RedwayNetworks_Michael

I completely agree here and as you mention each school has different procurement requirements. However i have found that often when needing 3 quotes its caused delays trying to get other quotes. Which i do understand too as it is a cost to suppliers to send engineers to site too. Although this does get paid in the overall proposal it does still mean 2 suppliers are at a loss. Often you could do a hardware exercise as this is much easier and some suppliers are happy to help with a quote to just help the schools get to the next stage. (This is where good relationships come in handy and favours can be asked) Framework direct awards if possible do save all this hassle though but understand its not always possible this way.

I can also say as as supplier of Everything ICT we too have had a great experience with them, the account managers really do help too. Happy to put anyone in contact with Everything ICT if its of interest to anyone to save going to tender everytime. Most my customer use to avoid having to the same call multiple times with multiple suppliers so really does help. Also direct award is available too so just helps make life abit easier for the IT teams.

As Net-Ctrl has mentioned we can also help with CTC projects as a network specialist Also a couple of others here too. Keeping it within the forum

From what i know i think once they know who to match us up against we spar with each other, i think this is so we have an idea of how each other fight from what i have heard. I think basically i need to listen to what the "teacher" says. Ill keep the thread going over the coming weeks and share progress. (no laughing haha) i took a small video last night of me skipping as people are very interested in seeing the progress. I did see the MMA charity event about 5 min after i signed up to the boxing, glad it didn't pop up before as it may have been abit too much for me. Ive been told a few times after the fight i might actually enjoy it and carry it on. One step at a time

Thankyou so much, its really appreciated. Yes i think once ive been hit a few times ill feel better, as crazy as that sounds. I will share a video of it, im sure someone will be able to film it for me, not sure what quality will be. I should have some pics once i start training too which i will share here. Im sure once its all over ill be super proud, plus how many people can say they have entered a ring for an official fight

you are not the only one haha, my Mrs always asks why i always look at the ceilings haha

Thanks Patrick, yes im defo going out my comfort zone. I have been told to do cardio so ive been running most nights after work and i did some skipping last night which was really hard. My gloves arrived yesterday and someone else i know advised me to start shadow boxing with the gloves to get used to the weight of them and also to help cardio. The tip around shadow boxing rounds is a great idea and ill do this as i suppose it will give me an idea of how ill go in a round. As you say its for charity and that's what's important, so far its been a great and support is amazing, the coaches have told me some nerves are good. I will keep at this cardio though, its not going to do me any harm as i could really do with the fitness. Once again thanks for the support and tips. I will be trying out that shadow boxing tonight

Hi EduGeeks, Apologies if im posting this in the wrong area however i couldnt find a page for anything charity workwise so thought i would just post in general chat. Just wondering if anyone has done any Boxing before or White collar boxing for Charity. I made a very silly decision the other week to sign up to one of these to help raise money for Cancer Research UK. I will be very honest about this, im terrified haha I have no experience in boxing at all and i wouldn't be able to say when i last did exercise before this, However i made the decision that if people go through years of suffering with Cancer then 8 weeks training and one fight in the ring is nothing for me compared to what they have to go through. I quickly reached out to friends and family when i signed up to see what they thought, the support ive had has been very overwhelming and has pushed me to go ahead and do this. I have training now for 1 week, not been easy but ive done it. I just wondered if anyone has done anything like this before and if so any tips. My official training for the fight starts on the 20th of February with the fight taking place on the 15th April. Link to the event for anyone interested https://ultrawhitecollarboxing.co.uk/locations/milton-keynes/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA8t2eBhDeARIsAAVEga2Ljh7_QKx8_nKWxsLAlwWfIlsFkgol7wJgKwSDdaTOeLepTR-rWY0aAsRKEALw_wcB At the end of the day i just feel not only do i get to raise money for a great cause but also changing my lifestyle while doing this and getting myself fit (far overdue) As we are all too aware 1 in 2 of us these days gets cancer and its pretty scary. If anyone would like to follow my journey i do regular updates on my justgiving page below https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/michael-addinell Any support messages are very welcomed to give me some confidence haha

Fingers crossed. Please do let us know how it goes

Lets just say if i quoted the specs to a school not part of the program they would likely laugh at me and never speak to me again However i think the idea is they invest now with high specs in hopes the schools wont need to change anything again on the solution for years to come. Most are going with 10years on licencing as the main 2 players for the CTC solutions Meraki/Aruba are offering these for the price of 5. What happens in 10years when renewals are due I'm not too sure, maybe the plan is to do another scheme maybe, i really don't know. As suppliers we have to work to the DfE guidelines on the CTC schools, DfE will reject any submissions where anyone is trying to squeeze extra kit out of scope ect.. They do question suppliers too on the solutions who then have to justify them. Is it overkill for primaries? yes i think it is personally but I'm sure the DfE have reasons for this when they set out the guidelines which I'm unsure of. @DrCheese i see you have mentioned you have been speaking to them but getting mixed messages if I'm correct, have they sent you any network asset forms to complete at all at this stage or any docs?

