Support providers in the West Midlands

[mp4-dave]

Good morning everyone,

 

I’m looking for some advice and suggestions on how I might proceed from the following situation:

 

After many years of excellent service from RM we have had several significant problems with the latest project, Server 2016 and Windows 10, despite working with various levels of their technical support team for several months we don’t seem to be making much progress on getting a reliable working network.

 

This has led me to start looking at possible alternative support providers. My team and I are more than capable of handling the day to day issues that come up, we only tend to use RM for larger projects such as upgrading Server OSs, moving to new versions of Windows and server refreshes.

 

We don’t really have the necessary skills and experience to build a full “Vanilla” network from scratch in a compressed time period and role this out to an entire secondary school (1000 students, 450 devices). Two of us do have experience of supporting vanilla MS networks, but this was a while ago. I'm starting to feel that this may be the only way to truly get rid of the "ghosts in the system" that seem to exist. Every time one problem is solved it seems to create another one.

 

If any of you could recommend a support provider in the local area (West Midlands) or suggest any other possible solutions I would be very grateful.

 

Thanks

 

David

[DrBeaker]

I'm fairly new to the RM way of working to be fair. They seem to have their good points and bad points. A lot of stuff seems to be done via apps or agents instead of via Group Policy which seems to be the cause of most of the headaches.

 

Every time one problem is solved it seems to create another one.

 

Yes. I'm finding that too.

[synaesthesia]

Maybe it's time to use this as a catalyst to improve things professionally for your team rather than outsource; put a case across to the powers that be (assuming you're willing) for training, R&D time etc to do this yourself. The money and time saved in the long run would be a huge carrot to dangle for them, adds some great experience to your CV and means you'd have a system you know from the ground up- knowing what you've done to build the system in the first place goes a LONG way to helping correct niggles that crop up in future, all adding to experience.

[foofighterjim]

If it helps we made the jump from CC4 to Vanilla last summer. My team consists of myself and two others (one term time only) and all of us had only ever known RM networks through various versions down the years. We prepared by reading up on various elements we knew we were going to be using such as WSUS, MDT and obviously GPOs.

 

We also decided to work with a partner to help us with the move; CSE Education CSE Education Systems | Technology for Education . This actually proved vital in the end as after the first day of the install I ended up in hospital and then was off for a couple of weeks afterwards, this meant that there was only one of my team onsite trying to get their head around everything. With the help of CSE we got through it, they were very good during the install, handover and they even managed to get someone on site (FOC) whilst I was off to help ease the pain and worry.

 

I'm rambling a bit now but if me and my team can do it in the scenario we were faced with, then I would say you should be fine as long as everyone is on board with the idea. PM me if you need any more info.

[Jcx500]

Could you ask local schools for some help?

[willtech]

Where in the midlands are you located ?

[Steven_Cleaver]

Could try Burconix used these for about 10 years at two schools and were excellent,helped us with large projects, Windows 10 migration Server 2016, 3cx VOIP etc but really whatever you want help with and know they have moved a few RM schools over use Vanilla with their our set of really useful light weight tools and always found support excellent and pricing very competitive. In the Private sector recently now but wouldn't hesitate to use them again if I did venture back into Education.

[Jcx500]

Could try Burconix used these for about 10 years at two schools and were excellent,helped us with large projects, Windows 10 migration Server 2016, 3cx VOIP etc but really whatever you want help with and know they have moved a few RM schools over use Vanilla with their our set of really useful light weight tools and always found support excellent and pricing very competitive. In the Private sector recently now but wouldn't hesitate to use them again if I did venture back into Education.

 

I agree Burconix helped set my schools network up couldn’t of asked for a better network

[mp4-dave]

Thanks for the suggestions and replies everyone.

We already use the Burconix free password changing tool which works really well.

I think the long term solution is to go Vanilla, my main hesitation about doing it ourselves is that staff and student confidence in IT is at such a low point now, that I really need as close to a guaranteed solution as possible. I'm sure my team and I would get there in the end, but I really need to get to September with a much more robust and reliable network in place and ready to go. If that involves paying someone to help us with the initial setup then I'm happy to do that.

 

willtech - I'm near Worcester.

[Jcx500]

Another Suggestion of mine is , that my old school which i used to work for did network re bulid's etc for other schools at a fair price

[yac2016]

Thanks for the suggestions and replies everyone.

We already use the Burconix free password changing tool which works really well.

I think the long term solution is to go Vanilla, my main hesitation about doing it ourselves is that staff and student confidence in IT is at such a low point now, that I really need as close to a guaranteed solution as possible. I'm sure my team and I would get there in the end, but I really need to get to September with a much more robust and reliable network in place and ready to go. If that involves paying someone to help us with the initial setup then I'm happy to do that.

 

willtech - I'm near Worcester.

 

Have you spoke to Matt at LourdesIT? They are based in Worcester.

 

Also I agree with the others if you outsource the install again you won’t know the setup too well.

[Steven_Cleaver]

Thanks for the suggestions and replies everyone.

We already use the Burconix free password changing tool which works really well.

I think the long term solution is to go Vanilla, my main hesitation about doing it ourselves is that staff and student confidence in IT is at such a low point now, that I really need as close to a guaranteed solution as possible. I'm sure my team and I would get there in the end, but I really need to get to September with a much more robust and reliable network in place and ready to go. If that involves paying someone to help us with the initial setup then I'm happy to do that.

 

willtech - I'm near Worcester.

 

With Burconix they can just move you over to Vanilla on its own or offer as an addin the use of their tools were always happy to discuss options, completely understand where your coming from as regards want to make it as stable as possible was after the same myself. This allowed us then develop other IT systems that enhanced the IT provision in the school and this was recognised in both the schools I worked in. I would look at few companies and invite them in for a chat and see who you feel more comfortable with and look at their solutions for issues you want to resolve.

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi mp4-dave

 

This is something we can help with if you'd like to have a chat.

 

cheers