Millgate_Jon

Hi Kevin If you want to send a spec over to me on PM I can see about pricing some options up for, we supply all vendors so can just cherry pick on the best deal depending on what it is you need. Cheers Jon.

Here at Millgate we champion the Halo solution - We also have good feedback on Verkada but.....the ongoing fee`s and lack of extra features mean our clients prefer the Halo. Someone mentioned about deodorant masking above, the Halo differentiates between contaminant's in the air and can react differently to each - it`s also the only sensor to detect Heat Not Burn devices (when students cotton on to the fact they don`t set off vape sensors they`ll all be switching anyway, rendering all but the Halo redundant). It also has anti-bullying, aggression and medical sensors.......it`s a really clever piece of kit. happy to have a chat with anyone or to arrange web demo`s or free on site trials (60 days) - Just PM me. Thanks Jon.

This is true however I`d question any supplier who leaves you in the lurch after mis-selling the trade in requirements. I`d also report to HP and have them removed from Brighter Futures! I`d be surprised if it were just a Millgate thing but here we have a structure in place to manage cash back and trade in deals for our clients. Not just on BF of course but anything along these lines. Granted it`s little more than a spreadsheet but we manage timelines, send reminders, keep track of all the relevant links and invoicing info you`ll need for the claim - essentially look after and help you through the process so you don`t miss out. Thanks Jon. `

This is great feedback - thanks folks. I didn`t know the degree of the savings offered other than they were significant so get a ball park figure is helpful. I can see how much it would make a difference on a large order/full hardware refresh. Our HP Account Manager is working with us now to get us approved as we have worked hard with them, offering full support to clients, demo`s etc but not been able to compete when it comes to pricing. No idea how long it will take to be approved onto BF but sooner than later I hope! In the meantime of course we`ll continue quoting as best we can or trying to talk people into using other brands :-) Cheers Folks Jon.

Hi Everyone I`m going on a concerted push to get Millgate approved to supply HP kit on the Brighter Futures program, to get an idea of scale, to those of you who use it already..... -What are your thoughts on the program? -How committed to it are you? -Is it possible to quantify how much it affects your buying decision? Appreciate all and any thoughts of course...... Cheers Jon.

Hi Synaesthesia - If you send me a PM with the connectivity required and any other pertinent info I can get some samples sent for you to test if you`d like? Just let me know Thanks Jon.

Saw this a couple of weeks ago in America, having not been to the cinema for a long time it was a surprise when the walls lit up and I was surrounded by buildings! This was my introduction to Screen X - Loved it :-) Film was ace too

I`ve had a lot of folk more than happy with the less obvious brands lately, 2-Power, Dicota, Origin Storage etc. I know there are advantages in going for the "brand" names but equally, sometimes those advantages don`t justify the extra price.

Ah I see, yeah we ordered them and they came in early June. I `m not sure at what point we realised they were surplus to requirements but since that point and now we were trying to get the supplier to take them back but this morning it was confirmed they wont so.........bargain for someone!

Another good question... :-) They were delivered to us in early June so the warranty will run from then, they do have 3 years warranty too. Without being scientific about it, I'm sure the batteries are fine. I know of plenty of examples of devices being sat for a much longer period and no problems with the batteries. Cheers Jon.

^^^ Appreciate that - Thank you :-)

Hi Everyone We have some Dell Chromebooks in stock/hand at Millgate that are brand new and unopened as a surplus to a clients order but our supplier wont take them back. As such, to avoid a "full hit" we would like to offer them to you, our Edugeek friends, so we can recover some of our costs and you can have a bargain! The units are: Base Dell Chromebook 3110Base Options Intel® Celeron™ N4500 (Dual Core, up to 2.8GHz,4M Cache, 6W), 8GB Memory, 64GB Storage, HDMIMemory 8GB 2933MHz LPDDR4 Non-ECCHard Drive 64GB eMMC Hard DriveWireless Intel Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 AX201 2x2 802.11ax 160MHzLCD 11.6" HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare Non-Touch, Camera &Microphone, WLAN CapableKeyboard Single Pointing Non Backlit, English UKPower Supply 65W AC adapter, USB Type-C, EcoDesignCable E4 Power Cord 1M for English-UKPrimary Battery 3 Cell 42Whr Longlife BatteryLabel Label C4, Upsell Celeron, with HDMI + NonTouch LCDBack Cover LCD, NonTouch, HDMI1Y Collect and Return Service We will be making a loss on these units at £250 ex VAT so wont negotiate underneath that but bearing in mind they`d be about £300 normally, I hope you`ll agree it`s a great deal. Any interest, please message me......... Thanks Jon.

I thought what I said was useful to the community - if anyone here had any concerns, assuming they are clients of Millgates they are more than welcome to message me and I can point them in the direction of our team who can help. Please don`t assume I`m "under orders", thats not the case but I do understand boundaries and the kind of technical info referred to above is reserved for those affected. Millgate as a company have absolutely understood the exploit, neither was it so trivial we wouldn`t admit to it - We have been very open about it. We don`t want it to turn into entertainment though and it`s not our responsibility to use this experience as a training tool for others. My original statement stands - anyone with legitimate concerns, please contact me and I`ll help you get the info you need. I`m not one to keep quiet - it happened, not shying away from that however I`m also not one to shout unnecessarily thats all. Help is here for those that need it - Thats all I was trying to get across. Thanks Jon.

