RM picks up UK school intranet contract

South Lanarkshire Council has awarded a £5m contract to solutions provider, RM for the provision and management of an intranet for 21 secondary schools under its jurisdiction.
The five year contract will include infrastructure to support 840 PCs in schools throughout the county. The project is in line with the UK government's National Grid for Learning initiative.

The network will allow children to access CD ROM learning materials, which are stored centrally. It will also give them access to an RM-maintained closed Internet user group, called the Internet for Learning, which filters access to undesirable Web sites.

RM is currently the Internet Service Provider for over 6000 schools across the UK.

Commenting on the award, chair of the education committee at South Lanarkshire Council, Alan Dick, said: "RM was chosen above the other tenders because it offers the best value for money. But the major benefit of this investment for South Lanarkshire is that RM will take all the worry out of maintaining a complex school network and enable teachers to concentrate on teaching."