Insights
News & Insights
Keep up to date with the latest industry news, AIT adventures and insightful content. Explore new ideas, perspectives from thought leaders and join in on the conversation via our socials. If you're interested in becoming a contributor drop our team an email on hello@advanceditservices.co.uk.
This is where we publish what we're seeing across school IT support, installations and connectivity in schools and trusts UK-wide — plus regular release notes for the four platforms every AIT school gets as part of the service: AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering. No jargon, no sales gloss — just the updates a head, business manager, network manager or trust ICT lead can actually use.
Supporting schools, trusts and academies across the UK since 2000.
The latest from AIT
Our most recent articles — each one lives at the same address it always has, so shared links keep working.
Transform Trust Inset Day and AIT Eco Water Bottles
Transform Trust is a Multi Academy Trust with 21 member schools across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and have a strong focus in empowering member…
AIT awarded a place on the Everything ICT Framework
We are thrilled to announce that AIT is now an approved supplier on the Everything ICT Framework. Everything ICT is a fully compliant procurement…
AIT awarded as a supplier onto the KCS Framework
Advanced IT Services has recently secured a position on the KCS Framework for the supply of ICT Managed Services and Consultancy (Y23038), a division…
Four streams, one goal
Every article sits in one of four streams. Use the filters to jump straight to what matters to your role.
Service & Support
what's changing in how we run IT support for schools: new capabilities on the helpdesk, changes to how we work over school holidays, and what our engineers are seeing in the field across the UK.
Installations & Connectivity
summer works, cabling and wireless projects, broadband and connectivity updates, and lessons from new-build and refurbishment installations nationwide.
Platform Release Notes
a recurring series covering every meaningful update to AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering (see Section 4).
Advice & Guidance
plain-English briefings on the decisions schools face: refresh cycles, budgeting, compliance and safeguarding technology. Procurement-framework news lives on our Frameworks page.
More is on the way — if you'd like our updates as they land, get in touch and we'll keep you posted.
Platform release notes — because you should see what your service includes
Most school IT providers ship you an invoice. We'd rather ship you improvements — and tell you about them. All four AIT platforms are included with our service, not sold on top, and every time they get better, so does your school's service, at no extra cost. This series is the public changelog: what changed, why it matters to schools, and what to look for the next time you log in through the Customer Portal.
Any figures in release notes and examples are illustrative — your school's own numbers live inside the platforms, behind your login.
AIT Horizon — release notes for school leaders
Horizon is the leadership view of your IT: Executive, Schools and Support views for heads, SBMs and trust teams. When we update it, we tell you here. A typical release-note entry, in the format we'll publish:
Sample entry (illustrative): Horizon — IT Finance update. The IT Finance module now lays hardware refresh and software licensing side by side inside your 5-year projections. In practice: a business manager opens the Schools view and sees — for example — that year 3 of the plan carries an illustrative £48,000 refresh peak as a device fleet ages out, with licensing renewals plotted alongside so nothing lands as a surprise. We've also refined the RAG compliance tracker so policies and the strategy roadmap share one status view — green, amber or red at a glance, ready for governors.
Illustrative demo data
Helpdesk Reporting — release notes on transparency
Helpdesk Reporting is how schools and trusts see the service they're getting — Executive overview, KPI Insights, Training insights and per-trust filters. Release notes in this stream cover new views and smarter answers, such as:
Sample entry (illustrative): Helpdesk Reporting — AI Assistant update. The AI Assistant now handles plain-English questions like "how did last term compare with the term before?" A trust ICT lead can apply per-trust filters, drill KPI Insights down to a single school and see, for example, an illustrative 94% of tickets resolved within target — then check Training insights to spot where a short staff session would cut recurring tickets. (All figures shown in articles are illustrative; live data stays inside your login.)
Illustrative demo data
AIT Atlas — release notes from the engine room
Navigate. Manage. Deliver. Atlas is the operations platform behind every visit, install and project — people, projects, schools and technology ops in one place, with CRM, Rota, Fleet and HR modules keeping a 75-strong team pointed at the right school on the right day. Why publish its release notes? Because a better-run MSP is the product. When Rota scheduling gets smarter, your engineer arrives on the day we said; when project tracking improves, your summer works finish before the autumn term does.
Sample entry (illustrative): Atlas — projects update. Project milestones now roll up per school, so our delivery team sees every open workstream on a site — cabling, wireless, CCTV — in one view before booking a visit. Fewer trips, less disruption to teaching.
Illustrative demo data
AIT Ordering — release notes on procurement without the chase
AIT Ordering takes a school from quote to PO to delivery tracking without a single "any update on our order?" email. Release notes in this stream cover catalogue growth and supplier management improvements.
Sample entry (illustrative): Ordering — delivery tracking update. Every line item now shows its own delivery status, so a school ordering — for example — 30 devices and 3 interactive screens can see the screens arriving Tuesday and the devices Thursday, rather than one vague "in progress". Supplier management updates run underneath: where a supplier slips, we see it before you feel it.
Illustrative demo data
Already with AIT? Everything lives behind one door
The Customer Portal is your login hub for all four platforms — AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas project visibility and AIT Ordering — plus the quick links you already use:
Reading about great school IT support? Try having it.
We support 249 schools and 20 trusts across the UK with IT support, installations and connectivity — with all four AIT platforms included in the service as standard. If your current provider's newsletter is an invoice, let's talk.
Explore IT support for schools · Working with multi-academy trusts
Advanced IT Services, Midland House, Acton Street, Long Eaton, NG10 1FT
0115 9170 197
hello@advanceditservices.co.uk
News & Insights — common questions
We publish when there's something worth saying — typically two to four articles a month across the four streams, plus platform release notes whenever a meaningful update ships to AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas or AIT Ordering. The termly digest rounds everything up if you'd rather not check back.
No — and that's deliberate. Any numbers you see in articles and release notes are illustrative examples, not live feeds. Real performance data belongs to the schools it describes: if you're an AIT school, your actual figures are waiting in Helpdesk Reporting — Executive overview, KPI Insights and per-trust filters — behind your Customer Portal login.
Our procurement framework news — including our places on the Everything ICT and KCS frameworks — now lives on the dedicated Frameworks page, alongside everything a school or trust needs to buy through a compliant route. This page focuses on service news, guidance and platform updates.
Yes — we're always open to perspectives from people working in school IT and education leadership. Drop the team a line at hello@advanceditservices.co.uk with a short outline. We don't publish paid placements or vendor advertorial.
That's the idea. The Advice & Guidance stream is written to be useful whoever supports your IT: refresh planning, budgeting questions, compliance and safeguarding and filtering topics. And if it makes you curious what supported-by-AIT looks like, the door's open: 0115 9170 197.
About the publisher
Advanced IT Services (AIT) is a specialist Managed Service Provider, partnering primarily with Schools, Trusts and Academies across the UK. We provide expert solutions including Connectivity, IT Support, Network Infrastructure and Installations.