St Francis and St Clare Multi Academy Company (MAC) was formed in September 2019 and was established to unite Catholic schools in the Wolverhampton Catholic Deanery.  Its aim is to help all pupils by providing excellent teaching and learning, continuous improvement and creative and innovative opportunities so that pupils and staff develop and contribute to the common good.

The MAC is comprised of twelve schools – ten primaries, and two academies. Together, the MAC is passionate about the city of Wolverhampton, its neighbouring areas and its young people – and in pupils' power to make a difference in their communities.

Matt Jones is the MAC’s IT and Compliance Director and manages a team of five people. Part of his role is to manage the strategic direction of the MAC’s IT estate and provide the best IT possible for its 4810 pupils and 640 staff.

Building Relationships

On his appointment as IT and Compliance Director, Matt was keen to build relationships with companies and was aware of the prominent position in the market occupied by Stone, a Converge Company.

Stone has been a leading supplier of IT solutions since 1991 and is particularly renowned for its work in the education sector.  By becoming a trusted technology partner to education, Stone enables educators to concentrate on what they do best while ensuring they manage IT challenges and build long-lasting, reliable digital infrastructures.

Matt said: “Stone enjoys a good reputation in the sector.  I wanted to work with a company that understood my vision for the Trust and had the resources to help me deliver it. After attending a Stone schools showcase in October 2022 I was introduced to Stone Equinox servers and realised that the product could be a perfect replacement for our VMware system.”

Stone Equinox servers use the latest Intel® technologies and provide hyper-converged solutions at a fraction of the cost of most competing products.

The Equinox platform is also available with Virtualisation Support Services (VSS), which allows Matt and his team to hand over the platform's ongoing configuration, maintenance, and management – which frees them up to deliver meaningful service improvements for pupils and take part in extra training.

The Challenge

At both their secondary academies the MAC had racks full of ageing equipment that was expensive to run and maintain – and no longer appropriate for the task at hand.

The MAC wanted to consolidate and streamline the equipment and Matt needed to put forward a cost-effective solution to his Board.

“I had been reviewing the market for some time, but I found that providers for a new hyper-convergence solution were typically in Tier 1 and therefore out of our budget,” explained Matt.  “Stone Equinox was a pleasant surprise. Although not in Tier 1, Stone still offered a robust solution at an affordable price.”

In developing his rationale, Matt demonstrated that the cost of the solution would be offset by favourable energy consumption – so much so, in fact, that his mooted Equinox solution would pay for itself over its lifetime just with energy savings.

Matt explained that “by consolidating to a two-node, hyper-converged platform, anticipated power consumption will reduce annually by almost 50%. Considering energy costs and the ongoing costs of our existing hardware, the proposed cost saving over a seven-year period equals the overall cost of our Equinox solution.”

Matt added: “The favourable cost and improved speed and reliability meant that we could purchase the solution for both secondary schools.”

Installation complete

Stone worked with Matt and his team to ensure the new system was installed at a convenient time that would not disrupt the operation of the schools. Most of the work was done during October half term and anything else required was completed at the end of the school day.

‘’Stone engineers were on site to decommission the old kit and install the new,” said Matt.  “The remainder of the installation was carried out remotely.  It was a well-managed project that was completed in around two weeks.”

The new solution's benefits were felt immediately with much-improved speed and efficiency, which all users could enjoy from day one.  In addition, Matt and his team were also aware of the supplementary benefits of the new system, like valuable VSS support, a five-year, next-business day warranty and a dedicated support portal.

He said: “Equinox uses parts that are easy to replace and quick to upgrade when required which is a huge benefit.  Additionally, our team has been able to learn from Stone and the move from VMWare to Hyper-V has enabled them to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field.” 

“The schools themselves will, over time, see a cost-benefit from moving from what was quite an antiquated solution to the latest tech which will ensure longevity for the next decade.”

Ongoing support

The MAC benefits from ongoing virtual support and after-care, including a virtual support team at Stone and a five-year warranty that includes next-day solutions. 

“It’s great to have Stone experts on hand if we need them,” said Matt, although one of the main benefits of the Equinox for me is that it more or less runs itself. Stone carries out regular check-ups and we can make any tweaks ourselves or ask them to do it – this continues our professional development but also gives us peace of mind.

“Stone has proved itself to be a genuine valued added reseller and not just a box shifter which is why I would be happy to recommend Stone to others.

I have a superb account manager who goes above and beyond. Stone has worked wonders for our MAC. I have other projects in the pipeline and Stone will certainly be on my shortlist