Customer Story - SHARE MAT: On Time, In Control
With its network provider exiting the market, SHARE Multi-Academy Trust had just a few months to find a replacement and go live before the new school year. The new network had to meet DfE standards and stay within a fixed budget, all without disrupting teaching, there was no room for a gap.
About
SHARE Multi-Academy Trust (SHARE MAT) is a partnership of nine schools across West Yorkshire, formed in 2011. Built around a shared approach to school improvement, the trust's guiding belief is “Valuing People, Supporting Personal Best” – helping pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, achieve highly, academically and personally.
For more information, visit sharemat.org.
The Challenge
SHARE MAT's incumbent network provider was exiting the market, leaving no option to extend the contract. In truth, a change was already overdue – the trust had reservations about the level of ongoing support it had been receiving.
With the contract due to end around the start of the new school year, the trust had just a few months to find a replacement, build a new network across the estate, and go live without disrupting term-time teaching. A gap in connectivity risked more than Wi-Fi access – it could affect everything from safeguarding systems to everyday school administration.
The clock was ticking, and it became a real pressure point the board was paying close attention to.
There was also a fixed budget ceiling to work within, meaning any new solution needed to meet DfE connectivity and resilience standards for schools, without exceeding an agreed cost per site – a familiar pressure for trusts balancing ambitious digital standards against tight, centrally-managed budgets.
When our network provider announced its exit from the market, we faced a critical challenge: replacing the entire trust-wide network within months, before the new school year began. With safeguarding, teaching, administration and everyday school operations relying on reliable connectivity, failure was not an option.
Zahid Iqbal
IT Manager
The Solution
TalkTalk Business delivered a fully managed network solution spanning the trust's schools, utilising Cisco Meraki at each site.
Where the previous setup ran on ageing, standard Cisco kit with no software-defined capability, SD-WAN gives SHARE MAT centralised control over how traffic is managed and prioritised throughout the network. It brings real-time visibility via the Meraki Dashboard, plus automatic, policy-driven failover that keeps every site online without a moment's disruption. This gives a busy in-house IT team the ability to manage every site from a single place, rather than juggling separate systems school by school.
Each academy runs a primary and backup connection suited to what's available locally, so resilience is built into the network rather than managed site by site. For a trust of this size, having one standardised model across every site also means any future academy joining the trust can be brought onto the same network quickly, rather than starting from scratch.
The solution draws on TalkTalk Business's status as a strategic Cisco partner in the education sector, with dedicated in-house Meraki expertise – a relationship that helped secure ten years of Cisco licensing for the trust, protecting its network from a rip-and-replace cycle for a decade.
Delivery combined the managed network with a set of professional services: workshop and design, Meraki build and configuration, pilot site install and test, roll-out across the remaining academies, configuration tuning, as-built documentation and knowledge transfer support.
Throughout, the trust has highlighted how proactive and efficient TalkTalk Business has been to work with – clear communication, quick to respond, and a team able to combine technical depth with a genuine understanding of the trust's day-to-day priorities.
From the start, the team were quick to respond and clear about what was happening, which made a tight project far easier to manage. When the plan shifted along the way, they adapted without it becoming a problem. I’d have no hesitation recommending them to another trust.
Zahid Iqbal
IT Manager
The Outcome
From initial conversations to a fully live network across the estate, the project was delivered in a matter of months. SHARE MAT's new network was ready ahead of the new academic year, meeting a deadline the trust hadn't chosen, and delivered within budget.
At several primary academies, connection speeds came in well above the DfE's minimum standard for primary schools, a stronger foundation than the baseline required.
Alongside a network built to those same high standards, what's stood out for SHARE MAT is the relationship itself: a team that's easy to reach, consistent in how it communicates, and able to match technical expertise with genuine customer care.
That relationship is underpinned by a multi-year managed service contract. For a trust balancing long-term technology planning against centrally-managed budgets, that's real value: one fixed relationship rather than juggling multiple supplier renewals across its estate. And it's this combination that gives SHARE MAT confidence in TalkTalk Business as a long-term partner.
TalkTalk Business and our team delivered a fully operational, high-performance network on time and within budget. By standardising on the new setup, we've gained resilience, visibility and centralised control, and a platform that can support future growth for years to come. More importantly, we now have a trusted partner who understands both our technical needs and the realities of supporting schools.
Zahid Iqbal
IT Manager