NEWS |
| Last updated: 25 August 2010 |  ESC Summer Schools - Exchange 2010 & Sharepoint 2010 | Following on from the MOSS workshops held in 2009 the ESC has arranged 2 sets of online workshops - Exchange 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 - in conjunction with Microsoft.
The workshops will be via live meeting and there will be 4 sessions per technology area, videos of the events will be made available for download after each session. Each session will last up to 2.30 hours.
The cost is per institution - so everyone in your team can join at no extra cost. (you can nominate multiple individuals to log-in to the sessions)
If you would like to sign up to the event please mail in to info@escuk.net
ESC Summer School One - Exchange 2010
Cost: £300.00 per institution for the Workshop (which consists of 4 sessions)
Session Dates/ Times:
1. Tuesday 31st August 2010 1pm onwards.
2. Monday 6th September 2010 1pm onwards.
3. Monday 13th September 2010 1pm onwards.
4. Monday 20th September 2010 1pm onwards
Session 1: Exchange 2010 setup and deployment and Transition from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010
- Discuss the changes between Exchange 2003/2007 and Exchange 2010
- Discuss the prerequisites for upgrading and the architectural best practices for Exchange 2010
- Walk through the upgrade scenarios
- Client Access
- Transport
- Unified Messaging
- Mailbox
Session 2: Exchange 2010 High Availability
- Overview of Exchange 2010 High Availability
- Understanding Database Availability Group in depth
- Deploying Exchange 2010 High Availability Features
- Exchange 2010 High Availability Features
- Transitioning to Exchange 2010 High Availability
- High Availability Design Examples
Session 3: Exchange 2010 Archiving and Retention
- Overview of compliance in Exchange 2010
- Explain and demonstrate key compliance features:
- Personal Archive
- Retention policies
- Discovery
Session 4: Exchange 2010 CAS and Transport Server
- Exchange 2010 Certificates
- Exchange 2010 Autodiscover
- Exchange 2010 Transport
ESC Summer School Two – Sharepoint 2010
Cost: £300.00 per institution for the Workshop (which consists of 4 sessions)
Session Dates/ Times:
1. Friday 3rd September 2010 1pm onwards
2. Friday 10th September 2010 1pm onwards
3. Friday 17th September 2010 1pm onwards.
4. Friday 24th September 2010 1pm onwards
Session 1: SharePoint 2010 for IT-Pro
- What’s New SharePoint 2010?
- Installation & Upgrade
- UI changes and Service Applications
- Search
- BCS & External Content type
- Security
- Monitoring, Logging and Reporting
- Resource Governors
- Management Improvements
- High Availability
- Backup and Restore
- Multi-tenancy and Hosting
Session 2: SharePoint 2010 - Upgrade & Migration
- Why upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010?
- Upgrade preparation tools
- Upgrade methods
- Supported Scenarios
- Unsupported Scenarios
- Visual Upgrade
- Upgrade Logging/Status Reporting
- What’s right for me?
- Upgrade Cycle
- Downtime Mitigation
Session 3: SharePoint Server 2010 - Backup & Restore
- Versioning
- Recycle Bin
- SharePoint Central Administration Backup & Restore
- Backup and Restore using PowerShell
- Protect SharePoint using DPM 2010
- Fault tolerance of components and the network
- Redundancy of server roles and servers within a farm
- Offsite storage of backups
- Running multiple data centres
Session 4: SharePoint 2010 Extranet Deployment
- Extranet Definitions and Descriptions
- Common Implementation Scenarios
- Design Considerations and Business Requirements SharePoint 2010 & Extranets
- Updated and New Features and Configuration Options Authentication Scenarios
- Upgrading Forms Based Authentication
- Extranet Deployment Topologies
- Forefront and SharePoint
To sign up for either of the Summer Schools - Exchange 2010 or Sharepoint 2010 - please mail info@escuk.net | | | | Last updated: 10 August 2010 | | Microsoft Support dedicated to Education | With over 71 customers across the UK and Ireland the ESC provides a dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector. Here is a selection of some of our customers.
