Preparing for a better future

 

When faced with a major, but last minute, hitch to their building project, staff at St Matthew Academy were relieved to discover that ICT provider, XMA, was able to plan and deliver a temporary solution that didn’t break the bank – in a very short space of time.

Ensuring any large IT project is delivered on time and to budget is vital. So when a serious last minute glitch hit the building of St Matthew Academy, Deputy Principal Michael Barry was understandably worried. He said: “Our school is the first all-through catholic academy in the country. Due to open last September, the new school building was being built from scratch and was set to replace two other schools which had previously closed.”

Months before opening, the tender for IT was put out and XMA was chosen as our preferred IT supplier. Everything was going to plan and then we were told the buildings weren’t going to be ready for September.

For Mr Barry, this was a real issue. Students had to start the term as planned but there were only two months during the summer holidays to find an alternative solution.

He said: “It was a tall order – we found temporary buildings but one didn’t even have a telephone line. We spoke to XMA and said we wanted to put in an IT system to link three separate buildings but at low cost. I thought it was an almost impossible task but XMA had a plan within 24 hours, complete with costs.”

The situation was made even more difficult because, as a new build, St Matthew Academy wanted a complete IT solution, which could both support learning and meet all the school’s administrative and communications needs. Mr Barry said: “Everything was done from scratch. XMA gave us options and recommendations to choose from - they met our needs"


Delivering a successful solution – not once but twice

XMA’s success was achieved by delivering a solution that could be easily adapted for later use at the permanent buildings. Mr Barry says: “XMA staff looked at a number of solutions and different options for how it could be done and delivered – it was quite amazing. To ensure we had value for money they looked at how we could spend money on items that could be moved over.

Every staff member was given a laptop and the underlying infrastructure was set up and made secure across the three buildings. Temporary administration servers which were safe, effective and robust were installed. From there the moving date was changed three times. It was very painful but XMA even stored the equipment for when we were ready and, at Christmas, when we had five weeks free, they worked over 12 hours a day for us. We moved into our permanent buildings in February and everything immediately worked.

Now, we have PDAs that link via Ethernet into our underlying system, interactive whiteboards in every classroom, over 200 PCs and 200 laptops and it’s all linked via a wireless solution. In fact, the only wasted money for us was in wiring for the temporary buildings.”


A faultless installation

Today, students rely on the IT system as a tool for learning and the school uses it to operate a creative learning environment where all individuals are encouraged to fulfil their potential and become life long. According to Mr Barry, the system has worked well since it was installed three months ago.

He said: “If it went down we wouldn’t be able to function but it’s been very sound. For the first two weeks XMA had an engineer come in to sort out the niggling teething issues but, since then, it’s worked faultlessly.

They also helped us interview for a systems manager who we employed within our staff and they trained our IT people. XMA staff will also support us for the first 12 months which gives us that extra bit of confidence.”


Trusting XMA to deliver

Mr Barry added: “What I most liked about XMA was the fact our account manager was exceptional and listened. He took time to build that relationship and trust with me and with the rest of the academy from the outset.

The answer was never, ‘no’. Instead, it was always, ‘we will look at ways of doing that’. From the initial tender to everything that happened afterwards, XMA was very flexible. Those of us working in education don’t have all the answers when it comes to IT, so it’s so important to find a company we trust. We need to know we can hand over to them because they have the technical knowledge we don’t. I would certainly use XMA again and have no hesitation recommending them to others.”