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ACS International Schools

Sector: Education

Sites: Four sites across Surrey, Sussex and North London

System: CCTV & Barriers

Training: Comprehensive systems training

Maintenance: Ongoing service and maintenance contract


Background

Founded in 1967 to serve the needs of global and local families, ACS International Schools educate over 3,700 students, aged 2 to 18, day and boarding, from more than 100 countries.

ACS International Schools delivers private education across four sites in the UK, being Cobham Campus, Hillingdon Campus, Egham Campus and Iver Heath Sports Centre - the security for all of which A Plus Security holds the contracts for.

Challenges

The main challenge the client faced was needing to have constant ‘eyes’ over all the campuses, the largest is made up of over 30 acres of greenland, forests etc which is easily accessible.

Secondly, system downtime had to be limited, as even when students are not in residence, the campuses are still busy working environments and the systems ensure the safety and security of all contractors and staff.

Carrying out anything but critical repairs during term time is not allowed, so A Plus Security had to plan and deliver a tight implementation schedule before the students returned.

Solutions

As part of our scoping process, and drawing on extensive experience in projects like this, we established all potential challenges before we started work. ACS International Schools were very clear about what they wanted so this was very much a collaborative effort to deliver a very successful project with no disruption to business.

As we were upgrading multiple campuses, we decided not to run the install concurrently as we believe this approach shuts down all ‘eyes’ for too long.

Each ACS International Schools campus is system-linked and sits on the same network, so security teams have a view of all sites and cameras can be seen throughout each property. Our chosen approach was to complete one campus at a time, utilising a detailed programme for each area of each campus. We started with Cobham, then Egham, Hillingdon and lastly, Iver Heath.

Installed systems

Avigilon CCTV replaced an old, dedicated Micros Sprite CCTV system with NETVU software.

What other
clients have to
say about us

A Plus provides an excellent return on investment, not just through the solution installed, but the general experience they offer from pre-install to post-install and right through to the maintenance of the system. We knew we had made the right decision with A Plus as they offered a comprehensive and detailed proposal and project plan. The skill level of their engineers was a pleasant surprise with their knowledge of IT and networks, as well as electronic security, which made dealing with our internal IT team very smooth. Apart from that, the fact we never had to chase them for anything was a very nice surprise!

ACS International Schools

We needed to roll out the new system throughout Scotland, London and Europe which was very challenging. A Plus and their advice and flexibility made this process much easier for the whole project team. The one to one dialogue and personal service has been excellent. We can speak to a familiar voice at any time, morning and night which has exceeded our expectations. Since the project roll out was completed, we have been able to centrally control the physical security of the Government’s Estates seamlessly. The process Is now simpler which has led to better productivity.

The Scottish Government