david_1152 Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 So the Birmingham Grid for Learning is being closed down. Question is, which way should Birminghams school jump for a new provider? - Go alone and sort it yourself, - Link2ICT are offering a replacement service - via Virgin - go with an existing and experienced provider - LGFL, via Trustnet I'm not totally sure about going alone, so of the two providers, LGFL offer a cheaper solution with lots of extras included.. But I have no experience of them - can anyone shed some light? Anyone out there already moved to them? Thanks! 1
Dos_Box Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 So, by the sounds of your post, are BGfL looking to transfer everyone over to a third party?
Brimstone Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 I've already had schools switch to another provider, neither of which were Virgin or LGFL
6Foot2 Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 So the Birmingham Grid for Learning is being closed down. Question is, which way should Birminghams school jump for a new provider? - Go alone and sort it yourself, - Link2ICT are offering a replacement service - via Virgin - go with an existing and experienced provider - LGFL, via Trustnet I'm not totally sure about going alone, so of the two providers, LGFL offer a cheaper solution with lots of extras included.. But I have no experience of them - can anyone shed some light? Anyone out there already moved to them? Thanks! Pick up support from a neighbouring/other LEA?
JOrdan01070 Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 We went with EXA direct and saved money compared to the BGFL offering. The only thing Im not happy about is we paid lot to get set up and access crisp and now the council have taken that back, I have also been looking at a new telephone system as we have been told the system we have is no longer supported, but i cannot get an answer from Virgin regarding the system to see if that is the case. 1
Opendium_Steve Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 I'd managed to miss this announcement, for those interested here's the official announcement: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/blog/school-nb/post/234/12-july-2019
CHiLL Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 We moved from BGfL to RM Education back in 2016 and have since moved to Virgin Business directly. The price/speed difference compared to Link2ICT is shocking (although Virgin don't provide a router). Moving away from Link2ICT/BGfL was one of our best decisions, no regrets. Of course filtering isn't included in that pricing and we use Smoothwall for that, which does increase the costs, but Smoothwall is a much more effective (if problematic...especially support wise) filtering service than anything Link2ICT/BGfL could provide. Take into consideration that being forced away from Link2ICT/BGfL means you will lose access to CRISP reports...which they are charging as a separate subscription at eye watering rates...despite it's their decision to disband everything! 1
david_1152 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Posted November 11, 2019 Yes, via virgin as I understand it. The quotation I've received is for a lot more than we paid before, but then again it for a faster system. D
david_1152 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Posted November 11, 2019 Interesting.. Sounds like a Birmingham thing.
CHiLL Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 (edited) Yes, via virgin as I understand it. The quotation I've received is for a lot more than we paid before, but then again it for a faster system. D Is that quote through Link2ICT's replacement service or directly from Virgin? Interesting.. Sounds like a Birmingham thing. Yeah, Link2ICT/BGfL primarily served Birmingham. Edited November 11, 2019 by CHiLL
david_1152 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Posted November 11, 2019 From our account manager at Link2 Is that quote through Link2ICT's replacement service or directly from Virgin? Yeah, Link2ICT/BGfL primarily served Birmingham.
CHiLL Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 From our account manager at Link2 Try getting quotes from suppliers away from Link2ICT - we doubled our line speed to 200Mb (on a 1Gb bearer) and saved 40% per year while doing so comparing to Link2ICT's 100Mb (on a 100Mb bearer) renewal cost at the time.
mavhc Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 (edited) If you're on one site, then do your own filtering and pick any one of 100 suppliers. If you're on multiple sites and don't want to route everything via one, then I couldn't find a better solution than Exa or Schools Broadband supplying the filtering at their end. Went with Exa as a bit cheaper, their Quantum Surfprotect is pretty good (powershell script to sync AD to their system for user/group authentication, CA cert to install), although the classification isn't great. Exa said they can't do ipv6 and filtering together though. 31st of March 2020 is basically tomorrow in ISP terms, do you already have Openreach fiber installed? Edited November 11, 2019 by mavhc 2
XiJ Posted November 12, 2019 Posted November 12, 2019 We moved many of our primary schools from the local LA to Studysafe - they’ve never looked back.
woreilly Posted November 12, 2019 Posted November 12, 2019 Crazy to stay with Link2ICT. I 2nd this! I also recommending checking out CoConnect as a provider to move to away from BCC/BGfL/Link2ICT. They provide great account management and technical support at a fraction of the costs Link2ICT will charge - e.g. Link2ICT want £14,400 for 1gb/1gb in a secondary school but CoConnect will provide the same at a much lower cost. They also include hosted Smoothwall filtering and for an extra cost, they can also provide cloud hosted VoIP! Drop Shayne an email at [email protected] and tell him Will O'Reilly recommended your services - FYI, we moved 1 secondary and 6 primaries over to them for the 19/20 year onwards! Also, if you're not already a member, I recommend checking out https://anme.co.uk/. There is a regional network managers meeting on Thursday at the Schools & Academies Show. 1
Michael Posted November 12, 2019 Posted November 12, 2019 As well as Crisp not working (this requires a separate fee), I've just had a phone conversation with Espresso who were unaware of the BGfL closing come April 2020. http://espresso.bgfl.org will no longer work, but you can request a public URL.
