IT that survives exam week
Classrooms, shared devices and lecture halls where the wireless network comes under pressure the second everyone logs on at once. We measure coverage per building, keep accounts in step with every new intake, and schedule maintenance around exam periods rather than on top of them.
Everything happens at the same moment here
In an office the load trickles in. Here a lesson starts and everybody logs on at once.
An education environment is not heavier than an office environment, it is loaded differently. The timetable makes the peak come back to the minute every period: hundreds of devices looking for a connection at once, signing in at once and opening the same learning platform at once. A network designed for the average handles that average perfectly well and falls over on the peak.
On top of that the users change. Every year a group arrives and a group leaves, teachers and stand-ins join in between, and devices are partly the institution’s and partly the pupil’s or student’s. An organisation not set up for that ends up with accounts belonging to people who left and devices on the network nobody owns any more.
Coverage is measured, not estimated
The complaint in education is almost never “the internet is broken”. It is “it does not work in that room” or “it drops out in the hall”. That is a coverage question, and you answer it by measuring: per building, per floor, with the device counts that are actually there. We do that measurement on site and record the outcome, so a decision about access points rests on figures rather than on a feeling.
Accounts that keep step with the school year
Arrivals, moves and departures are predictable here, so there is no reason to track them by hand. We set management up so an account appears when somebody starts, follows along when somebody changes course or role, and closes when somebody leaves. That saves work in September, and above all it saves the kind of account that lingers for years with nobody attached to it.
The GDPR and pupil data
Educational institutions process data about children, and the GDPR gives that extra weight. That makes role-based access, multi-factor authentication and a record of who could reach what a baseline rather than a luxury. That responsibility stays with the institution; we make sure our setup and way of working line up with it. Our own processes are covered by ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 14001 and Kiwa NEN 4400-1.
What we handle in an education environment
You choose what you need. It all sits under one contract, one report and one point of contact.
- Coverage measured per buildingAn on-site measurement per floor and per room, with the device counts that are really there, and an outcome you can use in an investment decision.
- A network built for the peakDesigned for the moment a lesson starts rather than the daily average, with separated traffic for pupils, staff and guests.
- Accounts that follow the yearCreated on arrival, adjusted on a move and closed on departure, so nothing has to be done by hand in September and no accounts are left standing.
- Shared devices that workA classroom computer or loan device anybody can use without the previous user still being signed in, with remote management and a fast way to reset it.
- Maintenance around the timetableChanges inside a window agreed in advance, with the exam period as an agreed quiet spell in which nothing is touched.
- Support where the teaching isTickets arrive by phone, email or portal with a response time written into the SLA, and on site when something in the room itself stops working.
How we take over an education environment
In this order, because a transition that goes wrong during a teaching week costs lesson time you do not get back.
Walking along during a lesson
Not in the holidays, but at a moment when it is full. That is when you see where it pinches and which workaround teachers invented themselves when something did not work.
Measuring and mapping
Coverage per building, load per period, which systems hang together and where the accounts come from. That decides where we start.
Setting windows and response times
What is critical during teaching hours, what response time belongs to it and when nothing may be touched. That goes into an SLA in plain language.
Steering on what we see
The reporting shows volumes, lead times and recurring causes, per building or per site. That tells you where the next investment pays off most.
The services that come up most here
These building blocks come up most often in an education environment.
Looking further
Recognise the picture but work in another industry? Have a look at the other sectors.
Tell us which room it does not work in
Name the buildings, the peak moments in the timetable and the period in which nothing may be touched. We build the measurement, the maintenance window and the coverage around those.