Northgate Secures Education Contract As ICT Partner For An Initial 24 Academies And Free Schools In England

Published by Maria McMullan for Northgate Managed Services in Education

Northgate Managed Services (Northgate) which was recently named the UK’s IT Supplier of the Year at the British Computer Society (BCS) & Computer UK Industry Awards 2011, has secured a contract with leading not-for-profit academies sponsor, E-ACT,  worth £6.5m in capital allocations alone. The multi-million pound contract will see Northgate developing relationships with all of E-ACT academies and Free Schools across the UK to deliver partnering services ranging from supply through to implementation and management.

Northgate will work closely with E-ACT in the delivery of robust and flexible solutions designed to offer pupils innovative and technology led learning environments.  These will include virtualised data centres, managed services and cloud based services.  Each solution will be customised based on the individual needs’ of each academy.

To help more proactively manage the academy accounts and improve the continuity of service, Northgate and E-ACT will put in place structures and processes to ensure greater collaborative working and a sharing of best practice between the academies.

Commenting on Northgate’s selection Chris Meaney, Director of ICT at E-ACT, said: “E-ACT is delighted to have appointed Northgate as our ICT partner to help deliver exciting and innovative ICT solutions to our academies and Free Schools across the country. The contract, which includes academies currently open as well as those opening throughout 2012, requires a supplier with extensive experience in education as well as the infrastructure and resources available to proactively manage the individual requirements of each academy.”

“Northgate demonstrated a clear understanding of our brief and presented a flexible and cost effective strategy, which we are confident will enable E-ACT to create and provide a rich learning environment for all our students and a greater collaboration between all E-ACT academies and Free Schools.”

Andy Ross, Chief Executive, Northgate Managed Services said, “The award of the E-ACT contract is a huge endorsement of our education work to date and can only help to broaden our experience in this sector.  We are all very much looking forward to meeting and working with the academies, learning more about their ICT needs and how we can help to create learning rich environments.”

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

E-ACT is a leading academy and Free School sponsor. E-ACT currently runs 18 open academies and one Free School.

For more information visit www.E-ACT.org.uk.