That makes more sense thank you DMJ I`m not the man to answer those things though and I`m afraid unless you are a Millgate client I`m not sure management would be happy about me putting that info out there, not there is anything to hide, more that it`s essentially between us and our clients. I`m not being obtuse in saying that, it`s just how it is. From my personal point of view, Millgate were great to all employee`s - We were offered 121 sessions with the contractor brought in, all employees gifted Experian memberships with monitoring tools and alerts for our credit files - we now use Password1 to manage those across the board - these are the "extra" things that Millgate aren`t obliged to do but did - because it matters. As far as clients are concerned, none of the 60-ish accounts I look after expressed any concern after reading the report and were very happy with how things were communicated and dealt from the very start. All in all - we`ve actually come out of this in a really good place - As for the technical answers........apologies "We got hacked" is about as much am allowed/capable of offering! Cheers Jon.

Apologies - would it have been better to lie and say we got breached and didn`t do anything about it? Maybe you shouldn`t have bothered replying as that type of response does not come across well. If you were affected by the breach, are, or were a client of Millgates and have concerns by all means drop me a line and I`ll be happy to help. Thanks Jon.

Hi Everyone - We only started sponsoring Edugeek after this breach and I`ve only just seen this thread about it so please don`t think we were avoiding the issue. Yeah, it happened - I don`t have the exact details but I know it relates to an old data server that was being commissioned. At some point during that process it was vulnerable and the info was stolen, it was predominantly internal data from about 8 years ago. We put our money where our mouth is though, got everyone notified and followed all procedures as well as taking many optional measures we weren`t obliged to and have ridden it out. if anyone wants to discuss in more detail or has any concerns please reach out to me privately and I can refer you to the internal team at Millgate who handled it. Thanks Jon.

When we decided to partner with Halo it was after various tests of other brands and I can say the Meraki MT15 was not one of them, it has no specific sensor for vape would be redundant in a vape siutation. The Halo is unique in the market because it can differentiate between all manner of detections and have a bespoke response for each. Whether it`s Vape, Tobacco, THC, Heat Not Burn Devices, Deodorant (or any other aerosol mask) the Halo know`s what it`s detecting and responds according to the parameters you set yourself, could be alarms, lights, notifications, SMS, Email - or of course, any combination you choose. This goes for the medical alerts and aggression detection as well :-) @synaesthesia - If you`d like to see some real life scenarios, drop me a line - we can get a trial unit out for you to try "in the wild" :-) Free of charge of course - Hope this helps. Thanks Jon.

Hi I`ve got a lot of experience putting all different vendors into all different kinds of learning environments and over time, you do spot trends. It wont be useful at all to hear this but one of those trends is very much........"get what you pay for" There are exceptions of course but as a rule if a device costs more, it`s for a reason, not just because that vendor is inherently priced higher than equivalent competition. Whether it`s a thicker stronger chassis, reinforced sockets, spill proofing etc, there is a always something to account for a higher price. That said, there is a specific brand that is performing beyond expectations in the student device space. A lot of my clients are very satisfied with them, particularly the after care. Some of those clients also use the built in accidental damage which is helpful too (not mandatory though) Usually we can arrange on site demo and trial devices if thats helpful? Special bids available for volume purchasing. Happy to help - Happy to discuss further if you wish :-)

Yeah I guess the degree of protection required is going to vary school to school, the metal plate is a good idea and I have some clients who use the RJ45 lockable clamp things to prevent them being unplugged. That said, if you set the tamper alarm as soon as the device is touched it can flash red and emit the siren as well as staff alerts to catch the culprits. Coupled with a threat of being billed for a new device at full RRP and you have an effective deterrent :-) This only works if the staff take the alarms seriously and attend in time to catch them of course. Without calculating specifics.........we (Millgate) have about 300 devices "out there" across about 25 different schools and colleges, we`ve only had 4 returned with damage that were beyond repair so the real world numbers are a bit more encouraging.

Thanks Tim We haven`t tested them that way but good to know! If any vape molecules hit that sensor it`ll go off, regardless of the route they take to get there!

Hi James Absolutely yes, I`m in the office all day tomorrow (Tuesday 21st May) if you`d like to call, alternatively, please send your details over to me on PM and I`ll drop you a line whenever suits. Cheers Jon.

Hi There If you can send me a couple of serial numbers over PM I can look them up on our HPE portal for you. Thanks Jon.

Hi Everyone We`ve just had a couple of our demo devices returned to us after a successful proof of concept deployment with a client. Anyone interested in taking them on to try out themselves? We have 2 x Halo 2C you can try for 30 days on site to evaluate etc. Cheers Jon.

Hi Matt, I`ve just messaged with some info about Halo. if anyone else is interested or has questions please be in touch. Thanks Jon.

Ok this is a direct copy and paste from our Software Team: "They would need to buy 16 core as the base x 2 16 cores is the minimum pack for a server regardless if you have less cores which allows for two virtuals - you then need another pack to give the 2 extra virtuals Windows server cals are needed but would be covered on your school agreement if you have any of the following school wide Core cal Pro Desktop EMS security suite Or if you have the below school wide Microsoft 365 A3 or A5 (not office 365 as the M365 has the EMS included which includes a cal)" Kate (the specialist - whom many Edugeekers will vouch for) has also sent me a pdf cheat sheet but not sure how I post that, or even if I can post it for you. If you`d like it, just PM me and I can email over. Hope this is a help Thanks Jon.