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DERBY COLLEGE SELECTS MIRAPOINT FOR GOVERNMENT FUNDED EMAIL SCHEME
Pioneering student email service offers secure web-based communication at college

LONDON, UK., Oct. 19, 2004 —Derby College, one of the largest Further Education colleges in the UK, has selected Mirapoint for a pioneering student email service set to provide advanced web-based email and calendaring to the college’s 6,000 full-time students. The college is implementing the Mirapoint Message Server appliance to best meet the project’s performance, security and functionality needs. It is intended that the programme will extend to the college’s entire 30,000 student body by 2006, and could provide a template for similar projects up and down the country.

The project, the first of its kind in the UK, has been funded by a £237,000 grant from the Invest to Save Budget (ISB), an innovation fund managed jointly by the Treasury and Cabinet Office. The college will run the project in conjunction with Connexions, a Government support service which provides information and advice for all 13 to 19 year olds.

The college email system, accessed via web portals, will be the cornerstone of the college’s innovative e-communication programme to support learners currently in full-time education by providing a secure, reliable mailbox/virtual office, available anytime, anywhere. It is intended to replace the disparate and insecure online services currently being used by some of the students at the college and encourage ubiquitous email use.

"Currently, only about 40% of our students are active email users. The use of insecure, personal accounts, such as hotmail, pose a massive security threat in terms of spam, viruses and inappropriate content," said Graham Golding, director of research at Derby College. "In order to promote the use of email as a communication and learning tool for all our students, we needed a secure and stable platform with advanced features such as calendaring, anti-virus and anti-spam. Mirapoint’s easy to manage and reliable appliance-based approach met our needs on all these fronts."

"In addition, given the Mirapoint Message Server’s ability to scale and support large numbers of users and millions of messages, the system will effortlessly evolve with Derby College’s growing performance needs," he added.

As well as traditional email and calendar functions, there are plans to develop the pioneering programme to incorporate an online attendance and course notification system. For example, students displaying lower attendance records will have information automatically fed back, in real-time, to their tutor network, enabling the college to provide any additional support and encouragement that may be necessary to ensure successful course completion.

"The UK has one of the highest numbers of 16-18 year olds out of education, employment or training in Europe," continued Golding "This email service will enable the college to develop a closer relationship with each of our students and encourage them to actively participate more fully in academic and social college life. With just a one percent improvement in course attendance, the College will have a return on investment within three years according to the Government’s current funding criteria."

"Derby College Selects Mirapoint..."
"Mirapoint is delighted to play a central role in this groundbreaking project," said Deborah Mehigan, Public Sector Manager at Mirapoint. "The deployment at Derby College highlights the growing importance of secure affordable email at all levels in the education sector. This particular project best demonstrates its use both in terms of delivering information and services but also in terms of fostering a more interactive approach to education."

About Derby College
Derby College is one of the largest FE colleges in the country. It offers education and training for people of all ages and abilities and enjoys strong commercial partnerships with a number of local and national organisations. For more information on Derby College, visit the website at www.derby-college.ac.uk.

About Mirapoint
Mirapoint is a leader in solutions for message networks used by service provider, enterprise, education and government institutions. Customers use Mirapoint solutions, including the new line of RazorGate email security appliances, to build message networks that intelligently and securely route, store, access and manage Internet messages, including email. Mirapoint is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices throughout North America, Europe For more information on Mirapoint, visit its Web site at www.mirapoint.com.

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