Rm Regulatory News (RM.)

5 Jun 2008 07:00



RM Community Connect 4 commences shipping

RM has commenced shipments of Community Connect 4, its next generation network management system. The first 25 education establishments are now using the product and the Group is on track to meet its delivery target for the second half of the year. 

The product has been released to manufacturing, allowing new, factory-built servers to be supplied to customers. The next major milestone, which is the availability of a customer installable upgrade for existing servers, will occur during summer. 

Tim Pearson, CEO of RM, commented:

'Community Connect 4 is a major release of our flagship network product, adding a wide range of new features and facilities - all developed to meet the very particular needs of education establishments. It's a strategic product - both for RM and our customers - so it's essential that we deliver it to the highest level of quality. 

'Over the last five months, we've trialled it extensively with customers - from small primary schools to large secondary schools with complex, multi-server networks - and it's been very well-received. We anticipate that hundreds of schools will be using it by the time the next academic year starts in September.'

Community Connect is the most widely used network infrastructure system in UK education and is installed in more than 4,500 schools and colleges. It provides pupils, teachers and network managers with a wide range of benefits designed specifically for the demanding educational environment, where users move around and use different computers and software for different purposes during the day.

Community Connect 4 was introduced in January 2008 at BETT (the world's leading educational ICT showcase). It has subsequently been shown to current RM network customers at a series of Technical Seminars, where reaction has been extremely positive: more than 150 potential customers have participated in "hands on" try-out sessions, giving the product an average rating of six out of seven. 

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Notes to Editors:

Founded in 1973, the RM Group is a leading provider of educational products and services to schools, colleges and universities, local government and central government education departments and agencies. RM works closely with educationalists to create new products, processes and technology which improve teaching and learning. RM is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol RM.L, ISIN GB0002870417.

Community Connect 4 is RM's 9th generation network infrastructure product; the previous version, Community Connect 3, was introduced in 2002. Features of Community Connect 4 include: personalised software depending on the student and lesson; a 'Network Recycle Bin', enabling files deleted from network servers to be restored quickly and easily; Acceptable Usage Policies managed and enforced for all users of the network; controlled access to Internet resources depending on the student and lesson; and scheduled software updates across the network. For more details, see cc4.rm.com