eSchools contract signed

A revolutionary IT system to be designed and implemented by Hewlett-Packard is to enable, for the first time, data from1,200 schools to be collected, analysed and stored centrally leading to new standards being set across schools in Northern Ireland, was announced today.

Hewlett-Packard has signed a five year contract worth £4 million with C2k to implement and support the provision of an IT Business Intelligence solution. C2k on behalf of the five education and library boards is responsible for the provision of an information and communications technology (ICT) managed service to all schools in Northern Ireland.

The technology, developed by HP in partnership with Asidua will process 720 million records, over the next five years, on critical aspects such as attainment, assessment and pupil attendance providing a holistic view into the operation of schools. This will permit the soon to be established Education and Skills Authority to monitor and develop strategies targeted on improvement. This will be the first time in the UK or Ireland that reliable data relating to Northern Ireland school performance will be made available to education stakeholders.

Martin Murphy, managing director of HP Ireland said: “Hewlett-Packard has produced a flexible and robust infrastructure that brings an innovative technological solution to the education sector."

Hewlett-Packard’s solution, will ensure higher data integrity and faster delivery of information to decision makers within the education authority. It is expected that this will significantly reduce the time and effort required to manage, store and analyse data on a range of school standards from attendance to child attainment.

“We are pleased that, after a competitive tendering process, Hewlett-Packard has been appointed to deliver this innovative and important initiative” says, Western Education and Library Board Chief Executive Barry Mulholland. “In essence, the e-Schools project is about modernising the process for collecting and managing data from all schools in Northern Ireland. This will significantly improve the quality and speed at which information on school performance is accessible resulting in better decisions, lower administration costs and the setting and monitoring of new standards in schools.”

The consortium lead by Hewlett-Packard includes a partnership with local company Asidua who will assist with the development of the software required for the new IT infrastructure.

18.05.08

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