Central Foundation Case Study

"Joskos is the first speed dial on our phones"

Rui Vieira, network manager at Central Foundation Boy’s School in London talks about his experiences in dealing with Joskos Solutions over the past three years.

"Since 2006 Joskos have laid an extensive fibre backbone to all school buildings and installed interactive whiteboards throughout the school. We have bought over 200 PCs, 2x 42 Unit server cabinets, 6 Dell servers, 5 UPSs, 50 Dell switches from Joskos. Our main Joskos contact acted as an advisor rather than a salesman, which is why a lot of our business went to Joskos. Instead of giving us a quick salesman’s chat each week or month, we liked Joskos attitude. They helped us do what we wanted, and gave us an honest opinion on what we needed when we needed it.

At one point, I felt that I wanted to get a 24-tape changer. Joskos advised against it, but told us that they could source one if I really wanted it. On their advice, I was able to determine that I didn’t really need one, and saved myself money by not buying it. This bred trust between the school and Joskos, showing that Joskos wasn’t just there to get our money, but were really giving us honest and trustworthy advice.

Joskos have done a fantastic job at installing our systems and since 2006 there have been very few ‘hardcore’ problems with the network, such as missing work or not being able to log on. Most problems have been user-generated, such as forgotten passwords or equipment just not switched on. The teachers now tend to spend more time in lesson preparation etc. as they can work on their own PCs, and senior staff are thrilled with Joskos’ work.

We have great banter with all the Joskos engineers. It’s handy to have the same key members of staff coming in, so Joskos staff knows our site already when they come. We don’t have to walk them round and show them where everything is.

We can trust Joskos engineers to get on with things without the need to babysit, oversee or hassle them. Joskos know what is needed and we trust them to get on with it. We’ve found that Joskos has earned our trust.

With other companies we’ve used, we can be sent a different engineer each time, and we have to show each new engineer the same things each time, whereas with Joskos the same key members of staff come in who know the site already. This saves time and effort on our part.

Joskos have done the jobs that needed to be done without any questions. They are trustworthy and we can allow them the full run of the school without supervision. They are very professional in what they do. They do what needs to be done, and we can rely on them to call us if there are any issues.

Joskos is the first speed dial on our phones now."