The ESC supports the whole education sector Universities; Colleges; Research Councils; Schools and Specialist colleges.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call on Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
The Education Support Centre was established expressly to provide the education sector throughout the UK with affordable, expert, effective frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
Every minute your staff spend dealing with I.T. issues outside of their core job role has a direct effect. Our ESC support engineers minimise that time, save you money and improve the skill set available to you. The ESC is a support partner of Microsoft, allowing ESC engineers to escalate your problem to the highest level should the situation require it. We support all products currently within the Microsoft support cycle as well as some additional products on a reasonable efforts basis.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please contact us on t: 0870 012 0122 or email us at info@escuk.net
| | | | Last updated: 10 August 2010 | | Digest of Service: Lewisham College - Exchange automatic storage limit warning | |
A problem was reported to the ESC whereby a customer’s end-user kept receiving postmaster warnings at 00:00 each morning telling them their mailbox was over its size limit, even though there was plenty of space left in their mailbox. The ESC requested more detail and initial troubleshooting steps were provided. It was identified that the postmaster error was not coming from the user in questions domain. This enabled the ESCs triage and investigation to be focused on a specific area which in turn led to the identification of the source of the problem. A user account in another domain with the same name as the user in question was over limit and a forwarding rule was sending the postmaster messages to the user. The rule was changed and the problem was resolved.
Lewisham College is a large and very successful further education college in South East London. Its mission is creating successful futures. Lewisham College are a large vocational college. From its two sites, we work with many diverse partners, including: schools, universities, trade unions, businesses and a range of public sector organisations.
ESCuk is a 3rd line escalation support service for Microsoft products deployed in the Education Sector. The ESC only deals with the Education sector and therefore has an understanding of issues that are unique to that environment. This focus enables the ESC to understand the ramifications of specific system failures that are not necessarily understood by the Business Sector – Scenarios would include the importance of all systems being available through clearing and registration; print servers on essay deadline days; security aspects of a network, both internal and external (the responsibility to protect). The ESC is a service where subscribing institutions can escalate issues they are having with Microsoft Products. The ESC supports all products covered by Campus and Select agreements and work with your staff to resolve problems in the shortest possible timeframe. ESC also supports, on a 'reasonable efforts' basis, products no longer within the Microsoft support cycle. The ESC provides insurance against you having issues with your Microsoft environment that you are unable to resolve quickly and access to our dedicated engineers could help you to be back up and running faster than you may otherwise achieve.
| | | | Last updated: 10 August 2010 | | The ESC available via Eduserv CHEST | The ESC Services are now available via Eduserv CHEST providing the education sector with cost-effective, long-term support for Microsoft products.
The ESC not only give full coverage of all Microsoft products covered by Select and Campus agreements, the ESC also assist on products no longer supported by Microsoft on a “reasonable efforts” basis. The ESC was set up as a partnership between Microsoft and Nottingham Trent University with the specific remit to provide the education sector with affordable, expert & effective technical help.
The highly rated support services from the ESC are tailored to academic institutions’ needs and have over 50 institutions currently subscribing. Customer feedback is very positive, comments include “Very useful service, very education focused “, and “Support is always first class. Prompt, authoritative and helpful”. The ESC’s Customer Satisfaction ratings have not dipped below 92%.
The ESC routinely deals with calls covering a variety of Microsoft Products including Exchange, IIS, ISA, MOM, Class Server, SMS, Sharepoint and Desktop products. Some ESC customers view the service as an emergency assistance service for their IT Departments who can be called on when there are mission critical IT issues or as a back-up to their IT departments as part of a disaster recovery plan.
