Ratcliffe College is a private school in Leicestershire\u00a0and was founded in 1847 by the Institute of Charity. In recent years the school has undergone a major investment program to refurbish and extend its teaching and learning accommodation. As a result, modern and spacious facilities are now in place for all subjects. Art, Design and Technology,\u00a0Media\u00a0and\u00a0Drama\u00a0are all very strong focuses at the school, bringing together creativity and up to date technology.<\/em><\/p>\n With approximately 800 students \u2013 many of whom are boarders – and over 200 staff \u00a0– some live-in, Ratcliffe College requires a robust and secure way to enable its students and staff to connect their personal devices to the school\u2019s Wi-Fi network.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul Grewcock, Network Manager at Ratcliffe College is responsible for the school\u2019s Wi-Fi network and ensuring that students and teachers are able to connect their personal devices to it when required. Discussing the previous process of onboarding new devices to the school\u2019s Wi-Fi network, Grewcock said:\u00a0\u201cWhenever a new student or teacher joined the school or got a new device they had to come and visit me in the IT department. I\u2019d have to manually load each individual device one at a time. This proved especially time-consuming at the beginning of term when there was an influx of new students and especially after Christmas, when a bunch of new devices received as Christmas presents enter the school\u2019s network.\u201d<\/p>\n Grewcock had a constant stream of boarders and live-in staff visiting him everyday reporting problems with the stability of the school\u2019s Wi-Fi connection, trying to resolve the problem took up around an hour of his time nearly every day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having worked with specialist cabling company, Nortech Network Services Inc. for many years, Grewcock turned to the Director, Perminder Bhara, for advice on the best product on the market to solve his Wi-Fi onboarding problems. This is where he learnt about UCOPIA and its Wi-Fi identity and access solution. Perminder explained that the solution would allow Mr. Grewcock to easily add new devices to the Wi-Fi network in a secure and automated manner with little administration.<\/p>\n Following a successful trial of UCOPIA equipment that started in September, the roll out took place during the 2014 Christmas holidays when IT activities were calm for IT services. Commenting on the roll out Grewcock said:<\/p>\n \u201cThe set up was very simple<\/strong>. With the help of UCOPIA\u2019s online support, I had it up and running within a day<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Since implementing the UCOPIA solution, Grewcock has gained back valuable time every day to spend on more pressing priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents and staff can now add their own devices to the Wi-Fi network simply using their own individual network log-in credentials. If they get a new device, it\u2019s now just a case of them logging the new device in when they first bring it to the school. It really just takes care of itself.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The UCOPIA solution has brought with it a number of other benefits too.<\/strong> Grewcock can customise the Wi-Fi login-landing page<\/strong> to have the school\u2019s branding on it. The easy set-up of devices has provided the school with an additional revenue stream<\/strong> as well. During the school holidays, the school is used as a venue for conferences and other events. The Wi-Fi connection is now included within the cost of the hire package. Previously, Mr. Grewcock and his team would have to manually add any visitor\u2019s devices to the School\u2019s Wi-Fi network one-by-one, which was a long a laborious task. It required each visitor to stop by his office with his of her device that needed to be connected.<\/p>\n Grewcock can also use the UCOPIA controller to monitor the traffic on the school\u2019s network and ensure that it doesn\u2019t become overloaded. In an academic environment, UCOPIA is particularly useful in that Grewcock can monitor what websites are being visited by which students and at what time. This enables him to ensure that they are all complying with the school\u2019s Internet usage policies. The UCOPIA solution is programmed to pick up the school\u2019s web filter policies and automatically ensures that certain websites are blocked.<\/p>\n Summarising the key benefits of the UCOPIA solution, Grewcock said:\u00a0\u201cThe UCOPIA solution is good value for money<\/strong>, which is an important factor for a school. By far my favourite benefit is that I really don\u2019t have to do anything<\/strong>. It just works. It\u2019s freed up a lot of my time,<\/strong> which I can now spend on more important tasks. Finally, the customer support is great. I\u2019ve only had to phone a couple of times with questions, but each time I\u2019ve been helped by the same person who seems to know the solution inside out and back to front. It\u2019s really refreshing to be able to get hold of someone straight away, who understands exactly how my network is set up and can help me immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on the installation, Dean Jones, Regional Sales Director at UCOPIA said: \u201cLike many UCOPIA customers, Ratcliff College started using UCOPIA to solve a specific access need and chose it for its simple integration into the school\u2019s working architecture. As time goes on, many clients are surprised to find that UCOPIA offers a plethora of other features that they hadn\u2019t needed to begin with, but that continue to make their activities run more smoothly; we are confident that this will be the case with Ratcliffe College as time goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n Established since 2000 and based in Northampton, Nortech Network Services is a specialist provider of cabling and networking services, including: network project management, network consultancy, design, installation and configuration, managed services, IT support, maintenance, IT health checks and training.<\/p>\n These days, whether wired or wireless, networks are the foundations and pillars of every business, organisation, academic or research establishment. A reliable and secure network helps increase productivity, facilitate better communication, cut costs, deliver efficiency and widen markets. All in all, networks are the backbone of profitability in business and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ratcliffe College selects UCOPIA for easy onboarding and stable connection of BYOD devices to the school\u2019s Wi-Fi network Ratcliffe College is a private school in Leicestershire\u00a0and was founded in 1847…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2244],"tags":[2274,2317,2281,2282,2340,2311,2275],"class_list":{"0":"post-23786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education-en","8":"tag-customer-feedback","9":"tag-interview-en","10":"tag-partners","11":"tag-products-solutions","12":"tag-technologie-en","13":"tag-technologie","14":"tag-weblib-group-en"},"yoast_head":"\n\n
The challenge<\/h2>\n
The solution<\/h2>\n