Fujitsu Awarded £1.8million Contract Extension with New College Durham

New College Durham (NCD), one of the leading Further and Higher Education institutions in the North East of England, has reappointed Fujitsu as its IT partner. Fujitsu will provide the college’s IT infrastructure with a £1.8million contract over five years, commencing August 2009. Fujitsu has been working with NCD since 2002 and will continue to deliver on every aspect of IT support, from desktop queries to maintaining servers and networks and supporting multiple computer systems.

Alan Race, Director of ICT and Purchasing at NCD said. “Seven years ago the college had some major issues in IT terms; since Fujitsu came on board they have made a fantastic contribution to the college’s provision and professional approach in ensuring top class ICT for students, lecturers and on-site businesses – which has been a central component to our success.”

Performance and success rates place New College Durham among the top 10% of Further and Higher Education colleges in the UK, with vocational, AS/A2 level and apprenticeships being offered to learners aged 16 upwards, as well as community courses, professional programmes, Degrees, Higher National Certificates and Higher National Diplomas to adults aged over 19. The college hopes to become the first further education UK college to be granted Foundation Degree Awarding Powers.

The college has seen dramatic growth in student numbers over the past seven years, bringing with it its own challenges:

“The extent of this rapid rate of expansion took us by surprise. What Fujitsu has allowed us to do is to cope with capacity – five to six hundred more full-time further education students means more courses and more staff members – potentially a real IT headache. Fujitsu’s innovative approach, flexibility and on-site team helped us to meet those challenges; we can now extend our services quite easily to other buildings outside the main campus”, said Race.

The criteria for awarding the contract involved the total cost of delivery, the nature of the service in terms of staffing and support, and the overall value for money. The new contract will see Fujitsu work as a supporting partner with an increased team of onsite operators working on all the college’s IT infrastructure.

Ian Lumley, Fujitsu North of England Regional Manager, said: “We’re delighted that Fujitsu is able to continue to play a part in what is a North East success story. This new contract is a validation of the excellent partnership between New College Durham and Fujitsu and we look forward to the next exciting phase in the college’s development”.