For further details regarding the ESC service please call 0870 012 0122 or go online at www.escuk.net
| | | | Last updated: 07 May 2010 | | Case Study: University of Westminster | |
Students 22,000
Higher Education
“The ESC UK team provide a great professional service, always willing to help with any issue no matter how large or small. In addition to this, the fact that they have the ability to get problems escalated to Microsoft as and when needed, provides us with an excellent support contract.” Neil Englefield, Systems Manager
Based in Central London and Harrow, the University of Westminster is home to more than 22,000 students. This innovative university has a proud history which includes being Britain’s first polytechnic institution, founded in 1838.
The University is based across four sites and, in addition to its students, also provides a base for more than 800 academic staff who are supported by 800 visiting lecturers. This means that the IS department has a real challenge on its hands, supporting such a large number of users in a geographically dispersed environment.
The University has its own internal support team who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the IT systems, as well as for planning future upgrades and deployments within their environment. To underpin their work, the University has a support contract with the Education Support Centre (ESC). The ESC routinely deals with calls from the University, ranging from queries about where to find best practice documentation, to assistance with server errors
The need for reliable information systems is increasing day by day which has driven universities towards providing digital versions of resources for students. Given this change, IS departments are relied on to ensure that resources are available around the clock.
Downtime for such departments is now measured in minutes, not hours. An example follows of the support the ESC has been able to provide for them.
An issue arose at the University of Westminster when a planned re-boot was implemented. The ICON finance database which contained personnel details and credit card information became corrupted. These details were vital for the University as such information was required for transactions, records, storing and referencing. A call was placed to the ESC, the reported problem being that a simple query would not execute against the database.
As soon as the problem was logged an engineer requested detailed information of the environment, impact, details of the error and log files.
Due to the nature and severity of the problem the issue was escalated to Microsoft. The ESC was created by and is associated with Microsoft, allowing for quick responses to problems ranging from low to high-impact. An escalation engineer was assigned to the case who worked closely with the team at the ESC to diagnose the problem and look through the SQL MPS reports. Maintaining constant and regular contact is essential when diagnosing a problem and communication throughout the ESC to the customer and back again to the Escalation engineer was regular and thorough.
The issue presented many problems, both technical and ethical, as data protection was another concern but the team at the ESC and Microsoft worked closely to find that the problem resided in corrupt indexes that occurred after the re-boot. As the ESC and their escalation engineer ran specific checks on the reports, the technicians at Westminster prepped a DR solution in parallel in case there was data loss. Doing this allowed the network to continue if there were any major failures to the live system.
The corrupt indexes did not affect the tables or database, so the data was secure and fully recoverable and all that was required was that the corrupt indexes be rebuilt. The data involved had to be secure and precise and in knowing this the ESC and the escalation engineer provided the finance department within Westminster a notice of integration assuring them that their data was fully accurate and protected.
This was very important to the Finance department and was a key part of the service from the ESCuk. Delivering this also helped all parties to understand the problem so that if an error with similar symptoms appeared again, it could be easily diagnosed and solved.
The goal for the ESCuk is to provide solutions and gain satisfied customers. To achieve both these goals, the ESC and the escalation engineer looked over the reports of the University’s system and suggested reasons why the system had become corrupt. Feedback and updates were provided, along with possible methods for ensuring that something like this wouldn’t happen again.
The ESC provides insurance against you having issues with your Microsoft environment that you are unable to resolve quickly and access to our dedicated engineers could help you to be back up and running faster than you may otherwise achieve
| | | | Last updated: 13 January 2010 | | Digest of Service: City of Wolverhampton College - Exchange hit by Trojan | |
The City of Wolverhampton College were hit by a Trojan virus which meant that their Exchange was disabled. Email flow to the college was severely disrupted, additionally the IT team at the college was unable to log-on to the server to investigate. There was no mail flow and a number of exchange services were down affecting all users across the whole environment. The ESC approached this a two-fold issue and initially concentrated their efforts on getting the Exchange box back up and running while assisting the customer in dealing with the virus incident. The call was escalated by the ESC, at no extra cost, in order to get the Exchange environment restored as safely and quickly as possible. The ESC was then able to liaise with the customer and the escalation team to successfully recover and restore the environment to a fully working state. The ESC additionally provided best practise security advice in order to prevent future attacks.
