Leeds Learning Network

[SchoolsBroadband]

Importing the user list is quite easy. There are tools that you can use to move email over as well. We can do this on our daily rate or we can point you in the direction and you can do it. Alternatively local IT companies such as Schools ICT or Connect Up can do it for you too.

 

Do give me a call or a PM and I'll put you in touch with our office 365 expert here.

 

Thanks for thinking of us

 

Dave

[free780]

So glad im not working in secondary in Leeds anymore.

[IrritableTech]

Importing the user list is quite easy. There are tools that you can use to move email over as well. We can do this on our daily rate or we can point you in the direction and you can do it. Alternatively local IT companies such as Schools ICT or Connect Up can do it for you too.

 

Do give me a call or a PM and I'll put you in touch with our office 365 expert here.

 

Thanks for thinking of us

 

Dave

 

Dave are you suggesting schools broadband can migrate LLN emails to an office 365 install?

 

I'm fairly sure (but would be very pleased to be corrected) that Capita hold all the cards here, and each user would need to copy their email manually. There isn't a mass migration tool we can use unless capita give schools/LLN increased exchange access.

[sted]

Dave are you suggesting schools broadband can migrate LLN emails to an office 365 install?

 

I'm fairly sure (but would be very pleased to be corrected) that Capita hold all the cards here, and each user would need to copy their email manually. There isn't a mass migration tool we can use unless capita give schools/LLN increased exchange access.

 

thats what one of our techs has been told he asked about migration basically and im paraphrasing lln said unless you stay with us f off you cant do it and we wont so yes only way looks to be one by one lln exchange into outlook upload via outlook to office 365 repeat for all accounts

[Marshall_IT]

As far as I know, even if you stay with LLN or ICT4Leeds ^_^, they won't migrate your emails, only setup your user accounts with the initial LLN username and password.

[bms713]

Thanks, Marshall_IT. For us it's a case of making sure that the ongoing maintenance of user accounts/email doesn't become a bigger task than it was pre-change.

 

Ben

[SchoolsBroadband]

Dave are you suggesting schools broadband can migrate LLN emails to an office 365 install?

 

I'm fairly sure (but would be very pleased to be corrected) that Capita hold all the cards here, and each user would need to copy their email manually. There isn't a mass migration tool we can use unless capita give schools/LLN increased exchange access.

 

Hi @IrritableTech ,

 

this is really a question for my Office 365 guru Luke here in the office. I believe that if you are storing email on LLN's servers (or any ISPs for that matter) and they are either POP and keep a copy on the server or IMAP then there's a tool to do this that can help link one account to the other and move the mail over.

 

if you give the office a call and speak with Luke he'll help you out although he's not in this morning.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[IrritableTech]

Hi @IrritableTech ,

 

this is really a question for my Office 365 guru Luke here in the office. I believe that if you are storing email on LLN's servers (or any ISPs for that matter) and they are either POP and keep a copy on the server or IMAP then there's a tool to do this that can help link one account to the other and move the mail over.

 

if you give the office a call and speak with Luke he'll help you out although he's not in this morning.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave. Leeds Learning (through Capita) offer exchange email through owa or outlook (MAPI & ActiveSync - Happy to be corrected on this). They do not offer pop or imap services I'm afraid. Perhaps I'll ring Luke and confirm tomorrow.

[morator]

Any schools looking for a ISP provision need to carefully check what is available in the marketplace. There are a number of companies out there making all kinds of claims and in reality all they are doing is re-selling services from other large providers. Also if going with small Limited companies, please check the companies backgrounds and the background of the people running these companies. Schools need to ensure that they check what happens if a company goes bust and what fallback they have.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Any schools looking for a ISP provision need to carefully check what is available in the marketplace. There are a number of companies out there making all kinds of claims and in reality all they are doing is re-selling services from other large providers. Also if going with small Limited companies, please check the companies backgrounds and the background of the people running these companies. Schools need to ensure that they check what happens if a company goes bust and what fallback they have.

