Bundled Filtering and Connectivity

The Birmingham Grid for Learning, Rotherham Schools Connect, Worcestershire County Council and Essex County Council have all announced that they will no longer be providing internet connectivity and filtering to schools after the end of March 2020.  These announcements prompted us to consider how we can best support those schools who are now looking for a replacement service.

Our online safety systems have always been designed to work with any internet connection, and there are significant disadvantages to the customer when services are bundled: if you want to replace one service, you're often forced to replace all of the other bundled services too.  Never the less, schools see bundled filtering and connectivity as a low-hassle option.

Opendium provides sector-leading internet filtering and monitoring solutions that enable schools and colleges to implement a truly effective safeguarding strategy. For more information or to book a demonstration, please visit opendium.com/demo

To this end, we have formed a unique partnership with Evolving Networks to provide UK schools with a cost effective, and well supported, complete filtering and connectivity solution.  Under this scheme, Opendium and Evolving networks will work together to provide and support an integrated solution for your school.  But we wanted schools to retain the maximum flexibility: we're not bundling filtering and connectivity together under a single contract as many other suppliers do, so you're free to change one service in the future without being forced to also change the other.  We're very pleased to be able to offer this filtering and connectivity option to all schools across the UK, not just to schools within the affected areas.

The schools who are affected by the shutdowns are obviously concerned that not only will they be hit by an unexpected expense, but that migrating to a new system could cause disruption.  To make things as smooth as possible, we are offering to install the new systems well in advance of the switch-off but only begin billing in April.  So schools can be sure that any kinks with the replacement systems are ironed out well before the old one connection is turned off, without having to accommodate unexpected bills during the overlap period, for which they have not budgeted.