case studybackground

Pretoria Boys High School dates back to 1901, making it one of the oldest schools in the province. The largest boys’ school in South Africa, PBHS prides itself on maintaining high standards across its full academic, cultural and sporting programmes. Keen to embrace an innovative approach to IT-based learning, and with a focus on student safety, the school places a strong emphasis on the use of good, supporting technology that is ‘fit for purpose’.

issues

Prior to discovering Impero, Pretoria Boys High School used three main software solutions to manage its network. Remote Admin was in place to manage and support computers remotely throughout the day, User Lock enforced login restrictions and 602 LanSuite controlled internet logging and access. While these tools each served their individual purpose, the administrative time associated with operating three different programmes, running three different licenses and dealing with three different support helpdesks was inefficient and costly to manage. In a bid to consolidate these functions, the school turned to its ICT provider, Sisonke Software Solutions, for advice.

solution

With over 10 years’ experience working in the education sector, Sisonke Software Solutions was quick to recommend Impero’s network management solution, Impero Education Pro. Having already done some market research, the school was aware of Impero Education Pro and its consolidated approach to network management. The software, designed specifically for the education sector, combines a comprehensive list of features to support network management, desktop management and computer lab management.

Sisonke Software Solutions arranged a software demo to show how the product could, as well as address the school’s immediate requirements, offer additional features such as power management, inventory auditing and file searching to name but a few. Confident it would promote a more efficient way of working Pretoria Boys High School made the decision to invest in Impero and wasted no time installing it across the school.

implementation

Installation was simple, with Impero’s support team on hand every step of the way, and the school was up and running without delay. Initially only used across computer labs, the school recently purchased a second server license to also control the administrative function. Both teaching and technical staff have all found the software extremely intuitive and as a result Impero is being well deployed across the school.

establishmentPretoria Boys High School, South Africa

studentsAged 15-19

no. pupils1,500

no. computers240

solutionImpero Education Pro

benefits

Streamlining all its network management functionality into one single, central solution Pretoria Boys High School is realising a number of important benefits:

saved time – being able to access everything remotely, control network administration centrally and run reports instantly has saved staff vast amounts of time that is now reinvested into more value adding tasks.

improved safety – locking down access and restricting internet usage has made the online environment a safer place to learn. Going one step beyond what User Lock could offer, when system violations occur, Impero pinpoints the individual offender, keeping a record of the activity, to support any disciplinary action.

increased network visibility – with a centralised view of all network computers, the school can quickly gather information and run reports on usage patterns, to inform the decision making process.

Q&A with Eric Van Der Hurst, IT manager

how has Impero benefited your role?

Well for starters it’s saved me heaps and heaps of time. Managing one system as opposed to three is so much easier and the functionality is much more advanced than what we had before.

how have students reacted to the software?

They hate it, which tells us it’s working! Between now and when we first installed Impero there’s been a huge drop in violations on the system. This means that as well as recording these instances we’re preventing them from happening in the first place which is great.

what are the next steps?

There’s still a lot of functionality yet to be explored so I think the next step will be to take a look at that and try to consolidate even more of our processes into this one system.

describe Impero in three words or phrases

Powerful, simple, can’t do without it.

“Powerful, simple, can’t do

without it.”

Below: Eric Van Der Hurst’s summary of Impero.

CS-

PBH

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www.imperosoftware.com

t +44 (0)1509 611 341e info@imperosoftware.com