Education

At Choice Technology we're passionate about education and the role of technology in the education sector.  For years we've worked with a wide range of education providers, from pre-school to tertiary institutions, to help them get more out of their IT spend and, most important, to improve the quality of teaching and of their operations.

A revolution is underway in educational IT and telecommunications.  Electronic text books, e-learning, ultra-fast broadband, cloud computing and social media are just some of the developments helping schools to revolutionise how they deliver high-quality education and to improve their operational efficiencies.  The options can be bewildering, however, and educators can struggle with the challenge of maximising returns from limited resources.

Your school should choose Choice Technology because:

  1. We provide free advice, leadership and expertise.  We want to help your school get the most out of technology, safely and securely.
  2. We'll help you get the most from governmental programmes.  Advising on how to gain maximum advantage from government programmes, including:
    • Microsoft, Novell, Symantec and Apple licensing agreements - Key products provided at no cost to your school
    • Ministry of Education programmes and initiatives, such as broadband and cabling initiatives that can help you minimise capital expenditure
    • All of Government Laptop and Desktop purchasing programme
  3. We'll help you protect your school and students from a myriad of security risks.  Cost effective protection against external and internal security threats, access to objectionable content, copyright infringement/file sharing and a variety of other pressing risks.  Monitoring your systems 24 x 7 so you can sleep easy.
  4. We sell all hardware and software to educational institutions at our cost. Helping you to spread your budget further.
  5. We provide discounted services rates to schools.
  6. We'll help you improve your operations and reduce your running costs.  Talk to us about how we've helped other schools to reduce cost and improve their operations through improved utilisation of technology.
  7. You choose the level of service.  And whether you want a fixed-price or 'pay as you use' solution. Includes full service, 'all you can eat' options that include unlimited services for a low monthly charge.

Governmental Programmes

Governmental IT programmes are continually improving and schools are presented with a regularly improving array of products and services that are provided either free or that are substantially discounted.

The options can be bewildering, however, and educators can find it difficult to understand all of the options available and to decide upon the best possible solution for their school.

Choice Technology understands and has experience with all key governmental programmes and we will help you to make the most of these over time.  We will also help you to understand the potential pitfalls of each option and how to change as these options evolve.  This includes:

  1. School software agreements.  Helping state and state-integrated schools to leverage centrally-funded software agreements to access key software products at no charge.  This includes software licensing agreements with Microsoft, Novell, Symantec and Apple.
  2. Ministry of Education programmes.  The Ministry has been funding a growing number of strategic programmes to help schools improve their IT and communications capabilities.  These include ultra fast broadband, cabling, managed Internet services, computers for teachers and a wide range of other programmes that can help you to improve your operations and avoid capital expenditure.  
    We understand these programmes in-depth and can help you to decide which are right for your school and help you to maximise the benefits from them.
  3. All of Government (AoG) computer purchasing programme.  All state and state-integrated schools can take advantage of the AoG purchasing programme for desktop and laptop computers to purchase high-quality HP computers at a significant discount.  Choice Technology has a deep understanding of the AoG programme and will help you to leverage this programme for maximum advantage.  

IT Security

Schools face a myriad of security risks that can be difficult and expensive to mitigate.  Protecting your assets from theft, your systems from external security risks and your students from inappropriate content and/or inappropriate online contact can be an expensive nightmare.  Schools often lack the training and resources to identify and control IT security, meaning that many schools and students are exposed to undue risk on a daily basis.

Let Choice Technology take the cost and complexity out of IT security while protecting you and your students from external and internal security threats.

Leveraging our extensive expertise and know-how we will help you to take a policy-based approach to managing security and privacy.  You define the policy and we'll implement it.  Don't have a security policy?  No problem - we'll help you define one that meets your school's individual requirements.

We'll monitor and manage your systems, protect your network and identify security threats in real time.  We'll proactively manage the security of your IT systems so you can focus on more important aspects of running your school.

Procurement Services

We know that IT budgets are tight and we're here to help.  Choice Technology provides all publicly-funded educational institutions with hardware and software priced at our cost.  No mark-ups, no handling fees.  You still get the benefits of All of Government and educational discounts, but with the added benefit of avoiding vendor mark-ups on these products.

Discounted Services

Choice Technology provides ad-hoc ('time and materials') and fixed-price managed services to schools.  Reflecting our commitment to the eduction sector, all of our services are provided to schools at a discounted rate, regardless of how much you use them.

Improving Your Operations and Reducing Cost

Our unique combination of skill and experience means that Choice Technology is uniquely positioned to help all educational institutions to improve their operations and to reduce cost through the improved use of technology.  We'll learn learn about your school and how you operate and will provide you with high-quality, practical advice on how to streamline and improve your operations and to reduce cost.

Just a few examples of how we've helped existing customers include:

  • Infrastructure consolidation and rationalisation - reducing complexity and unused capacity.
  • Adoption of cloud-based services - achieve significant cost reductions and service improvements through the use of cloud technologies
  • Process re-engineering
  • Service outsourcing - helping most customers to significantly reduce the cost and improve the quality of their IT services through outsourcing
  • Email and email security services - Cloud or on-site, including anti-SPAM, anti-virus and mobility solutions
  • Green computing services - helping you to reduce your carbon footprint and the cost of running your IT infrastructure over time.