TOTAL IT

Additional Information on Total IT.

Total IT are part of the global Serco Group.  Serco was recently voted Britain's 6th most admired company and the most admired support services company. A verdict from Serco’s toughest judges – our competitors.  Their high opinion of Serco put us among the winners of Management Today's prestigious Britain's Most Admired Companies Awards poll.  The top five companies were; Cadbury Schweppes, Unilever, BP, Tesco and Man Group.

Performance was rated against nine criteria; quality of management, financial soundness, quality of services, ability to attract and retain top talent, value as a long term investment, capacity to innovate, quality of marketing, community and environmental responsibility and use of corporate assets.

Total IT have considerable experience in the design, delivery and support of leading edge IT solutions, much of this experience within the Education sector.

Total IT has two predominant arms to the business.  The first is the development and marketing of it’s in house Facilities Management application range called FM Easy 

The second is its systems integration arm who design, implement and support high quality ICT solutions for all sizes of business, both here in UK and overseas.

A few examples of the educational experience and capability are detailed in the following paragraphs.

Provision of all ICT to the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC)

Provision of all ICT to the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC)

Total IT supplied all ICT products and services to the recently built MoD Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) in Wiltshire, UK.  The JSCSC provides World Class high ranking officer training for all three of the UK MOD’s armed forces.  Total IT (pre acquisition) was Serco’s IT partner for the project (a 30 year PFI) to design, supply and run the JSCSC.   Total IT delivered a high quality ICT solutions that worked, came in on time, above specification and to budget.

Since August 2000 the JSCSC has benefited from a Total IT designed and supplied leading edge IT infrastructure.  Highlights include: 

• A high speed (bandwidth) local area network supporting over 1100 users

• A network with 13 high resilience servers at its heart.

• Over 600 laptop computers and over 550 desktop computers.

• All peripherals including specialist items for reprographic and library use.

• A comprehensive range of software including a number of site wide web based FM applications which allow users to carry out a number of time savings actions from their desktops including: Visitor Booking, Help Desk, Travel Booking, Room Booking, Reprographic and AV requests.

• Site-wide Internet access and e-mail, protected by a range of high security firewalls, as is demanded by such an establishment.

The systems are supported by a Serco-staffed ICT Support department, backed up by a range of cost effective external support contracts, to maximise systems ‘up time’.  Being a PFI contract the ICT support service is tightly performance monitored, with financial penalties in the event of the service not meeting pre agreed Key Performance Indicators.  To date we are proud to state no such penalties have been incurred.  Total IT are currently playing a leading role in the design, supply and implantation of the first major technology refresh.

IT Infrastructure to Bradford Local Education Authority

Bradford Education Authority support all non-teaching aspects of the provision of education to pupils in the Bradford Metropolitan area.  More than 200 schools, libraries, social and psychological services are offered to pupils, parents and teachers.

Following take over of the LEA service by Serco, and during transition, Total IT prepared the existing IT infrastructure for overhaul and rebuilt upon new technologies.  Once analysis was complete, Total IT designed, specified and installed more than £300k worth of server and network infrastructure kit – with a total project budget of nearly £500k. 

The new infrastructure was built upon Windows 2000 and Active Directory technologies, supporting the 1200 Education Bradford employees, across nine sites.  The network infrastructure was built upon a quad Gigabit backbone and 100Megabit switched connections to the desktop.  WAN infrastructure includes Internet and Extranet connectivity to the Metropolitan District Council, Metropolitan Area Network and onwards connections to more than 150 schools across the County.

Total IT also supplied Intranet and Internet systems based upon Content Management technologies.    The final part of the project involved moving the entire infrastructure from an ageing building to new refurbished premises, co-ordinating communications facilities, and the logistics involved with moving the kit.  The systems are now supported by on-site Serco employed, Education Bradford IT support staff.

The Oman Military Technological College

Total IT, working with Serco are at Preferred Bidder status for the provision of a new PFI college training approximately 1500 students in the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East. 

The leading edge ICT solution, to be provided by Total IT, will include a fully Managed Learning Environments (MLE) including a full student records management and resource scheduling system and fully integrated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). 

On completion the college will benefit from a high performance network supporting approximately 900 concurrent users, with wireless technologies offering staff and students the freedom of wireless access to high quality learning materials from key training and accommodation areas. 

The system is fully integrated with a fully digital telephone system and a high quality audio visual system. 

In addition to the latest Microsoft software applications, Total IT will be providing its fully web base FM Easy Facilities Management applications suite to ensure efficient running of the new college, with a range of services provided to end users via their desktop computers, including room booking, visitor management, help desk, reprographics and travel management. 

Total IT will supply an interim college solution in 2006; the full ICT solution (including the porting from the interim solution to the new build college) in 2007; and full management of the solution for a five year period.

The Defence Academy

The Defence Academy is a national and international centre of excellence, providing civilian and military personnel with a high-quality education, primarily at post-graduate level, and conducting research in fields related to defence.  Total IT, as part of the Serco consortium, which has recently been announced provisional preferred bidder for the Defence Academy Campus Integrator contract, will design, supply and assist with the support of the Defence Academy ICT system.