ICT Solutions News Desk

We have been advised of some essential infrastructure upgrades that will be carried out between 0:05 and 06:00 hours on the following date(s):

This will involve work at the following exchange(s):

April 4th

* King's Lynn

April 6th

* Attleborough

* Dereham

* Dickleburgh

* Downham Market

* Fakenham

* Great Yarmouth

* Holt

* King's Lynn

* Long Stratton

* North Walsham

* Norwich City

* Swaffham

* Thetford

* Wisbech

It does mean that during this period, any Schools connected to these exchanges may lose internet connection. This should equate to no more than 15 minutes and will occur between the times shown above. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

For more information, please contact the Service Desk on 01603 475603 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

To reflect the reduced demand on the Service Desk over the forthcoming Easter holiday period, we will be changing the hours of the Service Desk accordingly.

From April 3rd - 14th, the hours will be as follows -

08:30 to 16:00. 

Normal opening hours of 08:00 to 16:30 will resume on Monday, April 17th.

For more information, please contact the Service Desk on 01603 475603 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

We would like to ask schools to refrain from turning off the power to the core networking equipment over the forthcoming Easter holiday period. Core networking equipment includes routers, switches and servers, often in a wall or floor cabinet. These devices are monitored by ourselves and Updata and turning off the power results in false alarms. This could potentially result in your school incurring a charge for an engineer visit.

Services Affected:                           Schools Internet, email and any service accessed via the internet

Services Not Affected:                    All other school systems which do not access the internet

When:                                               31^st March 2023 – 17^th April 2023

What You Need To Do:

If there is no alternative to powering off the communications cabinet and core equipment, please contact the Service Desk to advise us in advance

For More Information:

Please contact the Service Desk on 01603 475603 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

We have been advised of some essential infrastructure upgrades that will be carried out between 0:05 and 06:00 hours on the following date(s):

This will involve work at the following exchange(s):

March 21st

* Fakenham

* Great Yarmouth

* Norwich City

* Norwich West

* Thetford

* Wisbech

March 23rd

* Attleborough

* Fakenham

* Great Yarmouth

* Holt

* King's Lynn

* Norwich City

* Wisbech

It does mean that during this period, any Schools connected to these exchanges may lose internet connection. This should equate to no more than 15 minutes and will occur between the times shown above. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

For more information, please contact the Service Desk on 01603 475603 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

The below may be of interest to those schools/academies who use SMART interactive products.

We have been notified that SMART’s Professional Development Specialist and former teacher, Mark Hartwright, will be holding 20 minute sessions, every 2 weeks, to show staff how to get more out of your interactive technology.

For more details and how to register, please visit the links:

March

April and May

June and July

Are you looking to switch your MIS supplier in the near future? If you are, Bromcom are offering MIS demonstrations, via Microsoft Teams.  

If you are interested, please contact the Service Desk via ict@norfolk.gov.uk, advising us of suitable dates/times and we will liaise with them on your behalf.  

ICT Solutions have tendered for suppliers to be on a Multi Broadband supplier framework, effective from September 2022.  

The framework agreement is open to all education establishments (e.g., Schools, Academies, Trusts, Federations, Adult Learning centres, Nurseries, Preschools, Alternative provisions) to purchase from, within East of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex) and Lincolnshire.

The scope of this framework agreement includes the supply, installation, management, maintenance, technical architecture, system design and project management associated with the provision of the services.

As part of this tender process, we have assessed suppliers’ technical solutions, compliance against legislation, financial checks, and experience with working with educational establishments to meet your requirements and provide you with a Framework to call off from to meet procurement regulations.

We are pleased to announce the following four suppliers have been awarded a place on our Framework:

• MLL Telecom Ltd
• Rydal Communications
• Talk Straight Ltd T/A Schools Broadband

Unfortunately, Eastern Telephones Ltd T/A Eastern Voice and Data are currently not providing quotes due to an acquisition by 4com.  We are waiting for 4com to confirm their compliance against our framework requirements before we agree to novate the award over to them.

For Schools, Academies and Trusts currently on the Updata Connection:

The Capita Updata contract is due to expire on 31^st March 2024, and due to infrastructure changes to the current network, it will not be possible to continue with Capita Updata services in its current format after this date.

ICT Solutions have set up a project team to support all Schools, Academies and Trusts in requesting new quotes and migration to new suppliers and services.   We will be requesting quotes from all our current Framework suppliers for you based on your current solution (or any upgrades that may now be possible in your area) and the suppliers may also contact you direct to discuss your options. 

There is no obligation to purchase from this Framework. 

We have begun working with Capita Updata on exit planning and impacts of leaving the service early, as realistically we will need to start migrating services away during 2023.  Capita have confirmed that 40% of the remaining contract term will be payable on migration to another provider, and our suppliers are currently looking at ways they can help with this charge.

We will be in contact with you directly soon about your services and future requirements.

For Schools, Academies and Trusts with a different supplier:

The Framework is free for you to use to carry out a direct award or run a mini competition against your requirements.

You do not need to come via ICT Solutions for quotes or support, your own teams can deal directly with the supplier.

If you would like to contact the suppliers for more information or quotations please see below, stating Norfolk Framework to get the agreed pricing:

MLL Telecom Ltd 

Ross Billington - r.billington@mlltelecom.com

Rydal Communications 

Neville Narnia - n.nania@rydal-group.co.uk

Talk Straight Ltd T/A Schools Broadband

Charlie Bennett - info@schoolsbroadband.co.uk

Microsoft have announced that Office 2013 will no longer be supported after 11th April, 2023. We recommend that anyone running this version starts upgrading to a later version of Office, such as Microsoft 365 Apps, which includes the Office apps you are familiar with (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook). Microsoft 365 Apps are designed to receive regular updates and will help you stay current by getting security updates and the latest features.

Further details can be found at - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/office-2013-skype-business-end-of-support

For more information, please contact the Service Desk on 01603 475603 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk