Armstrong Bell have over 20 years experience in the communications industry, and schools remain a key focus for us.
We understand that poor communications infrastructure can have a negative impact on lessons, students, staff and parents, and that investment in infrastructure requires a partner who understands your challenges, whilst building a strategy that looks several years ahead.
Benefits for schools
Efficiency: Saving Teachers’ Time
Good communications infrastructure should be reliable and seamless. When staff trust that their systems and infrastructure work, they can use them to reduce workload by improving communication, collaboration, and planning.
Reliable communication systems also eliminate the need for teachers to prepare alternative approaches, should technology fail.
Flexibility: Reacting quickly to changing environments
Being able to quickly change or adapt where and when you work, whilst upholding seamless communication with staff, pupils and parents is invaluable. Whether working from home, the classroom or on the move, choosing the right communications platform is key to delivering flexibility in the way your school reacts to change, both quickly and efficiently.
Effectiveness: What you can do
A well-functioning and well-maintained infrastructure:
- allows teachers, students, and admin staff to use technology in a timely and appropriate manner
- supports teaching and learning
For example, good infrastructure allows students and staff to:
- log on to their devices quickly
- share content and material
- provide online feedback quickly and reliably
Economy: Saving money
The ongoing running costs of poor ICT infrastructure can be significant. For example, poor ICT infrastructure can result in schools needing to invest more in:
- technical support
- replacing individual parts
A planned programme of design, investment and support will reduce long term costs, whilst improving how you as a school operate, communicate, and educate.
Schools we work with...
Like many schools, we had a contract for a BT fixed line for a number of years. With tighter school budgets and the need to switch to a voice over internet protocol [VoIP] system, we had to look for a new provider.
The new telephone system has been reliable, easy to use and very cost effective in comparison to other systems and providers on the market. The
staff at Armstrong Bell are extremely efficient and personable, making technical specifications easy to understand. The follow up service has been
excellent, and I have confidence that the system will meet our needs for many years to come.
I would like to recognise Sam Moore, Leon Benson and the other members of the technical and sales team that I have had the pleasure of recent involvement with. In particular Parm, who visited the school in the last week of term at short notice to access our current set up viability for upgrade.
Parm was personable, polite, informative and accommodating through the visit, a true ambassador of your organisation.
You have all made a daunting school upgrade effortless and flawless. Information has been disseminated, such that informed decisions can be made by non-specialists.
I am very grateful to you all for your support and diligent efforts.
I spent a great deal of time getting quotes from various companies for our new telephone system. I was clear what we required but was offered a range of systems with wildly different costings. On the recommendation of another school I contacted Armstrong Bell who came in with a much more realistic solution and common-sense approach. Not only were the costs lower, they seemed to have a clearer understanding of what schools need. I found the initial visit to be very straightforward and there was no ‘pushy’ sales technique.
The proposal they put forward was very comprehensive and suited our needs perfectly. Shortly afterwards they then carried out the installation with the minimum of fuss. They system now works perfectly and they have followed up with ongoing support. They have been friendly and focused on providing a high-quality service throughout. I would recommend them to any school considering a new telephone system.
The quote process with Armstrong Bell was very easy and clear and we benefited from a lot of technical information and advice. From the Quoting Stage to installation it went really well with excellent advice and support at all stages. The different options offered were all adequate for our school; it was good to have the choice, understand the technical options and make the right decision. The transition to our new SIP system was seamless and the engineers Spencer, Leon & Chris were very helpful. They explained everything and the installations couldn’t have gone better. Thank you.
On Leon's 3 visits to our school he has been exceptionally helpful, going above and beyond to ensure all our needs were met. He carried out extensive prior research so that his installation visit went extremely smoothly. He is friendly and approachable and is very knowledgeable about your systems etc, I cannot praise Leon highly enough. He is most certainly an asset to your company. Thank you.
Exceptional service provided, Nothing was too much trouble. Leon constantly "went the extra mile" to provide us with excellent service. He experienced several technical issues (not caused by Armstrong Bell) and worked relentlessly to find solutions. Leon kept me fully appraised of the situation at all times and attended school far more sessions than was originally planned in order to provide maximal support for the school. I would highly recommend this service without hesitation and recognise the exceptional service in particular provided by Leon.
The support and assistance provided from day one was superb. The initial meeting with Angela Cutler and Leon Benson was very helpful and informative. The service provided straight through to implementation was brilliant. There is nothing that you could have done better. We are completely happy with the service that we received.
We have been using the services of Armstrong Bell for almost 5 years, during which time we have grown from a school at one single location to a group of 8 businesses.
Armstrong Bell have supplied all our cabling and telephony requirements and we have always found their service to be timely and the quality of their work excellent.
We needed something that would allow us to make use of our high speed internet connection, introduce voicemail for all staff and allow us to use headsets - something our previous system didn’t support. The handover from the old system to new took less than a day and we had almost no down time. An Armstrong Bell engineer was then on site on the first day back at school to provide training to staff at the coalface.
The new system has already had an impact. Just a few days after the install we had a power cut. Normally this would leave us without phones, however because our new system is hosted off site, we could log in to the portal and divert calls to a mobile remotely.
We looked at upgrading our phone system a number of years ago, but other projects had to take precedence. We had transitioned to working in the cloud and I realised we would benefit massively from having our phone system on the cloud, too. When exploring our options, we found that Armstrong Bell offered the best product for the best price.
The hosted solution from Armstrong Bell meant that from just one subscription per handset we were able to incorporate all of the features. By comparison, other companies were looking to sell the additional features as 'add-ons', or in layers.
So far, we've found the system brilliant; it’s just so flexible. Because everything works on the cloud, we're able to unplug handsets and move things around if we need to without worrying about setting it up - it just works.
It was important for us to work with a local company because we were keen to have better support, particularly with engineers coming onto the site. We have taken out a five-year contract with Armstrong Bell, so we know we don't have to worry about anything for the next few years. That in itself is a relief in a busy environment, but we’ve also noticed that since the system was installed, our monthly payments have virtually halved. For a school, where budgets are tight, this is very good news and we believe the system should pay for itself in under five years.
Smoothwall is the leading digital safeguarding solutions provider in UK Education. 12,500 schools, colleges and multi-academy trusts depend on their technologies to keep their students safe and their education organisations compliant.
Their solutions work alone or combine to provide a complete online safety infrastructure that protects students, staff and network safety – at every touch point.
Fast installation – minimal disruption
Our focus is on providing an excellent level of service before, during and following an installation. We understand that when it comes to making changes to the school, the main priority is ensuring education is not disrupted in the process. With Armstrong Bell, you can rest easy knowing all installations are completed fast, and at your most convenient time –often completing all work during the holidays.
