The Cybera-operated Alberta ShareIT Program provides cybersecurity and training services to Alberta’s education sector, as well as a highly valued cost-saving procurement service. This procurement service has now expanded its catalogue of offerings.
With schools and post-secondary institutions adapting to the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for affordable and accessible online tools is greater than ever. To support this need, Cybera’s ShareIT public procurement service has added audiovisual solutions — including video conferencing hardware — to its catalogue of offerings, as well as Adobe licensing and services.
Audiovisual Hardware and Services
The audiovisual offerings from AVI-SPL Canada include video conferencing endpoints and room kits, webcasting / streaming equipment, and other in-class hardware such as interactive displays, projectors, microphones, and cameras. Training and adoption services for this equipment are also available to ShareIT members.
“We are pleased to support Alberta’s post-secondary and K-12 education institutions as they continue to implement new remote learning systems under very tight timelines,” says ShareIT Manager Mary Friedrich. “Many of these organizations are also dealing with reduced staff and operating budgets, which makes it doubly important to find affordable solutions that can be easily implemented.”
“During these difficult times, we’re committed to helping our members not only find affordable solutions, but also gain the know-how to roll out these tools and services.”
Adobe Licensing
Cybera has two agreements in place with Adobe (administered through Softchoice) to ensure the highest discounts possible for Adobe licensing. Softchoice is also offering access to subject matter experts in Adobe Education, as well as enterprise lifecycle and end-user productivity assessments. This offering is only available to Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.
“These Adobe agreements represent a massive undertaking, including hundreds of hours of collaborative meetings on requirement building, as well as contract reviewing and negotiating,” says Barb Carra, President and CEO of Cybera.
“I am very proud of the hard work put in by the ShareIT team and the participating members to make this happen. We expect this will save Alberta’s education administrators a great deal of time and effort that they would have otherwise spent developing their own Adobe contracts.”
What’s next
The Alberta ShareIT Program plans to add other items to its catalogue later this year, including online proctoring, chatbots, firewall hardware and services, and security awareness training solutions. Cybera encourages members who have ideas for other services / products they would like to see offered to contact our team at ShareIT@cybera.ca.