Toronto, ON, September 24, 2013. Compugen is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Silver Channel Elite Award at the CEA ceremony that took place in Richmond Hill, September 11, 2013. Compugen won Silver in the 2012 Midmarket category for its network upgrade and VoIP and Wireless implementation for the Northland School Division (Northland), headquartered in Peace River, Alberta.

Northland improved communications and collaboration between staff, parents, administration and students by implementing campus wide wireless connectivity and VoIP telephony for staff and faculty.
Based on a Cisco platform, the VoIP and Wireless solutions are easy to maintain, scalable and consistent across the Northland campuses, and have enabled easier intra-school communication, enhanced safety and security, and much-in-demand bring-your-own-device support. Students and faculty are now able to bring their own tablet devices and smart phones and expect connectivity wherever they go on campus, leading to innovative new approaches to collaboration.

Northland covers 80,000 square kilometers spanning northern Alberta and includes many remote communities, some accessible only by air or ice road in the winter. Of note in the engagement were the logistical challenges involved in completing the physical upgrades and deployments over this vast and remote territory, all of which were met and overcome by Compugen’s project management team and its dedicated technical staff with the assistance of Northand and a third-party specialist cabling company.

Speaking to the award, Compugen’s branch manager in Edmonton Gary McDonnall said, “I salute the project managers and deployment team for a job well done, and thank the Channel Elite judging panel for recognizing the unique problems of geography in this engagement. Our teams exercised considerable creativity in working with the Northland School Division to improve collaboration and communication across a vast area. The Cisco switches deployed also enable significant energy savings, so Northland should be congratulated on this environmentally responsible choice.”