“As Microsoft Office 365 develops, soon students may just need a good Internet connection to access school collaboration tools. This increases learning opportunities.”

Geoff Baker, DGfL Head of Service, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council set up the Dudley Grid for Learning (DGfL) to provide its schools with fully managed information and communications technology (ICT) services. The council’s private sector partner RM Education was chosen to move its email to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365. The council is now confident that it will reduce ICT costs, increase agility, and enhance student learning.

Business NeedsAs part of its service to schools within the local authority, Dudley Council first procured the DGfL service in 1999. The innovative service delivers, through a private sector partner, fully managed ICT to 106 schools across the borough. It encompasses network infrastructure, hardware, educational software, schools management information systems (MIS), as well as helpdesk, training, network, and technical support. A key component of the service is support for the school applications, such as email and document sharing software, used by 45,000 students and 5,600 staff. DGfL is nationally recognised within the education sector, and a reference point for outsourced educational ICT projects in the U.K.

RM Education—an ICT provider based in the U.K. and the council’s private sector partner since 1999—developed the current DGfL platform based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. This provides all Dudley pupils, staff, and teachers with access to a secure online learning space and collaboration tools. It also gives parents web access to up-to-date and relevant information about their child’s achievement, attendance, and progress. E-safety is a top priority for DGfL, and RM Education implements appropriate safety monitoring policies, alongside training

sessions that help promote awareness of online safety among pupils and staff.

As part of its commitment to providing excellent ICT services through DGfL, in 2010 Dudley undertook a comprehensive, European Union–compliant tender exercise, resulting in RM Education retaining the DGfL contract for a further 10 years. As part of the new contract, the council required a review of its current collaboration platform, with the initial goal of upgrading its email solution. Geoff Baker, DGfL Head of Service, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, says: “We wanted staff in particular to have a more ‘business-like’ email system, with access to the latest contact and scheduling tools. The council also wanted to lay the foundation for future upgrades with an agile, cost-effective collaboration platform that could meet current and future needs. We are demanding clients and we wanted to make sure that RM Education could provide an offering it was confident about.”

SolutionRM Education provides Microsoft Office 365 migration and deployment services to the education sector, and has a strategic relationship with Microsoft. It uses this insight to help education customers plan and implement robust ICT strategies. Dudley asked RM Education to evaluate

Customer: Dudley Metropolitan Borough CouncilWebsite: www.dudley.gov.u k Customer Size: 7,000Country or Region: United KingdomIndustry: Government—Local government agenciesPartner: RM Education

Customer ProfileEstablished in 1974, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is responsible for local government services for more than 300,000 constituents in the borough of Dudley in the West Midlands.

Software and Services Microsoft Office− Microsoft Office 365

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Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Council Enhances Agility and Reduces Costs with Customised Cloud Platform

Google Mail and Google Apps for Education, alongside Microsoft Office 365—assessing both providers’ offerings against criteria such as usability, functionality, ease of management, and cost-effectiveness.As part of its evaluation, RM Education asked a group of teaching and administration staff to evaluate the strengths of the Google and Microsoft offerings from a user perspective. Baker says: “Staff input was critical because they rely on email a lot and use it as their primary collaboration tool.” While some users were familiar with Google Mail from personal use, the RM Education review found that staff preferred Office 365 in crucial areas. One important aspect was the need to comply with the government’s guidance on storing personal data in the cloud. Baker says: “RM Education confirmed that Microsoft could guarantee that our data would reside in data centres located within the European Union.”

Dudley chose to migrate its collaboration platform to Office 365 based on advice from RM Education and feedback from the user group. Office 365 provides schools with free email, instant messaging, group video, voice chat, and online document viewing and editing. Baker says: “RM Education has proved it has expert knowledge of the Office 365 roadmap. We felt that this relationship would benefit us and help us make the right long-term decisions about the future of cloud-based services for our schools.”

BenefitsWith Microsoft Office 365, the council has an agile cloud platform that supports current and future learning and collaboration needs. It can continue to develop its learning platform, increasing agility and applying the latest technologies to enhance access and education.

Student learning is enhanced cost-effectively. An example of innovation is the development of the council’s vision of students using their own devices to access learning materials anytime, anywhere. Baker says: “As Microsoft Office 365 develops, soon students may just need a good Internet connection to access school collaboration tools. This increases learning opportunities, but at the same time has the potential to reduce

costs because we don’t need to purchase local licences.”

Customisable solution supports enforcement of anti-bullying policy. As a Microsoft Office 365 migration specialist, RM Education was easily able to customise Office 365 to meet the council and schools’ comprehensive anti-bullying requirements. Baker says: “RM Education maintains filtering for key words related to bullying and other text that contravenes the council’s acceptable use policies. Even when it becomes common for pupils to use their personal devices to access school email and other applications, communication will be monitored to ensure the safety and protection of students.”

Ongoing maintenance costs and complexity are reduced. “Dudley schools will soon have access to the latest versions of Microsoft Office applications, and updates to new versions will be carried out automatically in the cloud with Office 365. This should remove the need for any system downtime while software upgrades take place,” says Baker.

Cloud platform boosts flexible learning. There are fewer barriers to learning because Dudley staff and students can access schools’ collaboration tools even when they’re not at school. “If it snows, leaving pupils and staff stuck at home, they can continue to learn and communicate with each other through Microsoft Office 365,” says Baker. Dudley is also looking to make use of the instant messaging services in Microsoft Lync, part of Office 365, to support student learning through video conferencing and desktop application sharing.

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Document published November 2012