Education Support Centre | In the past few years there has been substantial investment in computer technology in the education sector.
Government initiatives have rightly put technology at the heart of learning and teaching - its potential is simply vast.
However, there will always be times when an institution's in-house staff is unable to solve a given problem.
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The Education Support Centre (ESC), based at Nottingham Trent University and supported by Microsoft, is a dedicated resource designed to provide education institutions across the UK and Ireland with expert, affordable and effective technical help and advice on Microsoft technologies.
Introducing ESC
The ESC supports the whole education sector from universities to research councils, from schools to specialist colleges.
The ESC provides support from a team of IT professionals who have all come from an education background. The ESC not only gives full coverage of all Microsoft products covered by Select and Campus agreements, the ESC also assists on products no longer supported by Microsoft on a 'best endeavours' basis. The ESC routinely deals with calls covering a variety of Microsoft products including Exchange, IIS, ISA, MOM, Class Server, SMS, SharePoint and desktop products.
The highly rated support services from the ESC are tailored to academic institutions' needs and have over 55 institutions currently subscribing.
Customer feedback is very positive, and includes:
| "The University of Reading signed up with ESC from its launch. Although we have general Windows systems management expertise in-house, we had tended to use consultants for specialised projects such as introducing and supporting Exchange, linking MS-SQL with IIS, etc. Our experience with consultants was varied, so we found the ESC's offering of annual support for the cost of a few days' consultancy very attractive. We have found their expertise to be comprehensive, their service responsive and professional. My very discriminating systems staff rate the ESC very highly and this is demonstrated by the way in which they now readily turn to ESC and adopt the approaches suggested." Mike Roch, The University of Reading | |
The ESC's Customer Satisfaction rating has not dipped below 98 per cent.
Some ESC customers view the service as an emergency assistance service for their IT departments who can be called on when there are mission critical IT issues or as a back-up to their IT departments as part of a disaster recovery plan.
Microsoft - Committed to Education
Microsoft has always been greatly committed to expanding the world of learning through technology. As a long term, committed partner of education within the UK, Microsoft has had a dedicated education team for the last 12 years.
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"We have listened to the needs of our further and higher education customers who will, through the ESC, have access to expert advice when they really need it." Steve Beswick – Director of Education and Citizenship | |
Nottingham Trent University - a Centre of Excellence
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Nottingham Trent is one of the largest universities in the country with an enviable national and international reputation built upon the excellence of its teaching methods, research, collaborative activities and consultancy.
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Within Nottingham Trent, there is extensive knowledge of Microsoft products, and the university has a track record of working in partnership with other educational institutions. It has a robust and efficient IT infrastructure and the staff has significant experience in IT management, project management, IT training and customer liaison.
FundingTo use the service each institution will pay between £1,000 and £3,700* plus VAT a year. The exact amount will depend on the institution's FTE staff count.
The service will be non-profit making. Over time, as adoption of the service becomes more wide scale, any profit generated will be used to support the members by funding additional services, such as technical events and training. How to Register for the ESCTo register your college or university for ESC support, please call 0870 012 0122 or visit the ESC website. *Prices are correct at time of publication and may be subject to change. For terms and conditions, please visit our website or call for further details. | 
