Softcat to supply AV solutions to 24 universities

The North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) has selected Softcat to supply, install and support integrated audio-visual systems to 24 universities in the North , East and Centre of England.

Potentially worth £15-20m, the new regional contract for universities is the second that Softcat has won with NEUPC since it made a commitment last year to expand and grow its service offering into higher education institutions and the wider public sector. The IT provider has also secured inclusion on the National Educational Printer Agreement awardedby NEUPC.

Softcat is one of only nine suppliers of audio-visual equipment that made the grade in NEUPC’s robust tendering process. The company was successful in all three tendered lots, and its contract is expected to run for at least three years from today.

Andy Bruen, Softcat’s public sector frameworks manager, stated, “We’re excited to be forging even closer links with our university customers. We have recruited 80% of our employees directly from a graduate background, so there is a strong adjacency and empathy between Softcat and our university customer base. This year we are looking to recruit more than 100 new account managers, and it’s extremely valuable to canvas the opinions of recent graduates to understand how the higher education sector is making use of technology.”

Softcat is one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing public sector large account resellers, and was one of only three companies to be accredited across all six lots of the education-focused framework Crescent Purchasing Consortium in April 2011.