The ESC is a 3rd line escalation support service for Microsoft products deployed in the Education Sector. The ESC only deals with the Education sector and therefore has an understanding of issues that are unique to that environment.
This focus enables the ESC to understand the ramifications of specific system failures that are not necessarily understood by the Business sector – Scenarios would include the importance of all systems being available through clearing and registration; print servers on essay deadline days; security aspects of a network, both internal and external (the responsibility to protect). The ESC provides insurance against you having issues with your Microsoft environment that you are unable to resolve quickly and access to our dedicated engineers could help you to be back up and running faster than you may otherwise achieve.
| | | | Last updated: 14 December 2009 | | Try before you buy! Lewisham College took up the ESC’s trial offer with a domain controller issue. After the issue was resolved they took out a full contract with the ESC to provide them with support and advice on Microsoft products. | Lewisham College took up the ESC’s trial offer with a domain controller issue. After the issue was resolved they took out a full contract with the ESC to provide them with support and advice on Microsoft products.
The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
Lewisham College is a large inner-city further education college in south east London serving a diverse and multi-cultural population. They aim to ensure that all members of their community are provided with every opportunity to succeed. They provide an innovative range of services that enable them to be 'more than a College, offering more than a qualification'.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call on Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 23 November 2009 | | For all potential problems that your IT department might face the ESC is here to help. | The summer is over and all the upgrades have been done, the academic year has started and you’ve made it past Clearing, Registrations, new student enrolments and Timetabling.
For IT departments across the education sector the hard work has just begun, there are a multitude of issues that need to be addressed.
Security for all those ‘un-cleared’ bits of software that appear on pc’s.
Load-testing, to ensure that the Email system is up to all the project work that will be sent in minutes before the deadline.
Print servers are working at the ‘critical’ time just before 2.00 pm (hand-in deadline).
Network connections to ensure that all lecture notes and AV systems are accessible with clear instructions for all end-users.
For all potential problems that your IT department might face the ESC is here to help.
If you’d like more information about how the ESC can help you please look call us on 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 23 November 2009 | | EduCoMS: online community for IT professionals | EduCoMS (www.educoms.net) is a brand new community site for IT professionals in the higher and further education sectors using Microsoft technologies.
Featuring document libraries, forums, wiki pages and news on a wide range of Microsoft products, EduCoMS is run by and for the HE and FE IT community.
The site was built by Eduserv, the not-for-profit IT services group, in partnership with Microsoft, UCISA and ourselves, using Sharepoint 2007. Eduserv will continue to curate and support the site as the community grows.
The site needs your input to become the useful and lively community resource that we hope it will become, so sign up now and start contributing.
To kick things off, during this launch phase every new post is being rewarded with National Book Vouchers which can be used in a wide range of book shops. There’ll be:
For more information about EduCoMS, please contact Lisa Price (lisa.price@eduserv.org.uk), Online Communications Manager at Eduserv.
| | | | Last updated: 23 November 2009 | | Customer Satisfaction at 92% | Regardless of institution size, the Education Support Centre (ESC) is able to offer affordable, expert and effective technical help to all of its customers. The ESC is an IT Support service dedicated to the Education sector. Institutions that the ESC supports vary from 35,000 to 90 students. The ESC provides a consistently high level of customer service, its customer satisfaction ratings have not dipped below 92% since it opened.
“The University of Reading signed up with ESC from its launch. Although we have general Windows systems management expertise in-house, we had tended to use consultants for specialised projects such as introducing and supporting Exchange, linking MS-SQL with IIS, etc. Our experience with consultants was varied, so we found the ESC's offering of annual support for the cost of a few days' consultancy very attractive.
