Schools get in the IT running with SICL speed system
Added: (Fri Jan 30 2004)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
PRESS RELEASE
Schools get in the IT running with SICL speed system
Twenty-nine schools across the Bradford district are now up and running with the very latest high-speed network connections installed by Yorkshire firm SICL.
In a £263,000 contract Bovis Lend Lease partnered SICL – Systems Integration and Cabling Ltd – to update school networks to give children fast and easy access to the programmes and web resources they need in today’s world. The school networks were installed as part of a multi-million pound re-organisation of Bradford’s schools managed by Bovis Lend Lease which received ICT assistance from Education Bradford.
Shirley Firth of SICL said: “We’ve been working with some interesting timetabling. Some schools are in Victorian buildings and some are in very modern buildings. Many are being refurbished and we’ve gone it to put in systems in the updated buildings.
“Some need just a new computer and some need very sophisticated systems. Cultural sensitivities have needed to be observed – an installation in a prayer room at one school entailed ensuring any noise caused by the work was kept to a minimum.
“We’ve also kept the work to the half-term and holiday periods in order to keep disruption to a minimum.
“We’re always aware of understanding what the schools really need, and explaining what we propose in language that’s not riddled with jargon!”
SICL, formerly based at the Business & Innovation Centre in Bradford, and now in Wortley, Leeds, has installed connections in the schools to the same standards as those required by the commercial world.
Bob Mothers, of Education Bradford, said: “SICL are a superb company to work with. They are a very accommodating company and were able to meet some of our more curious requests in the same professional manner in which they installed and commissioned the schools’ networks. Every scheme they worked on was completed on time and to budget which is important in a large scheme such as this. SICL were not just about installations they were a crucial partner in the success of each of these schemes providing guidance and advice when it was needed. Their level of expertise is very impressive.”
Technical notes:
SICL specified, designed and implemented Category 5e and 6
UTP data and voice infrastructures throughout Bradford primary
and secondary schools, in association with Bovis Lend Lease and
Education Bradford.
All cabling installed has been fully tested and conforms to all applicable standards set down by IEEE regulations.
Each school has had additional active hardware installed manufactured by Hewlett Packard based on the Procurve range of switching products. This has ranged from 2124 un-managed switches to the 5308 Layer 3 modular LAN switches.
In addition to high-speed LAN infrastructures, SICL has deployed the
Avaya IP 403 telephony systems within both new and existing schools.
Notes for editors
• SICL was established in 1995 and employs 14 people.
• The company provides a full range of networking solutions.
• For more information, contact Emma Harvey, of SICL, on 0113-238 9907.
Ends 29th January 2004