EduTech Solutions

When EduTech first started over 5 years ago, a number of problems faced us regarding the integration of what is essentially a business class server platform (Windows Server) into an Education environment. The biggest hurdle we had was that of user provisioning as 20% of a schools user base changes each year which across a number of schools can be a... bit of a headache. There were tools available to us to enable us to do this but they were very costly and in the main were designed for businesses, not schools. We were in conversation with Centrel Solutions about their audit and inventory software when we broached the subject with them. Their answer was to commission a new application called XIA Automation Server. We worked alongside them, testing features and ironing out issues and trialling it within our schools until it was ready for release. Another issue we had, smaller but no less important, was a robust application launcher. Unlike businesses, schools and primary schools especially, rely on a large number of applications to deliver their curriculum. A typical primary school will have 3 curriculum to deliver which needs a diverse set of application to differentiate between age groups. In some primary schools we manage over 100 applications deployed across the curriculum. The application launcher we had in place was good but did not cope very well with large wireless infrastructures which many of our schools have. Every 5 minutes the launcher on each laptop would check back with the server for an updated list of applications which placed an unnecessary overhead on the the wireless bandwidth. Combine this with the fact that 30 laptops in one classroom had all logged onto the network within 1 minute of each other, it was causing a noticeable 'lag' in network usage. Again, Centrel Solutions were quick to come up with a solution to our problem which is XIA Links, a superb client/server application launcher which is highly customisable with a very low network overhead. After some initial testing and ...Read More