CfBT Education Trust is a charity that provides education for public benefit across the world. It employs over 2,500 staff that support educational reform, teach, advise, research and train, and design and deliver education services.
The deal with Thus will see the company connect 30 of the charity’s sites and provide network access via broadband at another 150 locations, via its next-generation network.
Thus says the deal aims to ensure reliable delivery of audio, video and other essential network services. The company believes this will result in a reduction in costs of internal communication and the amount of time workers have to spend travelling.
Andrew Terry, Head of ICT Services at CfBT, said: As an education charity we operate in multiple locations supporting educational reform, and as such we need to ensure we have robust and efficient telecommunications systems in place. Thus took time to understand our current needs. The infrastructure they will be providing will enable the efficient delivery and use of services to our diverse workforce.
The service from Thus will run voice and data, Internet access and IP telephony for 1800 users over a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) IPVPN. It will also offer workers remote access options via mobile, BlackBerry and 3G data cards.
Phil Male, chief operating officer at Thus said: Increasingly, charities are looking at all aspects of their operations and are asking how they can utilise their resources more effectively. A reliable, flexible and cost-effective network which enables staff to work from home, flexibly and remotely, enables staff to focus on the their core roles and deliver more effectively on the organisation’s charitable aims. Our next-generation network is the ideal platform on which to build an all encompassing communication solution.
