Capita : Managed IT Solutions acquires Smartschools

The acquisition strengthens Capita's presence within the Republic of Ireland, where it already employs over 1700 people.

Smartschools is recognised as a leading ICT service provider to schools and educational establishments, and this acquisition will enable it to bring Capita's wider portfolio of services, capabilities and resources to its existing customer base and the wider education market.

Capita is one of the largest providers of ICT to the education sector providing ICT services, hardware and software to over 21,000 schools, academies and colleges across the UK and Ireland. This includes providing an ICT managed service for over 1100 schools as part of the Education Network for Northern Ireland (EN(ni)) project for Classroom 2000 (C2k).

With the Irish Government committed to spending €300 million on the upgrade and implementation of IT in schools (Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020), this acquisition means Capita will be ideally placed to extend its provision of services for schools in the Republic of Ireland.

The acquisition sees Capita purchasing Villanova Management Ltd and Wabowden Ltd, which comprise of Smartschools, Managed IT and Fieldtech - all of which are part of The Aria Group.