Partner Success

Known for it’s strong reputation in media, creative arts and animation courses, City of Dublin FET College Ballyfermot Southwest Campus have always sought to provide their students with the leading industry standard technology to ensure a best in class educational experience for their students.  

With past-pupils of City of Dublin FET College Ballyfermot such as Oscar nominated animators Richie Baneham, Jillian Beechum and Nora Twomey and musicians like Damien Dempsey and Imelda May winning accolades on the international stage, it is clear that investment in gold standard technology like Mac has paid dividends. 

 

Why it has to be Mac 

“As the device of choice in the creative industry our students will graduate into, Mac prepares our students for professional practice within their chosen industry” says  Kenneth Rea, Deputy Principal of City of Dublin FET College Ballyfermot.  

Offering the best performance, stability, and industry alignment for digital media and creative disciplines, Mac was not only the obvious choice for students, but also for lecturers, tutors and department heads alike where they “routinely use Macs for preparing visual learning materials, conducting demonstrations, and grading digital submissions” according to Kenneth.  

“Mac is high-performance, intuitive, and reliable, allowing learners to focus on creativity instead of troubleshooting” asserts John Gough, IT Manager of the college. 

“Apple’s user experience and powerful processing capabilities to run industry standard software like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Adobe Creative Suite, gives students and staff a stable and inspiring platform for creative work.” 

“I can switch between Photoshop, Premiere Pro and InDesign smoothly without any slowdown” confirm *students at Ballyfermot College.  “Mac’s high-resolution Retina displays are perfect for colour accuracy, which is critical for my portfolio.” 

Keen to ensure that students are fully prepared to move between all systems used in professional settings, the college uses Microsoft tools and Google apps for administrative and document oriented functions, relying on Mac to handle media creation and editing workflows.  

“Microsoft and Google tools work seamlessly on Mac and iPad enabling students and staff to collaborate across platforms with ease” confirms Kenneth. 

Simple Secure Mac Management 

Central to the college’s secure management of their Mac estate is the use of Jamf Pro Management software which allows the college to remotely deploy software, manage configurations, enforce security protocols and maintain consistent updates, all without disrupting student learning. 

“Jamf Pro gives our IT team central control over software updates, security patch deployment, user account management, remote troubleshooting and app distribution” outlines Kenneth. “It simplifies every step from onboarding new machines to daily operations. This ensures that student data is protected on shared devices and every device is consistent, GDPR compliant and always ready for teaching.” 

“Initial setup of all 72 college iMac was done in days rather than weeks and we have full visibility of device health and compliance with remote lock, reset and data wipe easily triggered when required. On non-Apple systems, such granular control would require at least twice the time, effort and third-party software” concurs John Gough.  

With students now staying behind after class to continue working on projects knowing their workspaces are reliable, it is clear that it has also resulted in increased student engagement. 

“The college’s iMac Labs run the programs and software I need for my work effortlessly” assert the *students. “Even though I’m working on a shared machine, I know my files and sessions are secure thanks to the college’s Jamf Pro Management system.” 

Getting the Best Value and Support for Mac 

Committed to maintaining parity with global professional studios and creative agencies, Ballyfermot College also wanted to ensure the best value for money when upgrading their iMac labs. 

“As well as competitive education pricing on our new iMac lab, Wriggle were able to offer us significant savings when we traded in our old iMacs while purchasing our new Mac labs” says Kenneth. 

“As Ireland’s only Jamf Professional Partner for Education, Wriggle also provided us with great value on Jamf Pro Management licences and delivered pre-deployment configuration, centralised management setup, security compliance alignment and ongoing support.” 

“All staff and students also received a Wriggle Connect account which gave them 24/7 access to bitesized tutorials on use of Apple devices and software that they could dip into whenever they wished.”

“In addition we have gained from cost savings around energy efficiency, IT resource allocation and extending the longevity and usability of our Mac estate with Wriggle’s support.” 

Student contributors to this case study include: Dean Bolton, Lucy Gorey, Harold Guevara, David Henry, Paul Hubmann and Paulo Pigozzi