Zoom7000 Posted November 12, 2019 Posted November 12, 2019 So the Birmingham Grid for Learning is being closed down. Question is, which way should Birminghams school jump for a new provider? - Go alone and sort it yourself, - Link2ICT are offering a replacement service - via Virgin - go with an existing and experienced provider - LGFL, via Trustnet I'm not totally sure about going alone, so of the two providers, LGFL offer a cheaper solution with lots of extras included.. But I have no experience of them - can anyone shed some light? Anyone out there already moved to them? Thanks! From my personal experience, I would highly recommend LGfL via TRUSTnet (interestingly, they've now actually registered NGfL, who knows, maybe a rebrand is in the pipeline). In my opinion, no other broadband provider gives schools more value add as part of their broadband subscriptions than LGfL. Free Adobe Creative Cloud licenses and Sophox Intercept X for servers and workstations are almost worth the cost alone! But you get much much more!
david_1152 Posted November 13, 2019 Author Posted November 13, 2019 Regarding CRISP access.. Having had an email from my account manager at Link2ICT - I thought I might share it will everyone. "If schools wish to have the CRISP use, they currently pay for it separately which will show on all sub statements. ( £999 one off set up charge plus £999 to access CRISP = £1998 with £999 ongoing annually thereafter). This is pending BCC decision wrt future of CRISP for 2020/21. The CRISP costs above are pending BCC decision to share their future plans for CRISP access to schools, they may provide it for free for all schools as we have suggested to them as we get beaten up over the current costs even though they are set by BCC, or they may agree for Link2ICT to continue to manage access via BCC's alternative secure connection method (F5/UAG) as they did last year. The CRISP system is not an externally internet facing or secure system and would require significant BCC investment to make it accessible safely to schools. As soon as BCC make a decision it will be there responsibility to inform schools at the moment they have acknowledged our stance and added it to their "risk register" as soon as w e hear anything further we will inform schools but this will have to come from BCC in the first instance so i would suggest all schools to lobby their SENAR BCC contacts to find out what is the future of CRISP access for schools as once the BGfL is turned off CRISP access will also cease." Interesting eh?
JOrdan01070 Posted November 13, 2019 Posted November 13, 2019 Regarding CRISP access.. Having had an email from my account manager at Link2ICT - I thought I might share it will everyone. "If schools wish to have the CRISP use, they currently pay for it separately which will show on all sub statements. ( £999 one off set up charge plus £999 to access CRISP = £1998 with £999 ongoing annually thereafter). This is pending BCC decision wrt future of CRISP for 2020/21. The CRISP costs above are pending BCC decision to share their future plans for CRISP access to schools, they may provide it for free for all schools as we have suggested to them as we get beaten up over the current costs even though they are set by BCC, or they may agree for Link2ICT to continue to manage access via BCC's alternative secure connection method (F5/UAG) as they did last year. The CRISP system is not an externally internet facing or secure system and would require significant BCC investment to make it accessible safely to schools. As soon as BCC make a decision it will be there responsibility to inform schools at the moment they have acknowledged our stance and added it to their "risk register" as soon as w e hear anything further we will inform schools but this will have to come from BCC in the first instance so i would suggest all schools to lobby their SENAR BCC contacts to find out what is the future of CRISP access for schools as once the BGfL is turned off CRISP access will also cease." Interesting eh? Not happy as we just paid for this in Sept. They must have known about this, don't believe they were just told "oh by the way we want CRISP back".
Opendium_Steve Posted November 13, 2019 Posted November 13, 2019 The CRISP system is not an externally internet facing or secure system and would require significant BCC investment to make it accessible safely to schools. Because setting up VPNs to all the schools is hard? (Sorry, I'm struggling to hide my incredulence )
mavhc Posted November 13, 2019 Posted November 13, 2019 Even capita have managed to set up openvpn for when they host your database, can't be that hard
david_1152 Posted November 13, 2019 Author Posted November 13, 2019 Do you guys read this and think - they wont be using crisp for very long... Or is it just me?
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