pipsyp

Ubiquiti are really innovating here, but would still be a little concerned about software bugs and end user support, though I get the impression they have listened and have largely ironed out their software QA and placing significant efforts into providing better end user support. Like them or hate them, Hik have significant legs on Ubiquiti in the CCTV space.....broadly speaking if you want a CCTV service you can rely upon, and have someone responsible for installing and maintaining it, its arguably still one of the better choices. UniFi is still very much on the DIY spectrum, though horses for courses....as a school if you wanted to do it end-to-end then its ideal. I've heard that Verkada are excellent, though the cost is significant. A school I work wit were interested in their solution, but they did not want to talk cost until you've committed to buying some demo equipment and had undertaken a trial which I found a little odd in terms of sales practice. Needless to say they didn't get the business.

Yeah I get the connotations of using Hik products - partly state financed and being called out on some things ethically, but as a bang per buck solution, there isn't much of anything out there (that I've seen so far) that comes close. HikCentral is still relatively new, so for sure does have it's quirks and bugs, but none more so than most of its peers I would say. Leaps and bounds on from iVMS as well (from what I've seen of it). For a school needing a scalable door access solution at reasonable cost, particularly if they have Hik CCTV already (as it can integrate - and you'd hope a Hik accredited partner already supporting that) I honestly think you could do alot worse.

Best of luck with this Homer, genuinely be interested to hear how this all works out 👍

No HyperTech, no offense taken at all and absolutely fair comment - completely depends on the state of the hardware in question, how many and the use case (which admittedly I don't know lots about :-)) Also for sure, if Google has presence there, then just managing them off of that workspace environment is just fine. The AI situation is rather maddening, but it'll calm down. Suppose it's a bit like trying to buy anything half decent during COVID was impossible!

A very good call! My grey matter is terrible, but I think I have looked into this before down the line. From memory it tends to serve better as a classroom management and web filtering solution than a full blown ChromeOS RMM tool, but could very well fit the bill. I'm still however always a little sceptical of reinventing the wheel/creating another solution to keep old hardware in the game; it tends not to pay dividends. If the OP was a Google school, I'd be all for it but as it stands, I think its just potentially creating more work and ongoing cost, where replacing the machines would be the better option.

...and yes....I agree with the sentiment that Paxton 10 being hardware silo'd is a bit naughty, given how much investment people have made in Paxton Net2's ecosystem already. Missing a trick IMHO not building in Paxton 10 compatibility for Net2 Plus ACU's etc; particularly if they hope to retain market share against the likes of HikVision. That said, in Paxton's defence, there are possibly hardware limitations that prevent them doing this.

I have a little form with this. I'm not a door access installer as such, but have had reasonable exposure to various platforms through my MSP work which might help you. Paxton - I still feel overall that Net2 Pro is the best overall solution. I think its too costly, and Paxton have rather rested on their laurels where the software side of its concerned (its literally been the same for years, warts and all), but the hardware tends to be very reliable and once its in and working (and built out right from a software perspective) it does the job, and broadly better than most other things. Paxton 10 - For years even Paxton put customers off buying this in place of Net2 Pro (i've been well informed by various Paxton accredited installers) as it simply was not as good or capable. I gather there is far more feature parity now though, however its even more costly than Net2 Pro. If you've got the funds, probably the way to go, if not....well goes without saying! UniFi Protect - Functionality wise the door access stuff is really rather amazing for the money. Ive had no real experience of it, but my long running experience of UniFi is that dependability is not its strong suit (over the years I've seen firmware upgrade break more things than they've fixed) and as much as I hate to say it, like much of their hardware its all rather form over function. They are rather the Apple of the network infrastructure world, but without the overall polish. As a company they continue to grow exponentially, and it does look as though they are finally placing a lot of energy and focus into better enterprise end user support (it used to be woeful) Hikvision Door Access with HikCentral Pro software - I've recently assisted a customer with getting this deployed (from a software and configuration standpoint), to displace a very troublesome Videx system. It is rather new to market, a bit buggy, but fundamentally does the job and at far less cost than Paxton (though probably more expensive overall than UniFi). Gives the opportunity to bring together and manage Hik CCTV systems as well, so a positive if you do have Hik CCTV. Support is a bit average (their people don't know the current release well enough to support it properly) but given how big Hik are, I am sure they'll get a handle on it. Not to offend the Paxton rep that's also posted, but play their cards right, Hik could take alot of business way from Paxton with their offering. Of the options above, I'd go Paxton 10 as the dream, Net2 Pro if Paxton 10 cant be attained, then HikCentral Pro as the "will do the job" fallback.

