Synkrox

Blimey that's scratched a bit of my memories I forgot existed. Seem to recall using XVid instead. Also recall installing the K-Lite codec pack which somewhat incredibly is still updated 🤯 I just push the HEIF extensions and HEVC codecs out now and haven't had any complaints. I also push VLC out as a fallback.

We use Fortinet / Fortigate. Logs are piped into Fastvue for the edu specific filtering and reporting.

Core is Aruba 5412ZL Some HP and now some newer Netgear on the edges. None of it has ever missed a beat (touches wood). Netgear stuff came in keenly priced for good PoE spec and "insight" central management. Despite having quite a bit of Unifi wifi gear here I swerved it for switchgear, they have quite an "agile" approach to firmware, where i tend to configure it then leave it for a year or more and just want them to shift packets and keep quiet.

I'd mirror what @alordcharlie says, and have been in a similar situation myself 3 times over the years. If you are doing hardware and software refresh I would jump straight to intune and manage everything that way. It'll give you a clear cutover of "these are my old devices" and "these are my new devices" and frankly it's the way everything is going anyway so get on board now. Get your A3/A5 licenses in order and just get deploying. IMO The complexity level is reduced compared to onprem deployment, even if it's unfamiliar to you now, it's much easier than trying to hybrid migrate your way out of on-prem later on. Anything other than a Win11 Cloud-managed setup is going to be a mounting technical debt over time. Don't panic. Chop this into bitesize pieces and it'll be unrecognisable by Sept. Watch "the intune channel" on YT and they'll walk you right through the whole initial setup. Good luck and welcome to the party

If it's miscategorised or uncategorised, then I just update it with Fortinet directly (or staff can) with their online form and a human their end checks it and updates everyone's firewall within a few minutes. This covers 90% of all unblock requests cos it'll be a new edu-specific website or newly registered and not seen before. If it's a real need to bypass an otherwise blocked category, then I bounce it to the head first. Only myself or my tech will actually do the unblock in this case.

Glad I'm not the only one. Had a couple of tickets open nearly a year that finally got sorted with updated teacher app. Like you, first replies seem OK but then even popping an extra comment on a ticket doesn't seem to light it up for someone to look at again which seems weird for a helpdesk. Anyway, in case no one from Bromcom replies on here, I've found that an email to Customer Care Team <[email protected]> will get someone to chase outstanding tickets with the helpdesk for you. Fingers crossed for you!

24H2 Education here. No particular issues. I used to use w10 LTSC and it was a bit scary releasing control. Had a mega clearout so everything is managed in and deployed with intune and I just kinda let it roll along now. Also had first batch of hotpatch updates come through recently which seems to have gone quite well, so less rebooting for updates.

Lease costs are considerably less than we were paying previously - the price catalogue is available by request for you to compare. We've had 2 occasions to call them out so far. (both ultimately users fault, rather than a real breakdown). Both times logged online on their portal, engineer on site within a couple of hours, sorted first time. Consumables are being automatically ordered and arrive in good time, and are labelled for the machine they are intended for. No complaints!

0.002024 Mono 0.015975 Colour Brand new contract with Ricoh on CCS RM6174 Lot 1 framework.

If you are reading the CCS RM6174 model selection catalogue - page 6 says: For your convenience we have created some pre-configured bundles that you can order with just one click. Those bundles are: IM C6500 - 65ppm A3 Colour staple – includes a staple finisher IM C6500 - 65ppm A3 Colour booklet – includes a booklet finisher, hole punch and additional paper supply IM C8000 - 80ppm A3 Colour staple – includes a staple finisher IM C8000 - 80ppm A3 Colour booklet – includes a booklet finisher, hole punch and additional paper supply

When buying you purchase from CCS framework/catalogue, the reason it's so cheap is there is no sales help. But the catalogue has bundles so you won't be able to order incompatible bits anyway. On install there were 2/3 guys for 3 days making sure everything was totally sorted to our satisfaction, even asked for the school logo and colours to brand the control panels. Yes, price is all-inclusive. We've now had them installed just over a month. Totally faultless so far. Toners have been delivered with no interaction from us. No issues other than someone getting blutack in the top scanner feeder (wrapped around a gear we couldn't see) - logged call online, engineer here a couple of hours later. Sorted.