 

You are absolutely 100% correct @moderator we know of a few companies I wouldn't recommend touching with a barge poll both technically and financially. At the end of the day though it is down for the school to decide and dictate who they use, not us, another ISP or the LA.

 

FYI for all those wondering we have a Creditsafe UK credit rating of 94/100 (100 being the best). Happy to send anyone a copy if they require it.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[morator]

In essence though no matter what the credit rating of a company is, a Limited Company has no liability if they go bust and schools have no fallback.

[sted]

In essence though no matter what the credit rating of a company is, a Limited Company has no liability if they go bust and schools have no fallback.

 

True but you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. All you can do is do your research as best you can and make a decision. With llns direct replacement requiring a 4 year no get out contract (without paying for the remaining term) who in their right mind would use them with the service they have been proven to fail to deliver over the past few years?

 

and with the money you could potentially save by not using lln you could probably get 2 lines from 2 different companies in

Edited May 28, 2013 by sted

[SchoolsBroadband]

Actually we have tertiary agreements with some carriers (and I expect other companies do also) so your service would continue anyway. In essence if we (or any other company) went bust that delivered broadband services to schools then they'd go into administration and would be bought by another company as organisations that are backed up by the tax payer (i.e. won't go bust themselves) are a valuable asset to have on a companies client base. Certainly if any of you know of any companies that are in this situation do let me know as I'd buy them!

 

A very good point by @sted too

[morator]

Actually we have tertiary agreements with some carriers (and I expect other companies do also) so your service would continue anyway. In essence if we (or any other company) went bust that delivered broadband services to schools then they'd go into administration and would be bought by another company as organisations that are backed up by the tax payer (i.e. won't go bust themselves) are a valuable asset to have on a companies client base. Certainly if any of you know of any companies that are in this situation do let me know as I'd buy them!

 

A very good point by @sted too

 

Fair point and thanks all for answering the queries. We as a school will decide in the next 2 weeks where we go for our ISP provision. However, it is clear that there is are masses of suppliers out there offering varying service from Enterprise level solutions to cheap no frills services. Also, there are mixed reviews on a number of suppliers on this forum and nobody seems to have a glowing service when things go wrong. The usual case appears to be with educational ISP is that they have a really good sales team and once things go wrong you have really poor backup and customer service.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Fair point and thanks all for answering the queries. We as a school will decide in the next 2 weeks where we go for our ISP provision. However, it is clear that there is are masses of suppliers out there offering varying service from Enterprise level solutions to cheap no frills services. Also, there are mixed reviews on a number of suppliers on this forum and nobody seems to have a glowing service when things go wrong. The usual case appears to be with educational ISP is that they have a really good sales team and once things go wrong you have really poor backup and customer service.

 

I'd suggest speaking with suppliers existing customers. We've had schools in Leeds happily using our service for about a year now with glowing reviews. Happy to pass on their contact details if you'd care to send me a pm?

 

Nobody is perfect. Problems do happen and in my opinion the mark of a company is what happens when a customer does have an issue.

 

Again the best thing to do is speak with the suppliers existing customers.

 

Still we often here problems with LAs where simple things such as port forwarding can take weeks to do when it should be a 10 minute job.

 

At the end if the day if the LA has been providing a good service, thus their customers are happy and it's for a reasonable price then schools will stay where they are and we do see this in some parts of the country. If the service in the schools view has been poor or it's over priced then hey will leave.

 

Regarding Leeds, I think the poll on this forum and the number of schools that have signed up to our service or our competitors speaks volumes on what they think of the service they've received and the new service offering from LLN.

[morator]

I'd suggest speaking with suppliers existing customers. We've had schools in Leeds happily using our service for about a year now with glowing reviews. Happy to pass on their contact details if you'd care to send me a pm?

