September

It’s the start of another new academic year across the UK – and if you are working in education IT, you are about to experience one of the ‘quirks’ of the job. September.

Uniquely, in education, we get periods where we can complete large scale projects and changes each year. This is something that those working in business would love to have. Whether it has been large scale OS or device upgrades, network infrastructure updates, MIS migrations and plenty more besides – many Edu IT professionals will be sat this weekend nervously waiting to see if their hard work pays off as schools return, even for TED days next week.

And when staff and students do return, we will see an instant high demand on systems, and support teams.

There are generally the same type of questions and issues at the start of year. New users, system roll ups of users into new year groups, issues with systems after a project. But there always, especially for an MSP providing support, times when we haven’t been told about a new system – whether it be a new phone system, printer replacements, new systems that require hooking up to the MIS or user provisioning of some kind.

And, whilst teaching staff are returning feeling (hopefully) refreshed and energised for a new year, buoyed by positive exam results – for many IT professionals, SBMS, site staff – the summer has been possibly the busiest period of the year before September.

This year, at Concero, we have completed some large scale projects. At a secondary school we have implemented a brand new Wi-Fi network of 170 access points, installed over 35 new switches, new fibres, upgraded cabinets, deployed new staff devices, upgraded all devices to Intune and Windows 11, decommissioned servers, migrated files to the cloud, deployed new cashless catering and plenty more. At a primary school, another switch and Wi-Fi install, plenty of new devices deployed and Windows upgrades, as well as all the routine maintenance we provided.

It’s a great experience, implementing that scale of change, but obviously it can lead to complications when users return, when that user demand is something you can’t always test for. And managing change for end users, at such a level of change is a key part of any project.

So here is to my 18th September working in Education IT. You’d think I wouldn’t be sat here nervously awaiting Monday, but then that would mean I didn’t care. And that’s not me.