Why AGSO chose our cloud solution 10 years ago

AGSO is one of the largest providers of education in Flanders. Every day, they offer almost 55,000 pupils and students the chance to develop their talents and social skills. This accounts for a total of 115 schools spread across 172 locations in Antwerp. Their key words: accessible, qualitative and committed.

So, almost 55 000 pupils. And they must have easy access to the school buildings every day. Add to that the teachers, the management, the cleaning and maintenance staff and the external people. And you will understand many people are coming and going each day.

And that is not the only challenge. We are talking about 115 schools with as many directors. And while headteachers are responsible for managing their own schools, they should not have access to the data of other schools.

In 2012, AGSO started looking for an easier solution for their access management. Flexible and user-friendly access control, parking management and visitor registration. With a simple and clear GUI and easily configurable software for central and decentralised management. And all that in a cloud software. Flexible, scalable and accessible. The wish list of AGSO Antwerp was clear.

Synguard’s first task was to listen and share ideas with AGSO Antwerp. What were the needs and which solution were best suited? There was no doubt about that: a multisite cloud environment. After all, they wanted to be sure of the accessibility of the solution. In the past, if they bought a new computer, their IT supplier had to come over and install the software. Laborious and old-fashioned? Absolutely. This had to be done better and safer.

Welcome to Synguard's cloud environment. In addition to taking care of IT and security, AGSO Antwerp will also have its own software container and database. And all that in an ISO27001 and Tier 4 certified data centre in Belgium. Cybersecurity? Check!

Accessibility is no longer an issue either. Because the cloud is fully redundant, with backups at 2 different locations. The application itself is available from anywhere in the world, thanks to its extremely simple web interface. As easy as that.