Northgate-is - News Item 1014

Msona and its distribution partner Northgate Managed Services showcase 'School-in-a-Box' solutions at BETT 2010

LONDON – 12 January 2010, Msona Ltd. (www.msona.co.uk), an innovative European
manufacturer of unified IP communications and networking systems for small, medium and distributed enterprises, today announced that together with its distribution partner Northgate Managed Services (Northgate), a pioneer in delivering Information & Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure solutions to schools across the UK and Ireland will be showcasing “School-in-a-Box” Solutions at BETT 2010, Olympia, London.

The “School-in-a-Box” solution is the first 21st Century ICT Infrastructure platform optimised for schools, nurseries and youth clubs requiring simple, affordable and easy to use, manage and support platform. “School-in-a-Box” is designed and packaged for forward-thinking educational institutions looking for advanced and feature-rich multi-service ICT platforms without the complexity and cost of traditional systems

“BETT attracts more than 30,000 visitors and brings together the global teaching and learning community for four days of innovations and inspirations and we intend to use this platform to communicate with our customers and channel partners on how they can benefit from our fully integrated solutions and our strategic partnerships like the one with Msona,” said David Hyland, Managing Director, Education, at Northgate. “The Msona product range is great at delivering secure, radically simple and reliable ICT infrastructure in one single robust box which can be managed by the school, Northgate or our channel partners,” Hyland added.

Msona offers All-in-One Multi-service Internet appliances known as the mBox 2000 series that consolidate up to eight networking, communications and IT devices. The mBox pre-integrates a simple and modular solution for schools’ ICT needs including Broadband gateway, shared and secured Internet access, telephony, data backup, security, remote access, resource sharing, email, web servers and collaboration applications. Acting as the main access gateway to the Internet, the mBox offers the ability to host schools’ public websites and Intranets as well as run a secure email infrastructure for staff and pupils. The device offers the full capability to monitor Internet usage, filter access to inappropriate material and content on the web while blocking viruses and spam from reaching school’s network. Msona also offers a range of cloud computing based services known as mRepublic which complement the applications running on the mBox and enhance the schools’ quality of experience for web presence, security updates as well as maximum uptime and availability of ICT services.

Rami Houbby, Msona’s Vice President of Business Development, commented, “The
“School-in-a-Box” offering is an innovative solution brought to market by top education focused system integrator and leading-edge European technology manufacturer to deliver easy-to-use and affordable ICT solutions that cater for schools, nurseries and youth clubs across the UK and Ireland”. “We are looking forward to participating at the event together with our partners Northgate to demonstrate our joint determination to offer our customers best-in-class solutions tailored to the education market,” Houbby added.

The mBox offers educational institutions the ability to securely connect to the Internet over Broadband while providing an environment for hosting web-based applications and collaboration tools to develop communities and interest groups that span across the institution and its community to include pupils, staff, parents and other schools.

Msona products showcased on Northgate’s BETT stand are:
• mBox 2000 Multi-service Internet Appliances
• mPhone M6730i IP Phone
• mPhone M6755i IP Phone

mBox 2000 Key features:

• Internet presence:
o Fully integrated web presence and domain management enables schools to
locally host and manage their own websites for greater performance,
reliability, control and security.

• Secure web-browsing
o Blocking inappropriate material on the Internet and enforcing school’s Internet usage policies where access to all network services is controlled by passwords providing a greater level of security. Through detailed and extensive filtering of content categories, all information delivered to the school is guaranteed to be appropriate for minors’ access.

• Unified IP Communications Infrastructure
o Full-featured PBX delivering many telephony features tightly integrated with email so teaching staff can communicate better and never misses a phone call!

• Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam
o All emails are scanned for spam and virus signatures before being delivered offering total protection.

• Secure Internet Access
o A built-in firewall protects the school’s network from Internet attacks.

• Network Access Control
o Protecting the school’s network from the inside with seamless access admission control over wired and wireless networks to control who can go where on the network.

• Local e-mail delivery
o All internal communications are delivered locally. No need for email messages to go up and down the Internet link and use up valuable Internet bandwidth

• Round-the-clock Collaboration
o Full groupware and collaboration functionality for Microsoft Outlook users.

• Remote Connectivity
o Staff members as well as pupils with access permission can access school’s resources from their homes or while travelling so pupils can engage and interact with teachers and other students as well as access homework assignments and lesson material even while not at school.

mPhone M6730i IP Phone Key features:

• Exceptional Value in an entry level IP Phone
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• Auto-provisioning of extensions from mBox
• Basic LCD screen display
• AC power adapter (included)
• 10/100 RJ-45 Interface

mPhone M6755i IP Phone Key features:

• Exceptional Value in an advanced level IP Phone
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• Auto-provisioning of extensions from mBox
• Large LCD screen display
• Power Over Ethernet (POE) support
• AC power adapter (included)
• 2 x 10/100 Switched RJ-45 Interfaces