The UK's largest Open Source email system for schools has gone live. In late 2006 Carmarthenshire County Council appointed Sirius Corporation, a European Open Source services provider, to build a bi-lingual e-mail portal for use by all the schools in the region, some 40,000 children.
Carmarthenshire County Council chose to build the new e-mail system using Open Source software because the components would be secure, customisable and scalable.
Pupils and teachers now have access to three different versions of the system depending upon age group. For example, primary school children use e-mail through a simple interface, whilst secondary school pupils use more advanced features. All users have access to webmail in both English and Welsh.
Staff managing the system will use GOsa, the same tool deployed by Specsavers in their transition to Open Source software.
A case study of the project can be found at on the Sirius website.
Mark Taylor, CEO of Sirius Corporation said: "One of the advantages of Open Source software is its internationalisation capability. In this case, school children and staff had to have e-mail in both English and Welsh.
"We have fed back the new features developed for Carmarthenshire back into Open Source projects such as GOSa."
About Carmarthenshire County Council
Carmarthenshire County Council is one of the largest and most diverse employers in South West Wales and provides services across a rural county to a population of 170,000.
For more information visit the Carmarthenshire County Council website.
About Sirius Corporation
Sirius Corporation is a leading European IT services group specialising in enterprise-ready Open Source software including databases, email systems, file & print, directory services, and cross-platform authentication. Client's include blue-chip multi-nationals and public sector organisations.
For more information visit www.siriusit.co.uk.
For interviews contact Tom Callway +44 (0)870 608 0063
