The Moray Council

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The Moray Council

Moray is the first education authority in the UK, funded through the Government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme, to be up and running with the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) programme. The £12.5 million contract to supply and manage the latest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) was awarded to Fujitsu. It provides email, video conferencing and secure Internet access to the teachers, administrators and 13,000 pupils in Moray’s 54 schools.

The Challenge

Moray is the first education authority in the UK, funded through the Government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme, to be up and running with the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) programme. The £12.5 million contract to supply and manage the latest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) was awarded to Fujitsu. It provides email, video conferencing and secure Internet access to the teachers, administrators and 13,000 pupils in Moray’s 54 schools. For the first time, all primary and secondary school pupils and staff have access to the same Information Communications Technological (ICT) resources.

Having the latest information and communications technology is one thing, using it to improve the teaching experience and streamline administration in all 54 schools is another. Prior to the investment, there was a significant variation in the provision of IT within Moray’s schools and in the skills to use it. This gap was most apparent between the large secondary and the small primary schools.

Teachers strongly protect the right to deliver the content that meets their pupils needs. So, unlike parts of industry or retail where uniformity of delivery is a goal, here the challenge is to provide equality of opportunity combined with local determination of need.

Donnie Macdonald, ICT Development Manager with the Moray Council, chairs regular meetings of the ICT co-ordinators from both primary and secondary schools. The roles are to share good practice and to develop the ICT service to meet the aspirations of the many stakeholders. Donnie Macdonald is also the main link with Fujitsu, the IT service provider. It is through constant dialogue both in formal review meetings and informal daily interaction that the needs of users are translated into the end user service provision.

The Solution

Fujitsu delivers the wide range of IT services needed by Moray schools through its Productivity Centre in Stevenage, Herts. Here, the valuable resources of people, technology and knowledge needed to manage a modern IT infrastructure are co-ordinated and cost effectively shared across customers. A dedicated Fujitsu Service Manager for Moray provides a single point of contact on all service management issues.

The Productivity Centre uses best practice processes and a range of world class technologies. Integrated IT helpdesk and life cycle asset management software from Peregrine Systems® is at the core of the Centre’s ability to deliver consistent, yet personal, levels of service.

To implement customer service quickly, Fujitsu has developed a service delivery solution kit, which defines in detail what services are provided to its customers and how. Typically, this meets 90% of the needs of 90% of customers, so the tailoring required is kept to a minimum. As well as enabling rapid implementation, this keeps the service costs down and ensures consistent quality of service at all times.

The Peregrine Systems technology is mapped and integrated onto the processes, ensuring a seamless service is provided to the end user. Fujitsu’s Productivity Centre then engages in a proactive development programme, which means that service is continually evolving to meet the changing needs of each customer.

The Benefits

Donnie Macdonald explained, “The purpose of the project is to provide the opportunity for everybody in primary and secondary education to have access to the same ICT resources. It is about exploring new ways to use ICT and sharing that good practice. The concept of good practice and standardised approaches extends to the times when staff and pupils may encounter issues or need help.”

Over the past 15 months, Moray and Fujitsu have worked to implement standard approaches to incident diagnosis and resolution. For example, with teachers in and out of classes, logging and closing a helpdesk call can be awkward. Fujitsu has implemented standard email templates that capture seven key items to provide teachers with a consistent and convenient way to log or close support issues.

The Fujitsu Productivity Centre has a broad picture of how the service is being delivered and has access to a wide range of specialist skills. This means Fujitsu can resolve the immediate issues, get to the root cause of a problem and also assist with long term requirements. The Peregrine Systems life cycle asset management capability used by Fujitsu, enables the education authority to understand exactly what IT assets exist, where they are and a high level of detail about each item. This ensures there is fair provision against need. It enables the authority to demonstrate that it is achieving Government standards for IT provision and greatly aids in the planning of future investments.

The Implementation

At the start of the project, the Fujitsu Productivity Centre dealt with the teething problems that occur at the beginning of any project of this size. Focus then moved on to meeting the needs of individual schools.

As Donnie Macdonald explained, “It was a challenge for Fujitsu to incorporate the individual flexibility desired by schools and still provide a consistent level of service when called upon to provide assistance. Yet through effective dialogue between all parties and willingness to adapt we have been able to provide a personalised yet consistent level of support.”

Donnie Macdonald, the major result is the improved end user service delivered to Moray’s schools. As he explained, “I used to have many calls from schools asking for help to resolve issues. Over the past fifteen months, the service has improved immensely. This is reflected in the customer satisfaction feedback that comes with each closed call and in the fact that I personally now get a minimal number of telephone calls from people complaining or requesting help.”

The Expertise

With an extensive user training programme, the Productivity Centre receives relatively few ‘how to’ calls from users. The Centre also supports Donnie Macdonald and Moray’s IT team on issues of a more technical nature. In Donnie Macdonald's words, “The ICT is an advanced computing network and there are many detailed technical questions about how best to make changes. Fujitsu has a complete picture of how the service is being developed and has a wide pool of expertise. For me, access to this level of professional advice is the value-added part of its service.”

“It was a challenge for Fujitsu, to incorporate the individual flexibility desired by schools and still provide a consistent level of service when called upon to provide assistance. Yet through effective dialogue between all parties and willingness to adapt, we have been able to provide a personalised yet consistent level of support.”