Novotronix have been selected by Derby City Council to provide a range of SharePoint services to their school management team.

The Council currently provide a SharePoint based learning platform to over 50 primary and secondary schools.

Having a stable platform is critical and initially Novotronix have taken over application management of all SharePoint related aspects of the system.  This service will evolve further into developing applications, interfaces and bespoke webparts to enhance the learning being delivered to the school network

Northumbria University and Eduserv have released a report on the use of Sharepoint in Higher Education.  They summarise that the rapid uptake of Sharepoint in this sector can be attributed to several factors including:

• The ease with which SharePoint can be procured: none of the HEIs in this study went to competitive tender to procure SharePoint as it is included in their Campus Agreement withMicrosoft
• Its provision of a wide variety of functionality including: content management for intranets and websites; collaboration sites for workgroups; workflow capability; and portal capability with single sign on and the ability to provide personalised content
• The gap in the HE information environment: most HEIs have had content management systems in place for their teaching and learning functions (in the form of a Virtual Learning Environment - VLE) but did not have any such systems in place for their administrative functions, service functions or research work
• Its devolution of a lot of power to local users: this suits the federal culture of HEIs, where there is a greater degree of autonomy in faculties and departments than in the divisions of organisations in other sectors.

The full report can be downloaded here

Coventry University have chosen Novotronix to assist them with a number of Sharepoint based projects including a staff portal, student portal and various Infopath based developments.  The partnership will be to undertake a number of specific developments as well as provide an ongoing support agreement.

Novotronix have been selected by Wolverhampton LEA to develop a number of innovative Sharepoint interfaces to enable improved access to learning platforms.  A range of interfaces will be developed suitable for KS1 to KS3 pupils.