If you are an MS School then get a few licenses for Copilot? Even free version keeps corporate data secured. Paid up version adds all the integration into the office apps and your data, it's actually pretty useful.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoftteams/messaging-policies-in-teams#messaging-policy-settings Chat - Turn this setting on if you want users in your organization to be able to use the Teams app to chat with other people. When this setting is off, chat is disabled for new one-on-one and group chats.

Try using the "Classes" domain to pull that data. It'll let you get at all the student and staff fields as well as the class info.

We use Microsoft attack simulation training built into MS365. Does everything we could want, reporting users behaviour over time, customised phish/driveby simulation etc etc. https://security.microsoft.com/attacksimulator

There is an option in Papercut to prevent release to a device if it is considered "in error." But in terms of it being out of paper - that's the copiers job. If the copier didn't flash a message/red light about a tray being out of paper, then it would be the first I've ever seen without that feature. However it wouldn't be the first time I've known a user to totally ignore a flashing notice and red light!

Isn't ditching the ICT Suite model kind of countering the decision to go to laptop trollies? If you have a room for ICT - I'd stick with hardwired desktop/AIO devices personally. I've used i-desk furniture before, which allows the whole room to switch between IT and classroom. https://www.i-desk.co.uk/i-rise-education/ My experience of this was that the desks just stayed up pretty much the entire time though, so it wasn't particularly good value, but there was a "wow factor" when you press a button and the machines rise from the desks like tracey island! If you wanted wow - I'd go with fixed or i-desk kit, then decorate the room with cool posters/artwork and some LED lighting. Maybe a couple of big screens up on the walls for demos?

I can't comment on other platforms but if you are still shopping around... Signinapp does everything you are asking. It's simple, cheap and truly just works.

We use Bromcom teacher app - it's recently had a lick of paint. It's OK, not amazing, but OK. All our staff have school issued and managed mobiles, so they can stay in touch with 3CX and use the Teacher app for registers/dinners/behaviour etc amongst all the usual stuff. I am reluctant to ask anyone to use their own devices for anything. We actively block connections from unmanaged devices.

Thanks for the heads up. We have links through Wonde to the LA (Worcs) and DfE which pulls data daily - so that's how that works for us. We have kids from other LAs we don't share data with too, they call us every day to check those childrens attendance to keep their own log. (We are SEND) If the MIS is keeping 6 years data, and that is then backed up - then maybe that's the 6 years + a backup met? ♂️ I would kind of hope our MIS would take care of this, but maybe we need a regular CSV drop scheduling to be backed up by us... be interested to hear others feelings on this!

Perhaps it's improved then - good to know. Just checked my emails and it took them 3 months for me! (2 years ago in fairness) from logging the ticket to them actioning it.

And migrating CPOMS to consider. Similarly to ParentPay, you can't change the sync yourself and have to wait several weeks for them to adjust it. Can't recall if there was a charge, but I do remember it taking over a month.

We did September, and it went alright to be fair. Get some one-page guides ready to cover the absolute basics. The benefit is it "feels" like the right time to switch. Everything from that September is in the new system, no one looking backwards trying to getting into older stuff. More time you can get on 1st day back to present the better. Expect a couple of days of chaos, then a couple of weeks of medium hassles, but I think you'll get that regardless of when you switch. What I can tell you without doubt is that the short term pain is absolutely worth the long term gain.

I just hope that the addition of all these schools means Bromcom ramps up its dev and support teams above and beyond current levels rather than overwhelm them further.

While I think about it - you may want to change the default permission for staff as I believe it will allow them to send SMS out, at 5p a go. We only allow a couple of admin staff to do this, the rest have to use email. Plain text email (which will either go via MCAS or Email if parent not signed up) is a little broken at the moment with the updated MCAS app - it strips all the formatting out at the parents end. Hopefully being fixed soon. So I'd stick to SMS (which will go via SMS or MCAS if signed up) or HTML Email (Which always goes via E-Mail)