I.T

I.T. consultancy for a new build primary school

This consultancy project, ably demonstrating Ansa-IT’s wide range of specialist skills, enabled value for money delivery of the total ICT package, on time and within budget.  It involved

The School was an entirely new education facility and part of a community scheme that included a new hospital.

The school’s ICT platform had to be innovative, deliver an excellent administration and learning platform and be as cost effective to run and maintain as possible. The system should also be scalable and tie into the wider online facilities offered by the LEA.

Our approach was based upon involving the key stakeholders in establishing the requirements for the ICT element.

We held a small number of short and tightly focused workshops, involving appropriate stakeholder representatives, to enable us accurately to define requirements. The requirements document produced from these sessions was sufficiently detailed to act as the basis for inviting potential suppliers/manufacturers, as appropriate, to make presentations of proposed solutions. On the basis of these presentations, we refined the requirements document before offering it as the basis for procurement.

We provided advice across the whole spectrum of the school’s ICT requirements, including:

Designing the server room - the layout of this room, cabinet types, data and power provision as well as room cooling and ventilation.

Calculating and documenting power loads for the proposed equipment when the specifications were known and agreed.

Reviewing the external connectivity requirements for intranet, internet and email services – including that of any backup ADSL (broadband) provision.

Advising on the arrangement of ICT equipment to the non-teaching rooms and areas.

Advising on the curriculum based devices to be used in classrooms, teaching spaces and speciality areas, including sensory rooms and roof space, to support creative learning and collaboration and provide teaching staff with an excellent teaching platform.

The school wanted the latest technology to support learning, which meant Ansa-IT specifying:

A large new build Academy

The Academy was totally transformed by an ambitious building project completed in September 2011, offering new buildings, an enhanced 21st century curriculum and outstanding facilities for students aged 11-18.

The state-of-the-art facilities include learning plazas, extended vocational centres, performing arts theatres and outdoor performance arenas.

Inside the impressive structures there are:
 

With its specialism in technology and science, the Academy sought a sophisticated technological solution to provide a secure environment for pupils, staff, visitors and equipment. To that end Ansa-IT was asked, inter alia, to design and specify CCTV and access control solutions across the whole site. The abstract below from our proposed solution reflects the key elements of our approach.

CCTV

"The networked surveillance solution proposed by Ansa-IT uses the excellent new IT infrastructure to distribute video to authorised site users and securely record to dedicated file servers.

The file servers and workstations and, indeed, the network that they reside upon can be managed under the same remit as other curriculum and application servers and machines. This gives the school an ownership and management role in the CCTV system and does not mean it is a 'black box' type system that is difficult to manage and extend.


A Community College

Situated in London and serving an area that is in sharp contrast to its more affluent neighbours, the Community College provides education to 750 11-18 year olds.

Being part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and securing a grant for a £23m project to provide its students with an outstanding learning environment, the college was a 'pathfinder' project for the DfES, which set the template for many other education establishments.

The new facilities supported a step change in aspiration. Creating a new environment has enabled the college to establish itself at the heart of the community, engaging with parents and pupils seven days a week. Benefits have ranged from better staff morale to increased enrolement and opening of new revenue streams for the school.



Portable Incident Management Solution R&D Project

Ansa-IT has a proven position as a cutting edge technological solution adviser. In the recent past the company has supported R&D projects involving innovative communications and component combinations to meet the specific challenges of certain environments.

A major UK based security contractor was aware of Ansa-ITs reputation and approached us about supporting them in using new technology to show what may be possible in the field of security and incident diagnosis and management.

The context for the solution was military and civil use in dealing with serious incidents with a range of potential types of collateral damage. The total solution was to consist of various elements providing real time analysis to support remote chemicals, biological and visual diagnosis and management of incidents in any environment, however challenging, without vehicle support. The key element in the solution was suitablility in a challenging environment, which included the need for:

 

Warsash Maritime Academy Engine Simulator Room