Logicalis and Youngstown State University Create a Classroom Without Walls

NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The leaders of Youngstown State University envisioned a classroom without walls, where students could attend class any time of day, from anywhere in the world, on any device. Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, had the tools and experience to make that vision a reality. Together, Logicalis and YSU implemented a collaboration technology system to enable students to attend class, no matter where they are.

With this new system, educators can knock down the walls of their classroom by teaching, meeting and interacting with students virtually. Each station features an enterprise video conferencing solution with on-demand collaboration, meeting, and web and video conferencing capabilities.

"Traditional collaboration and AV equipment is often limited, complicated and costly, but the Internet of Things and cloud technology help overcome those challenges," said Mike Martin, Senior Vice President, Solutions and Services, Logicalis. "Alongside some of our key technology suppliers, we were able to install a better collaborative learning solution for YSU leveraging these next-generation technologies."

Leveraging its expertise in higher education and the broader GovEd sector, Logicalis facilitated the installation and networking throughout YSU. The technology utilizes Logicalis' agnostic and easy-to-use network to power the cloud-based system, ultimately bringing educators and their students together both in and out of the classroom.

"Logicalis has been invaluable in supporting our Classroom of the Future initiative," said Jim Tressel, President of YSU. "These technically advanced teaching spaces eliminate physical walls and allow the educational experience to occur anywhere and at any time."

Funded through a grant from a university donor, YSU launched the first three collaboration stations in the Fall 2018 semester, including in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the College of Education. As of the start of the Spring 2019 semester, 11 stations (six classrooms, five administration rooms) are installed throughout six colleges in the university, enabling thousands of students to take advantage of the collaborative technology.

"The Classroom of the Future initiative underscores Logicalis' commitment to customer engagement," said Mike Houghton, CSO, Logicalis. "We make it a priority to identify areas where our comprehensive network can improve business outcomes. At YSU, these outcomes went beyond the client to the students, and we're excited to see the university and its students reap the benefits of being able to consistently communicate without limitations of distance or location."

"This started as simply a dream and a grant. Now, we have not only expanded the university's reach through this program, but more importantly, we can offer education 365 days a year, 24 hours a day," said Jim Yukech, CIO of YSU. "We've particularly valued Logicalis' expertise in higher education, especially when it comes to identifying use cases and its strong partner relationships, as they helped guide us through from start-to-finish."

About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international multi-skilled solution provider providing digital enablement services to help customers harness digital technology and innovative services to deliver powerful business outcomes.

Our customers span industries and geographical regions; and our focus is to engage in the dynamics of our customers' vertical markets; including financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, and apply the skills of our 5,700 employees in modernizing key digital pillars; data center and cloud services, security and network infrastructure, workspace communications and collaboration, data and information strategies, and IT operation modernization.

We are the advocates for our customers for some of the world's leading technology companies including Cisco, HPE, IBM, CA Technologies, NetApp, Microsoft, Oracle, VMware and ServiceNow.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of $1.6 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa.  It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with revenues of over $4 billion.

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SOURCE Logicalis