP modules, via fibre, to run a 10GBit triangular backbone. 

In order to ensure this solution was successfully installed, all existing fibre had to be tested and new fibre and data cabling installed at various points in the buildings, to complete the backbone; linking both of the school’s campuses. Although a challenging installation, working closely with the client; AzteQ successfully provided the backbone in time for the new term start.

Replacement served up at the Breakspear Schools

AzteQ has completed a server replacement for two schools in Middlesex. The replacement included the supply, installation and configuration of an admin and curriculum server with data migration, as well as the configuration of the admin desktops to join the new admin server domain.

This activity was carried out during term time with minimum disruption to the school. The schools' Facilities Manager, Francis Saunders commented: “…….we are very pleased with the quality of service your company has provided to us on the recent server replacement. We sincerely appreciate your responsiveness to the schools’ needs and the way your company conducts its business. We will be recommending your company to other schools because of our satisfaction with your service.”