Whats that old saying "no one ever got fired for buying Cisco"

Yes thankyou this is correct, they have confirmed for me. All schools now upto Wave 5 have now been contacted however often the invites can be missed. If a school has been invited they will try follow up with calls with all eligible schools. In regards to where the emails are sent its whatever email they have on their system so sometimes this can be @head or @office for example so can often get missed.

Yes this is correct, i think they have got abit behind and also stock delays, it seems now that aslong as you claim for a part invoice you then have more time to complete the project to claim the rest. I have often just invoiced the pre audit part once approved so then you dont miss the deadline. I must say the DfE have been super helpful for any schools ive worked with on these in regards to communications. I dont know of anyone that has had issues submitting claims but be interesting to know if anyone missed any deadlines and what the situation was.

I have seen Primary, secondary and even small colleges so its hard to judge. If im correct it was originally for rural schools mainly primary however it seems to have gone to all sorts now. I dont think there is anything on the Gov site as its invitation only and i think its been kept quiet so they dont get every school contacting them to see if eligible.

I believe its Wave 5 now , usually invites go to the school business manager

Are you still having issues, if so i have some contacts at lightspeed that i can reach out to for you to help out.

Hi Guys, We find this not too common in schools mainly due to it having quite alot of management overhead adding more complexity to the network. However it is possible, if anyone would like to discuss more id be happy to put you in touch with an engineer.

To answer your questions margins are roughly the same on all vendors, likely more on Aruba/Meraki due to cost but hardware margins are all similar, My opinions are based on experience of my existing customers and experience of CWNP certified wireless engineers i deal with on a daily basis. Hope this helps to answer your questions.

We are going in circles here, i have not denied anything and your missing the key points. I have tried my best and i understand you dont like it as im not a fan of Unifi and you are despite me saying many times its personal preference. As you say if you want manufacturing support you pay extra thats the difference in the support though, Manufacturer support or 3rd party. I am glad you have had a great experience and loved it. However i have spoken to many other schools that have not had the same experience which is what i base my opinions on.

I dont recommend Unifi due to lack of Vendor support. If a major issue was to happen (IF) then there is nowhere to go for support. I understand companies offer the support however doesn't that just bring pricing up to the level of other vendors such as Cambium by the time you add the support which is likely more expensive than support for a higher tier vendor. Also those support companies if cant find the issue (this can happen) they would then have to also rely on online forums. No vendor support i dont recommend unless as i say your technical and happy to deep dive into the troubleshooting and use online forums for help. I wouldnt personally want to put any of my customers into that position. Hope this helps, i also dont recommend Meru/Fortinet as its behind the times and not the nicest solution (again in my opinion) Cambium is not an expensive product but it does have the vendor support therefore i would be happy to recommend to customers. I wont be able to please everyone i understand but i would walk from a deal rather than try make a quick buck selling a solution i dont have confidence in. Again not me knocking peoples choices but from a personal perspective. Margins would be low but they are for all hardware these days anyway but when they add support that boosts the margin for them. So are they recommending due to the solution or budgets or are they pushing it to get the support contracts? i dont know the answer but food for thought

Yes i think alot likely had this issue, i am going to presume you are on the older Aruba switches rather than the newer CX. Aruba in my opinion was a little naughty here and panicked with constraints and just EOL most lines. Then again everyone ordering the CX range also had to wait a long time for stock and some still waiting.

I can say with extreme confidence this is not how all suppliers work and from reading this it sounds like a young salesman thats been constantly pressured and as you say pushing vendors rather than solutions. I mean ive mentioned Meraki and Cambium, Cambium is hardly the more expensive vendors. If someone wanted to buy Unifi from me then fine but we wouldn't support the unifi as there is no vendor support so it could bite us in the bum as a supplier. Everyone has different requirements and as a supplier i see it as my job to help get the right one for your needs. This means listening to requirements and not jumping in with a vendor. I mean how could i honestly recommend anything without understanding the customer requirements. I hate the bad sales companies that call end of months to hit target ect as it gives a bad name. I know it does happen alot but this is not how everyone works.

I think alot is down to design, Cisco and Unifi are worlds apart if really looking like for like, admittedly worlds apart on price too but it all comes down to what you want i suppose. For example alot of Meraki users like it due to the simplicity and ease of troubleshooting and to manage the wider network on the single dashboard. I find alot go Cambium to not be stuck with ongoing licence costs but with the assurance they have the support. Unifi i find the more technical guys dont mind as they enjoy spending time deep diving into troubleshooting. I suppose its all down to preference and Budgets, if have Unifi then usually its due to no budgets and taking the Cheap option. But again everyone has there own reasons i suppose.

Yes the Xirrus stuff i dont recommend and totally agree. The newer Cambium stuff is much better, if you would like to try just let me know and im sure i can get one sent out to you to play with. Of course if already made the decision to go Unifi it might not be worthwhile now but offer is there. Anyone still using the Xirrus i would be recommending to move away now to either the Cambium platform or another solution. I do agree with you on the Xirrus.

As i mentioned some people like it such as yourself and like you say you have not had any major issues with it before. I answered based on my experience everyone will always have an opinion on what they use, im glad it works well for you