We have found their expertise to be comprehensive, their service responsive and professional. My very discriminating systems staff rate the ESC very highly and this is demonstrated by the way in which they now readily turn to ESC and adopt the approaches suggested."
Director of IT Services. The University of Reading
The ESC provides support on all Microsoft Software and routinely deals with calls covering products including ISA Server, Exchange, IIS, MOM, Class Server, SMS and Sharepoint. Some ESC customers view the service as an emergency assistance service for their IT Departments who can be called on when there are mission critical IT issues or as a back-up to their IT departments as part of a disaster recovery plan.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | A warm welcome to Lancaster and Morecambe College – the ESC’s newest customer. | Lancaster and Morecambe College has selected the ESC (Education Support Centre) to provide affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
Lancaster and Morecambe College offers a range of high-quality, diverse and relevant education and training opportunities via a wide range of both full and part-time courses. The college is a Centre of Vocational Excellence in Catering and Hospitality and a recipient of the Charter Mark for Customer Service.
The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call on Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Frontline Technical Expertise at North West Institute | North West Institute of Further & Higher Education Institute (NWIFHE) has selected the Education Support Centre (ESC) to provide them with affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
NWIFHE trialled the ESC service initially, before taking out a full-time contract.
The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
North West Institute is one of the fastest growing colleges in Northern Ireland. Headquartered at Strand Road in Derry City, it has approximately 20,000 students undertaking study in a range of full-time and part-time programmes.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Getting Down to Business: The London Business School has selected the ESC to provide them with affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies. | The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please
call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Another satisfied customer: Waltham Forest College took up the offer of the ESC single call trial and were so impressed, they took out a full-time contract. | When Waltham Forest College called the Education Support Centre (ESC) with a critical systems failure, their call was diagnosed and dealt with rapidly and efficiently. The college were so confident that the ESC would provide them with reliable and effective support that they took out a full-time contract.
The ESC will provide Waltham Forest College with affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
The centre, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Quality control: Worthing College have selected the ESC to provide them technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies. | Worthing College has a strong reputation for providing quality courses and support for its students. They have selected the Education Support Centre (ESC) to provide them with affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
Worthing College has joined the ESC, bringing the total number of clients to 47.
The centre, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Hitting the right note - The Royal Academy of Music has joined the chorus of institutions that are looking to the ESC for IT support. | The Royal Academy of Music has joined the Education Support Centre (ESC), bringing the total number of clients to 38. The Academy is the ESC’s sixth customer from the London area.
The ESC will provide the Royal Academy of Music with affordable and effective expert frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
The centre, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | All the fours: forty-four! Cardonald College in Glasgow brings the ESC customer total to 44. | Cardonald College joined the Education Support Centre (ESC) this month, bringing the ESC members to 44 in total. The college is the ESC’s fifth Scottish customer.
The ESC will provide Cardonald with affordable, expert, effective frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
The Education Support Centre (ESC), based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the centre are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122 | | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | The answer to the question of the meaning of Life? 42! The ESC’s client total now equals 42 with the addition of The National University of Ireland Galway. | The National University of Ireland Galway joined the Education Support Centre (ESC) this month, bringing the customer numbers to 42 in total. The university is the ESC’s third customer from the Republic of Ireland.
The ESC will provide The National University of Ireland Galway with affordable, expert, effective frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
The Education Support Centre (ESC), based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the centre are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | The 39th Step - The ESC's new contract with the Robert Gordon University brings its total number of Customers to 39. | The Education Support Centre (ESC) – a non-profit-making service based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft – has won a new contract with The Robert Gordon University, bringing its total number of customers to thirty-nine.
The ESC will provide The Robert Gordon University with affordable, expert, effective frontline technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers and technical support staff at the centre are able to call upon Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | Canterbury Christ Church University Joins the Education Support Centre. | Canterbury Christ Church University has become the latest institution to select the ESC as its support provider for Microsoft products.
