ICT Services 4 Education

 

SCHOOL ICT NEWS BULLETIN No 107 - 30/03/2007

Published by Children’s Services


Telephone Systems. Help and advice

If you wish to purchase a new telephone system Leah Fletcher can advise you on your requirements.

We are aware that a company called BT is contacting Norfolk Schools. They are not BRITISH TELECOM but a company called BUSINESS TELECOM. This company is not ESPO or Norfolk County Council approved and we therefore advise you not to use them.

Please also be aware of a company called GLOBALNET TELECOM. This company may contact you by fax or phone and inform you that they are taking over you phone billing as you old provider is closing and they can provide cheaper billing for you. This is incorrect, please inform them that you do not wish to change and inform you existing billing providers that you do not wish to change either.

Please contact Leah Fletcher on 01603 475605 if you would like any information, help or advice regarding telephone systems. Including questions on contractors etc.

If you are interested in changing your billing provider, Cable and Wireless are ESPO approved. You can find this information in the ESPO Dealing Direct book Contract 393A page 181. For further advice from ESPO you can contact Peter Legind on 07787 128778.

Author: Mark Carway

Photocopiers

Please contact Leah Fletcher on 01603 475605 if you need any information or advice on photocopiers.

The Norfolk schools representative for Konica Minolta is Mark Hardy who is contactable on 01603 703040. No other reseller of Konica Minolta is ESPO approved.

Danka are the only ESPO approves supplier of Infotech products within Norfolk.

RENT NOT LEASE. Only one document should be signed at the point of order to ensure that it is an ESPO rental, anything which refers to a finance company is in fact a lease.

NO MINIMUM, FREE OR INCLUSIVE COPIES SHOULD BE AGREED. This will increase the settlement costs of any unsatisfactory contracts and is only for the benefit of the supplier.

FREE IT SUPPORT OF NETWORKED/CONNECTED MACHINES. This can cost as much as £200.00 per annum and is free with Konica Minolta.

Please see ESPO Dealing Direct page 145. Contract 272d

All ESPO contractors have been agreed against stringent procurement procedures which protect schools against unscrupulous business practices. ICT solutions and other Children’s Services colleagues are working closely with ESPO and Norfolk’s Corporate Purchasing team to protect schools from bad practice including hidden costs, unexpected price increases or extended rental periods. ICT Solutions is also currently working with Norfolk’s Legal department to resolve issues on behalf of a number of schools with non–ESPO approved suppliers.

If you are in any doubt please contact ICT Solutions or ESPO for advice before you sign any contractual agreements.

Author: Mark Carway

Asset Manager.

Asset Manager is a custom database designed to provide a complete electronic inventory of all assets including equipment and furniture in your school.

It is the only computerised inventory package approved by the Norfolk Audit Services.

If you wish for a demonstration of the Software or you would some further information regarding Asset Manager or if you do already have Asset Manager and require assistance on the software, feel you need re-fresh training or think your inventory is out of date and requires assistance.

Please contact Leah Fletcher, Asset Manager on (01603) 475605

Author: Mark Carway

Google Images – Secondary Schools Only

We have been able to make some changes to the proxy service for secondaries to enforce Google safe search. The net result is that we can now allow Google images for all secondary schools (using Bluecoat). Sadly it is not possible to do this for primary schools at present.

Author: Jason Zelos

Purchasing services for use on the school network

Before schools sign final contracts to purchase services that may require Internet access, please contact ICT Solutions. We can advise on any changes that may be necessary to ensure a service works correctly. We can also advise what questions to ask a third party to ensure seamless integration with the schools network. For example, services that need inbound access for support reasons need to be dealt with via a county VPN solution for security, services that require outbound HTTP/HTTPS need to work with a proxy.

Author: Jason Zelos

Phoenix Gold

ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS – NEW NORFOLK SCHOOLS

You will be aware that there is a significant re–organisation of schools, mainly within the Norwich area, with effect from 1st September 2007

15 New DfES registered schools will become active from this date. A file containing records for these new schools has been created and is now available for you to download and import into your Phoenix Gold Data File (Associated Schools Module). View the file and help sheet on the Finance and ICT Services website. Save the file to your desktop.

You will then be able to send and receive Pupil Data relating to these schools.

Download a list of the new schools (DOC 23KB).

ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS – NAME CHANGES

In addition to the new schools above, over 60 existing schools are being re–phased at the same time. This change will reflected in the school name. Download a list of the changes (XLS 22KB). Should any of these be one of your existing feeder or transfer schools you will need to edit the appropriate Associated School Record to rename the school.

Author: Amanda Carr

RM Easymail SPAM Emails

The reporting mechanism for schools who wish to report SPAM email is to call our ICT Solutions Service Desk number on 0845 303 3003 or to email ictsolutions@norfolk.gov.uk.

Our Service Desk will then raise a call to arrange blocking with RM Computers who host the Norfolk school email service, and they will block accordingly.

There is more information available on the ICT Solutions Website about how to report SPAM email.

We recently invited all Norfolk schools’ to take parting a survey regarding the RM EasyMail Plus service. We received over one hundred response, and SPAM came out as one of the top issues. Further to this we visited a selection of schools with a representative from RM and BT to discuss questionnaire findings further. The RM representative agreed that they recognised SPAM to be a significant issue, and the Norfolk school survey supported this view. RM has stated there will be a new SPAM filtering system implemented this year. We are awaiting confirmation of timescales.

Author: Amanda Carr

Netmedia Learning Platform - Scheduled Maintenance and Upgrade

Netmedia have announced that the Learning Platform service will be unavailable between Wednesday 4th April 2007 and Saturday 7th April 2007 for a scheduled update. A number of improvements and fixes are planned for this patch.

Author: Mark Carway

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