Further success for EA Connect at Belfast Telegraph IT Awards

They received the Development Team of the Year award at the recent ceremony in Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre and were highly commended in the IT Project of the Year category.

This followed shared success in the ‘Best ICT Project of the Year – Education Sector’ category at last month’s prestigious Public Sector Digital Transformation Awards in Dublin, where EA Connect achieved a double by also winning the ‘Best Citizen/Customer Experience’ award.

Developed as part of EA’s Education Information Solutions (EdIS) programme, EA Connect is an integrated, user-friendly platform which makes services including Admissions, SEN Annual Reviews, Transport assistance, and Free School Meals and Uniform Grant applications more efficient and accessible for users.

Since its launch, EA Connect has been used by well over 200,000 parents, more than 5000 school staff and in excess of 400 EA employees.  It aims to simplify administrative processes, improve data accuracy and enhance service delivery.  The platform includes accessibility features such as support for visually impaired users and reports a 95 percent customer satisfaction rate.

The judges described the EA/V1 entry as ‘a very worthy winner’ which ‘demonstrates the benefit of collaboration between public and private sector teams’.  Noting that this successful collaboration has resulted in ‘tangible and demonstrable benefits to communities’, the adjudicators concluded: “EA Connect hits the mark in terms of sustainability objectives, data safety and parental enablement and communication.  It’s a genuine win-win for all stakeholders involved.”

EdIS Programme Director, Frances Meehan commented:

“EA Connect is a cornerstone of the EdIS programme.  Since its introduction, we have seen encouraging evidence of EA Connect’s transformative potential in terms of the delivery of EA services and making those more accessible for those seeking to avail of them.

“Winning these awards is welcome industry endorsement of EA Connect and well-deserved recognition for the excellent collaborative work within a very professional project team comprised of dedicated colleagues from the EA and Version 1.”

EdIS Workstream Lead for EA Connect, Francine Hillemand explained:

“EA Connect was developed as a unified digital platform, providing parents and schools with access to various EA support services.  Each child’s details only need to be entered onto EA Connect once and are available for use in applications relating to a range of services thereafter.  This means application processes are quicker and more convenient for busy families.

“The roll-out of EA Connect has been very successful so far, with a significant increase year-on-year in the numbers using the platform to make various types of application and overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents, schools and EA services.  These award wins are testament to the quality of the solution developed with Version 1 and the portal’s transformative effect on service provision.”

Version 1 Account Director, John McShane added:

“We are extremely proud of the multi award-winning EA and Version 1 team who have worked together in an innovative and dynamic way to deliver the EA Connect portal.  This is a fantastic example of digitally transformed services delivering real and significant benefit to parents, pupils, schools and EA.  Industry recognition through this latest award win is further validation of the fantastic work completed in the true spirit of partnership by EA and Version 1.”