The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
Canterbury Christ Church University are the largest centre of higher education in Kent for the public services – notably teacher training, policing, health and social care.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call on Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | The ESC would like to welcome its newest customer, the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown | The ESC would like to welcome its newest customer the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown. The institute is the ESCs seventh Irish Customer.
The ESC, based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, provides the UK’s only dedicated Microsoft IT support service for the education sector from within the education sector.
The Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown is responsible for the provision of high quality programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level and for ensuring excellence in teaching and learning.
The ESC is expanding its client base around the UK and Ireland, and now has a number of universities, FE colleges and technical institutes depending on it for solutions to technical problems, and for IT support and advice.
IT engineers at the ESC are able to call on Microsoft experts around the world, making this an effective service based on up-to-the-minute knowledge and expertise.
For more information about the ESC and its services, please call 0870 012 0122.
| | | | Last updated: 19 August 2008 | | CASE STUDY 7: Royal Academy of Music - Supported by the ESC | "The staff at the ESC always show a very genuine interest in the call and a hunger to help solve the problem . . . A very prompt response to the opening of the call and to all of by subsequent communication. Very impressed indeed"
The Royal Academy of Music is a specialist music college based in Central London, home to around 600 students. The Academy teaches in a variety of musically related fields, from composing to conducting and is part of the University of London. It is the UK's most senior conservatoire and has been in existence since 1822.
In late 2004, identifying the need to update their systems to improve performance and stability, the institution underwent a major technology overhaul, supported by the Education Support Centre (ESC). The Information Systems infrastructure at the Academy had evolved over the years in an informal way which had resulted in a patchwork of systems, many of which could not be supported by the internal IT teams. This, alongside disaster recovery concerns, prompted the institution to review their IS systems with the aim of centralising and standardising their facilities. Around this time a new IS manager was brought on board to manage the process. In addition to improving the current environment, the new IS manager was tasked with improving the e-learning facilities in the institution to fit in with the new way in which students wanted to learn and staff to teach.
In 2004 the Academy began a massive technology refresh programme, beginning the process of moving their desktops to a common platform, the aim of this was to allow the internal support teams to more efficiently support their user base. They also planned to have a series of common applications, such as Microsoft Office 2003. One of the overarching aims of the process was to allow better access to e-learning facilities for the students. Behind everything that the Academy were doing were the ESC, providing support when it was needed.
The Royal Academy of Music has now been a customer of the ESC for over a year. In that time they have raised a variety of issues with our engineers ranging from informational 'how to' requests to critical support with server issues. The Royal Academy of Music IS team supports just over 900 users.
One example case raised by the Academy was a question regarding allowing access to a specific application. They wanted a group of users to have access to the specific application from CMS Server. The application turned out to be a third party application. After research, the ESC engineer handling the call contacted the third party organisation and established the requirements for user privileges needed to run the application.
In another incident, staff at the Academy were reporting errors with the SMS Management Points. The engineers at the Academy had tried removing and recreating the management points however this did not correct this issue. After brief analysis by the ESC, a known issue with SMS was identified as the cause, for which their was a hotfix available. The ESC obtained the hotfix on behalf of the Academy, which they subsequently installed, correcting the issue.
Institutions like the Academy who are pushing the boundaries of their technology often contact the ESC with challenging cases to help them improve their environment, or do something innovative with their software which most users do not do.
The Academy has now moved completely to a Microsoft environment. They have a common desktop for their users and has seen a large reduction in the number of failures they experience. Behind everything they do are the ESC, always ready to help.
Support from the ESC provides your institution with access to a reactive support team who can assist you in rapidly bringing your environment on-line again in the event of failure.
Proactive assistance from the ESC helps prevent failures from occurring in the first place and helps you configure and use your software to get the most from it. Many customers use support from the ESC as a risk management measure, when budgeting their IT provision. What ever your requirement and support need, the ESC is here to help.
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