The SWAN Roam service is an optional Shared Service which has been developed to deliver on one of the core aims of the SWAN Program. By enabling SWAN Roam, your users will get access to the increasing number of Public Sector sites providing shared Wi-Fi Internet access.

After evaluation of several options it was agreed that the best approach would be to base SWAN Roam on the Jisc Govroam service. This means that the overall solution is not just limited to Public Sector sites in Scotland but to all participating Govroam sites across the UK. By creating the service centrally in SWAN we act as an aggregator enabling low cost take up and operation for all interested SWAN members.

The service has been borne out of the success of a similar service, Eduroam; developed for Higher Education and now a global phenomenon. Whilst the terms for the service do not allow for it to be used outside of education in the UK, it can be found at teaching hospitals through their links to Universities. Working with Jisc we are making this available through SWAN - as of May 2019 we have more than 150 Scottish sites providing access, with several thousand across the UK.

The simplicity of use is the service's greatest strength; once on-boarded to the SWAN Roam service, all of your users will have reliable Internet access using their normal Windows AD credentials without the need to request 'guest Internet access' (if available).  There is no need to use mobile data on your smartphones, dongles for your laptops or to travel distances to an office from your organisation to pass on key data.  This is truly a case of Public Sector Scotland sharing capabilities across the community.

If you are interested in the SWAN Roam service you can request a latest copy of our SWAN Roam Prerequisites document. This details how the service works and Capita's central role as a Regional Federation Operator for the Jisc Govroam platform. It also includes the terms we need to sign and comply with in taking the service.

Once you have reviewed the Pre-requisites document and responded with the technical information we require, including signing up to the terms, we can look to bring you onboard. We can connect your RADIUS servers to the central ClearPass appliances running in resilient configuration at the SWAN core data centres; we enable your realms and add them to our onward configurations into Jisc and then we test end-to-end.

You can then enable the services on your own Wi-Fi networks with a Govroam SSID and you are ready to go. Jisc provide a Govroam app for both IoS and Android which allows you to see an interactive map showing all the sites where Govroam is available.

Once set up on the service we can provide one or more of your staff with administrator access so you can locally add your sites to the app map data as they become live.

The SWAN Roam service provides:

• RADIUS integration into SWAN Roam - this can be one or more RADIUS appliances dependent on your network topology. There is a professional service charge for the setup of each instance with an ongoing managed service charge (details available on request) at a fraction of the cost of a direct connection into Govroam.
• SWAN Service desk and support
• Access to future service as enabled either by Jisc or separately within SWAN

• Support for health and social care integration, as well as links with research and education
• Multiple occupancy of buildings / estate rationalisation
• Peripatetic workers
• Work in multiple sites
• Special projects or unexpected moves (e.g. contingency planning)
• Meetings of staff from multiple organisations
• An easy to justify business case with ability to easily show a return on investment
  • Reduced mobile data costs
  • Reduced delays due to lack of network access
  • Flexibility and improved productivity as it’s easily enabled using your normal logon credentials, irrespective of the device