With my MSP hat on......gods honest truth, if they aren't good enough to run Windows 11, retire them. There are few if any RMM tools designed to support ChromeOS/ChromeOS Flex as its of course designed to be tied to Google Workspace. The pains you'll suffer trying to make that a workable solution (given you aren't a Google house) just wont be worth bearing. Very aware all schools are significantly budget constrained, but sometimes you really just have to draw the line somewhere. Assuming the devices have seen several years decent use already, then at least they've served a purpose. If they need replacing, consider looking at some decent used/refurbished hardware from a reliable source.

This, or you could host your own IT Team Sharepoint site to provide this info electronically. Arguably easier to keep updated and only reference to the site need be made in the staff handbook. Might not be workable for you, but another angle to approach it from.

Papercut MF is the de-facto print solution IMHO. There are others, but I'm sceptical that they'd match MF for functionality and general reliability. I've never really had to leverage their support directly (either issues I've managed to address myself, or via our MPS). I've not looked into Hive, as our company is cloud-first, but was always led to believe it is lacking some key functionality vs MF (possibly the gaps closed but I don't know), also I'm unsure how well it deals with loss of internet connectivity (with MF at least people can still print without concern). Funny RISO is mentioned, as whilst I've had relative dealings (from a support angle) with Papercut with other schools customers in the past (all my schools customers now use it); I only recently deployed it in anger myself at the MAT I work for day to day, over the summer, and with a relatively large RISO copier estate. We have several existing RISO devices, and took on a couple of new Ricoh devices as part of a separate MPS agreement, and the RISO's by contrast were nightmarish to set up. They are also not truly "embedded" Papercut devices, even with the relevant firmware, so do miss functionality such as managed copying and scanning (copying IMHO is less of a drama, but scanning is fairly crucial). The RISO's feel like they were born in the 90's - the software and UI is not great and I suspect hasn't fundamentally changed in years, where the likes of Ricoh, Kyocera etc are breaking the mould and offer truly "Papercut managed" devices. Being effectively Inkjet devices (more to it than that, but they are of course cold print), there's the argument they save money vs a traditional laser, but my experience with them is that they are not exactly reliable (I reckon our admin team are calling RISO out at least once every other week on average to fix a downed device). Kind of odd, given they are a long-running, well regarded (if not very well known outside of Education) Japanese printer manufacturer, who were once leading edge where cold print was concerned (Epson are now trying to take that mantle, but don't get me started on their so called "Enterprise grade" devices!). I will say this for them though that their UK sales and support teams are very nice people, and always do their utmost to help/advise; and their on site engineers are some of the best I've experienced. Shame the product itself isn't better though. Back to Papercut though, like anything MF is not without it's quirks, and of course its another on-premise service that needs to be looked after and maintained day to day, but its a pretty wonderful thing (it tends to just run and run without much issue if set up well), and worth the pains of standing up a server/VM for. If Hive reaches feature parity eventually and can be proven to be reliable during an internet outage, then I might start looking at it.

Hi Edugeek community, I've been a member for a few years, more so to find useful quirky school related information (MIS related normally!) but felt it was about time I started posting a little; particularly where I can offer anyone any help or advice. I've worked in IT for around 25 years or so, mostly in the corporate space. More recently (for the past 5 years) I have worked for a Sussex-based MSP called computer2cloud, c. 3 of those spent leading their Education Services business. As part of this I am (for the time being at least) most days embedded with one of my (2 school, 4-site, c. 1850 pupil) MAT customers on-site, operating as their virtual IT Manager, so I've experienced the aches and pains of how it is to manage a large school IT environment first hand for a few years now, both operationally and strategically. Again, only too happy to help and advise anyone on here if I can (and I'll always chip in and comment if I think I'll add value to anything)...and I know I'm from the MSP space, but definitely please do not see me as the enemy 🙂 If what I do, and the services computer2cloud offer are of any interest to anyone, please feel free to look up my details in my profile (our website and my linkedin handle are there) and take a look. Certainly not here to do a hard sell on anyone but IT MSP and consultancy services are primarily what I involve myself in (full transparency) and of course happy to help anyone in need in that capacity!

