Esat BT has won a €1.5m contract with the National Maritime College in Cork, which will outsource all of its ICT needs to the telecoms company to reduce cost, complexity and shorten installation times.
The National Maritime College will provide education and training facilities that will service the existing needs of both the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and the non-military needs of the Irish Naval Service (INS). The Ringaskiddy-based college will accommodate 750 full-time student equivalents and will be a major attraction for international trainees.
The National Maritime College, which is currently under construction, is being built and run under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Esat BT will provide FocusEducation, the company awarded with the contract to run the college, with the college’s entire ICT requirements.
Esat BT will supply, install and maintain the college’s desktops, printers, laptops, servers, data storage equipment, video conferencing equipment, IP telephony, LAN network and equipment, and on-site technical support. Esat BT has partnered with HP for this project.
“FocusEducation’s priority was to consolidate multiple vendors for the provision of IT services and Esat BT readily stepped up to this challenge. Our solution for the National Maritime College in Cork is a perfect example of our strengths and credentials in the ICT space,” said Anne O’Leary, corporate sales director, Esat BT.
FocusEducation is a consortium comprising of building contractor Bovis Lend Lease and Halifax Bank of Scotland. Under the Public-Private Partnership model, the college will be designed, built, financed and operated for twenty-five years by FocusEducation. Work on the project commenced in March 2003 and will be completed in October 2004.
By John Kennedy