 

Nobody is perfect. Problems do happen and in my opinion the mark of a company is what happens when a customer does have an issue.

 

Again the best thing to do is speak with the suppliers existing customers.

 

Still we often here problems with LAs where simple things such as port forwarding can take weeks to do when it should be a 10 minute job.

 

At the end if the day if the LA has been providing a good service, thus their customers are happy and it's for a reasonable price then schools will stay where they are and we do see this in some parts of the country. If the service in the schools view has been poor or it's over priced then hey will leave.

 

Regarding Leeds, I think the poll on this forum and the number of schools that have signed up to our service or our competitors speaks volumes on what they think of the service they've received and the new service offering from LLN.

 

That sounds very promising and thanks for this Dave. Just out of interest, how many Leeds Schools have Schools Broadband got signed up?

[SchoolsBroadband]

I'm not going to say as I know other ISPs read this too. All I will say is that LLN reckoned it would keep 80% of its schools. I suspect this is going to be more like 35%. I'm sure you can do the maths

[sted]

I'm not going to say as I know other ISPs read this too. All I will say is that LLN reckoned it would keep 80% of its schools. I suspect this is going to be more like 35%. I'm sure you can do the maths

 

from the schools i deal with i know of none who want lln one has basically said id rather have anyone than that bunch

[Marshall_IT]

I have spoken to a number of schools also, around 20, and none said they were seriously considering the LLN offer. Sorry ICT4LEEDS. :-)

[sted]

I have spoken to a number of schools also, around 20, and none said they were seriously considering the LLN offer. Sorry ICT4LEEDS. :-)

 

i think they shot themselves in the head with the 4 year contract

[morator]

The Council 4 year deal is due to the fact that when procuring technology deals, it is often the case that short vterm deals are expensive from what I can gather. Also, given the fact it is a 4 year deal there is a guarantee that the Council will still be there and you can turn them. Shorter term contracts also mean, procurement year on year and sometimes does not offer value for money. Also the Public Services Network contract is a 4 year deal which is backed by the Cabinet Office and also fully supported by Children's Serivces.

[whartomt01]

It's the Lack of choice for schools From ICT4Leeds / Leeds Learning Network.

 

Even offering a 2 year deal at a more expensive price may have tempted more schools into moving to ICT4Leeds.

 

But schools can sign up for a 1 year contract with another provider, if they don't like it the can move on the following year. But if they don't like ICT4Leeds, they're tied in for 4 years.

 

Sorry, just my opinion. Hope schools make the right choice

[SchoolsBroadband]

4 years or not, the ICT4 Leeds offering is still nearly double that of commercial providers for the same speed circuit for secondary schools. The larger providers (us, RM, Exa I'm sure will still be here in 3 years time. Take a look at their / our trading past.

 

The biggest thing I still here from schools is the poor service they've had for the past number of years. They are leaving just as much because of this as they don't believe ICT4Leeds / LLN can provide them with a good service due to their track record. That's not me saying that just to put down ICT4Leeds, that's the schools themselves. Just see earlier in the thread of search on the board.....

[sted]

4 years or not, the ICT4 Leeds offering is still nearly double that of commercial providers for the same speed circuit for secondary schools. The larger providers (us, RM, Exa I'm sure will still be here in 3 years time. Take a look at their / our trading past.

 

The biggest thing I still here from schools is the poor service they've had for the past number of years. They are leaving just as much because of this as they don't believe ICT4Leeds / LLN can provide them with a good service due to their track record. That's not me saying that just to put down ICT4Leeds, that's the schools themselves. Just see earlier in the thread of search on the board.....

 

well it seems to be going by area/clusters to me atm 2 areas to schools broadband (3 of my schools minimum) 1 to lln so far so looks like ive got some office 365/sharepoint learning to do this summer holiday

[morator]

Looking at the track record and the individuals running some of the companies offering services, I know we would not touch them with a barge pole!