Your IT network is central to the smooth-running of your school, college, or university. But all too often, we speak to education providers who are struggling with disparate systems and out of date tech that’s just not able to cope with current demand.
If you’re thinking of switching IT suppliers, we’d highly recommend getting in touch with the team here at ECOM. We have more than 20 years’ experience in delivering managed IT services to all kinds of organisations, and we’re fast becoming the provider of choice for schools in Essex and the surrounding areas that want to benefit from unrivalled around-the-clock support from a friendly technical team.
When it comes to managing IT – whether for schools or any other kind of organisation – exceptional service delivery is the cornerstone of success. There are certain traits you should look for in your next IT supplier to ensure they have the knowledge and resources to meet your ongoing requirements.
Here are 5 key things your chosen IT company should bring to the table, without exception.
1. Fast response times
In learning environments, even the smallest IT challenges can have a big impact on your student’s progress. Technical glitches can impact entire learning programmes – so you need to partner with an IT provider that can identify and fix any problems quickly.
If you spot that something’s wrong at 7am, you want to know it’s going to be dealt with before the school day starts. The team here at ECOM offers early-morning support so they can jump on any issues before they begin to impact your staff and students. We’ll often be able to solve problems by logging in remotely, but we can also visit you onsite to carry out a more thorough review, if we need to. More on this later.
2. An understanding of how your network fits together
Your IT company’s job is to keep your IT working as efficiently as possible. To do this, they need to know exactly which systems and hardware you’re using, how it all comes together to support your operations, and, crucially, whether there are any gaps or vulnerabilities in your setup that are in danger of being exploited. As well as carrying out a full IT audit at the start of your contract, our team will also book in regular IT health checks to make sure your IT is fit for purpose, performing well, and providing appropriate protection to your software and devices. If it’s not – because it needs to be upgraded, or your systems just aren’t ‘talking’ to each other in the right way – we’ll provide you with a list of options, along with the associated costs for our recommended works.
3. Exceptional cyber protection solutions
Like any business, you need to make sure your data is protected. This is especially important in schools, because your CRM is likely to house highly sensitive information about your students, including their addresses, their parents’ details, and their mental health records. Your chosen IT provider must install and manage the best possible anti-virus and anti-malware to make sure your systems aren’t open to constant cyber threats like malicious attacks and ransomware, too. At ECOM, we take data protection extremely seriously. You can learn more about our approach to IT security here.
4. Proactivity!
Tech never stands still, so you need to work with a school IT company that’s happy to recommend new ideas and approaches that will future-proof your network as far as possible.
For example, most IT specialists would advise moving their systems from on-premise servers into the cloud. For many facilities managers and their head teachers, this can feel like too much of a mountain to climb, largely because they don’t fully understand how the migration process will work, or they’re worried about incurring high costs.
But change certainly shouldn’t be avoided when it makes your life easier.
Work with us, and we’ll constantly be coming up with ways we can improve your IT. It might be a small change or a complete network overhaul – but either way, you’ll have all the advice and recommendations you need to make informed decisions. You’ll also get added peace of mind that your IT will never get left behind!
5. Out of hours assistance
For most schools, it’s more convenient for suppliers to be onsite outside of school hours.
As we mentioned earlier, we can often provide remote support, which works perfectly for fixing everyday issues between the hours of 8am and 4pm. But if we need to come to your premises to carry out a more thorough assessment of the problem, we can arrange for a DBS checked consultant to visit at a quieter time.
Interested in learning more about our IT services for schools? Get in touch with us directly to chat with a member of our team.
Your IT network is central to the smooth-running of your school, college, or university. But all too often, we speak to education providers who are struggling with disparate systems and out of date tech that’s just not able to cope with current demand.
