ConnectTxt

Cy-nap chosen in the competitive tender to deliver mobile services in Northern Ireland.

April 2004

The South Eastern Education and Library Board in the Northern Ireland region of the UK, has today announced a limited pilot of edutxt in its area. This service, one of the txttools series from mobile technology specialist Cy-nap, will allow the few schools in the pilot to broadcast text messages instantly from a computer to parents and carers. Messages can be sent to the parents of an entire school, to class/year groups, sports teams or individuals.

Schools can use the service for many different types of communication. These will include reminders about non-pupil days, ‘child-no-show’ alerts, school social events, or even good news/congratulations messages. Another obvious use for the service will be for short-notice notification of school closure, or notification of late returning school trips.

As the edutxt application uses text messages, it is anticipated that this new communication method will not only streamline the work of school administrators but will also save schools time and money in telephone and photocopying costs. The service includes administration levels to enable SEELB to monitor usage and cost of the service.

“This is an exciting new service for us”, comments Stephen McCartney, Senior Education Welfare Officer with the South Eastern Education and Library Board. “We know from our experience that the vast majority of parents and carers take an active interest in school events and their children’s school attendance.”

To experience ‘edutxt’ firsthand, point a browser at www.edutxt.co.uk
‘edutxt’ has the potential to revolutionise the way schools communicate with parents. The service is capable of delivery to any UK handset as well as to mobile handsets in Europe. ‘edutxt’ is powered by txttools and is one in a comprehensive suite of SMS text application for the mobile technology using consumer. See more at www.txttools.co.uk

About SEELB
The official Web site for the SEELB is at http://www.seelb.org.uk
South Eastern Education and Library Board.

“To raise the standards of learning and levels of achievement of the people of the Board’s area through the provision of high quality education, library and youth services”

The Board is the local authority for education, library and youth services in the district council areas of Ards, Castlereagh, Down, Lisburn and North Down in Northern Ireland.

The Education Welfare Service within the SEELB works primarily to investigate children’s absence from school and to promote good attendance. Through this work, the Service, lead by Kate Bridge, Chief Education Welfare Officer is often drawn into wider social tasks and aims to provide support in the widest sense for all children of school age and their families.

The SEELB is the only Education Welfare Service within Northern Ireland to currently maintain Charter Mark status and there is a drive for innovation and the use of innovative technology to benefit parents and pupils. The edutxt system will allow schools in our pilot scheme to contact parents quickly and will also permit young people to contact the Education Welfare Service directly by text message, accessing help, advice and support.

About Cy-Nap
“mobile technology helping people to manage their lives”
Cy-nap Ltd was established in January 2001 and is the result of over 14 years of innovation within the technology market. txttools is used by companies that create services for business to consumer clients and with companies who provide services and content directly to their consumers. These companies encompass a variety of business markets including corporate, publishing, law, web development, retail, health, and many organisations such as schools and surgeries. In fact any group that has a need to communicate to people, be they customer, subscribers, members of staff. SMS text messaging is rapidly opening up new channels for both information and marketing.

For further information please contact:

Stephen McCann,
Managing Director
t: +44(0)113 234 2111
m: +44(0)7866 438056
e: smccann@cy-nap.com
w: www.txttools.co.uk