Well said. Some of it is senior leadership politics, but from an MSP perspective we also have to retain sensible control of systems we’re responsible for. If something goes wrong — even if caused by others — it still lands with us and can jeopardise relations. Most school-employed staff I’ve worked with are excellent (I've both line managed and directly employed to work for our MSP) but there are occasional “gung-ho” moments where good intentions plus partial knowledge can cause bigger issues. That said we’re all human and mistakes happen. It’s a balancing act. I don’t support restricting access to the point jobs can’t be done (and the end users ultimately suffer), but the right level of access will always depend on the school, the people involved, and the MSP’s accountability. Again, rather depends on the politics that are at play.

Love a watch. For me its all the jewellery a man really needs. I just wish I had more wedge to justify buying more! I'm fortunate enough to have the following - though to be honest I rarely wear most of them for fear of them being damaged, stolen or lost! * 2004 vintage Tag Heuer F1 Chronograph quartz. First "nice" watch I bought after starting my first proper job after Uni. Wore it literally all day, every day until it got bashed up to a stage I didnt want to wear it anymore. I in recent years had a good friend (who is a very very good amateur horologist) fully refurbish it (new main case, crown, bezel primarily) with it now looking like its been worn only a few times. I went to wear it for the first time in an age the other day......the battery was dead 😞 * 2010 vintage Tag Heuer Carrera automatic date. Bought for me by my wife as a wedding present (much to my huge surprise). Gorgeous thing, again don't wear a great deal as its just too nice for daily wear, and has obvious sentimental value. * 2003 vintage Zenith El Primero Chronograph automatic. Left to me by my Dad when he passed 10 years ago (my brother got a very nice Breitling Bentley 6.75). Anyone who knows watches will know that Zenith arguably makes one of the finest (if not the finest) watch movements on the planet. Again a gorgeous thing, but sentimental value, and its current financial value to replace (a relatively absurd amount) means it sees very little airtime. Occasionally the thought crosses my mind to sell them and bank the cash, but I definitely just could not bring myself to do it, particularly with the Zenith. May be that my kids benefit from them some day! I do rather fancy a Rolex Sea Dweller or an IWC Big Pilot if I did ever treat myself! Day to day I wear a CMF Watch Pro 2 (made by Nothing, as in the NothingPhone) - was cheap, amazing build quality for the price and has a very nice look (I don't personally like that very obvious Apple/smartwatch vibe). The smart side of its not amazing, but it does a great job as a general timepiece and the battery life is incredible. Highly recommended.

Late to the party, but as someone who works day-to-day as a vIT Manager for a MAT and is also a senior member of an IT MSP, I can hopefully offer a balanced perspective. Not all MSPs are the same. Many of us are genuinely people-centric and focused on what works best for each school. While we specialise in outsourced IT, we’re equally comfortable working alongside in-house teams where that’s the right fit — because no two schools are the same. Where we commission and support services, we’d normally expect to support them end-to-end. That said, where there’s trust and a clear need, overly restricting admin access can create bottlenecks and make user support harder than it needs to be. In schools with capable in-house IT, appropriate access usually improves efficiency and collaboration rather than causing issues. Ultimately, it’s about balance and relationships. Problems tend to arise only when changes are made without communication, which is thankfully the exception. A good MSP should be open to sensible conversations about access, not operate on a one-size-fits-all model.

A massive shame as we've started using this quite heavily ourselves. Far from a perfect platform (its rather evident they havent been putting much development effort into it for a good long while......and actually I'm not greatly surprised) but it does do the job for the most part, particularly for devices requiring heavy lockdown/kiosk-ing. I still don't personally rate Intune greatly (you cant necessarily rely on it doing as its been told, much as with Windows) but there are others out there of course. They seem to be aligning with Ivanti, I've had dealings with their products in the past in another life and wasn't blown away, but maybe it ends up being a reasonable option.