Rhode Island College Partners with Apogee to Manage Its Student ResNet

AUSTIN - (September 13, 2005) Apogee, a leader in providing networking solutions to higher education, announced today that it has successfully partnered with Rhode Island College to manage the school's residential network.

"We are grateful to work with a school that has such a rich history and exciting future," said Charles Brady, Founder and CEO of Apogee. "We look forward to a long-term partnership, where we can assist the school in achieving its educational mission."

Patricia H. Hays, RIC's Director of User Support Services, said that she was most impressed with the smooth transition that was facilitated by Apogee.

"From beginning to end, Apogee combined personalized customer service and strong project management," she said. "Apogee assigned a project manager to us, whose assistance proved invaluable. She provided extensive 'to-do-lists' and arranged weekly project team meetings."

Another welcome surprise was Apogee's ability to recruit and work with local partners when necessary.

"As move-in day approached, Apogee recruited a local support partner (CompUtopia), which has played key role in ensuring a successful deployment and providing continuing support services. CompUtopia complements the services offered by the Apogee call center by ensuring that students who do not have the skills or time to remedy their malware problems can easily locate the support services they require to stay connected."

Hays added that bringing Apogee on board has been a liberating feeling for other reasons.

"After two years of battling virus and spyware infections and coping with an unmanageable level of support requests to our internal help desk, this year's residence halls move-in experience has been a breeze," Hays said.

She also credited OSHEAN, Inc. with introducing Apogee as a solution. OSHEAN is a consortium of non-profit organizations that was formed to foster communications for Rhode Island's research, educational, and public service community.

Celine Rice, OSHEAN's Manager of Business Operations, credited both entities with making the project a success. "It has been a pleasure working on this project with the Rhode Island College IT Department and Apogee; the results certainly exceeded our expectations," said Rice.