Local IT companies look set to lose out under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme as contract awards are dominated by construction firms and large, national ICT providers.

In the latest programme to create partnerships between local government and private companies (LEP), the Government has created the BSF programme. This scheme provides funding for new-build schools. The programme goes beyond building requirements and incorporates ICT facilities. For many small, local companies this could mean they miss out on future education projects. Even if they have education customers and a proven record of providing both value for money and innovative ideas for local schools.

The most recent contract awards include;

“Leicester City Council has today announced the appointment of the Miller Consortium as the preferred bidder for the city’s £235 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. The Miller Consortium will build and provide building facilities and crucial ICT services. The companies forming the consortium are … and Centerprise International – who as the ICT provider will deliver £24.5 million of ICT infrastructure.” Leicester City Council press release, 4^th September 2006.

“Manchester City Council has announced its preferred bidder for the contract for ICT support to the city’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Phase One programme. The City Council’s Public Private Partnerships Unit … recommended the appointment of Ramesys Limited – a leading educational technology specialists company in the UK – as its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) partner. Ramesys will now work alongside the City Council’s Design and Build partners, Balfour Beatty and Laing O’Rourke, on this £200 million BSF project, which will transform 17 schools across Manchester.” Manchester City Council Web site.

“Solihull Council selects BAM PPP as preferred bidder to deliver £74 million investment in secondary schools BAM PPP has been appointed Preferred Bidder for Solihull Council’s £74 million BSF project. This announcement builds on the agreement reached earlier in the year with RM for a £6million ICT contract which will transform the learning experience for Solihull’s pupils, covering smart whiteboards, a school management system, a ‘learning environment’ which is a workspace for students and teachers, as well as internet telephone (VoIP) service.” Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council press release, 2^nd August 2006.

The ICT guidelines produced for LEPs does include a statement about using local suppliers. It does allow for a “Local Choice fund”. The intention is to allow schools to build, or continue, relationships with local suppliers. On closer inspection, this fund is fairly negligible. It caps the amount that can be spent with a local supplier at 10% of the total install cost and the example given for when this could be used is “…furniture and peripherals…”.

The Partnerships for Schools (PfS) organisation (another government quango?) has tried to play down the impact on local suppliers, but their own documentation makes it very clear that the relationship between building contractors and ICT providers is required and the aim is to cut costs.

“The advantages of the LEP model … ensures that the building programme has a greater impact on educational achievement, for example, by integrating ICT provision with building contracts. Furthermore, it delivers value for money…” BSF Public Launch Document, Feb 2004, DfES.

How wide will be the range of services included in remit of LEP? Will LEAs be looking basically for a building programme manager?

The core skills required of the LEP will be efficient and effective programme management and project delivery. This will require it to have construction services and ICT delivery capacity.” LEP FAQs from BSF official Web site.

The evidence from recent contract awards is clear: where cost is the main factor when making decisions, large companies win. This does not necessarily mean that these schools will get best value for money or the best ICT facilities for their pupils.

This is just another example of the Government creating procurement environments that favour large companies, in my opinion. There is no evidence that driving down costs adds anything to the educational experience of pupils. In fact many ICT experts within education believe that this drive to combine ICT with building projects and lower costs will, in fact, drive innovation out of ICT in schools.

“But because local authorities are being encouraged to run the procurement as a single project, IT innovation is suffering,” says Gary Clawson, chief executive of regional education group the North West Grid for Learning.

Technology suppliers are voicing similar concerns. In evidence to the Commons Education Committee recently, trade group Intellect said: “Unless changes are made there is a significant risk that only a limited number of suppliers will participate and schools will receive lowest common denominator IT.”

Small, local businesses often provide innovation, niche solutions or a first rate level of service to establish themselves in a competitive market. This skill set and experience is under threat as far as schools are concerned under the Government’s latest education initiative.

Further reading:
Official web site - www.bsf.gov.uk
Official doc - http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=3611
Official doc - http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=6094
Government schools ict strategy - http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ictis/
Government ict general strategy - http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/
Official web site - http://www.p4s.org.uk/
Media story - http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2160203/
Contract award - http://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/2006/aug/ictpart.htm
Head teacher views - http://elgg.net/mberry/weblog/124685.html
BT response to parliament - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506
CBI response - http://www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/publicservicesmatters04.pdf

Happy reading!
Wayne

When reviewing your existing website or planning a new one, always conduct a Saratoga Website AUDIT.
Attract Visitors - Does your site attract visitors and encourage repeat visitors?
User Experience – Are visitors having a good experience when they visit your site?
DDA Compliance – Is the site DDA compliant?
Improve Business Processes – Is the site being used to save time or money?
Trust – Does your site convey how trustworthy your business is?
Attract visitors

• Make sure the domain is linked to your business name.
• Promote the website through existing marketing material
• Submit the site to search engine listings
• Flash websites are not ‘seen’ by search engines
• Use relevant newsgroups and forums to tell people about your site
• Ask suppliers, partners, customers, etc to create a link from their website to yours.

User experience

• The website must be quick or the visitor will go elsewhere.
• Remember: not everyone has high speed broadband!
• Keep the content up to date and relevant
• Tell visitors what you do on page 1
• Make it easy to navigate around the site. If products are difficult to find they will go elsewhere
• Use high quality content form your suppliers (get permission)
• Use RSS for pulling in latest content or pushing your content to other sites

DDA compliance

• It is your legal duty to ensure the site is accessible for people with disabilities
• Not complying with this could leave you open to legal action

Improve business processes

• Can you use the site to save time? E.g. submit enquiries online. Less time taking phone calls.
• Can you use the site to save money? E.g. provide PDF brochures instead of paper brochures.
• Allow visitors to register for email newsletters, special offers, etc.
• Always remember the purpose of the website: marketing your business and/or additional sales.

Trust

• Always include standard contact details
• Use a trusted payment method
• Give access to testimonials, references, etc
• Use emails that are linked to the domain name
• Show any affiliations, memberships and accreditations.

Hopefully these ideas will help you get more from your site.
Wayne

The latest edition to the Saratoga Team is Andy Benfold. He joins this month as Finance Manager from local accountants, Mazars.

“We’re still in our early days as a business, here in the UK, but the growth, and increase in work we are handling, has meant the team has had to grow and is set to grow again in the near future,” explained Wayne Harris, Saratoga UK Sales and Marketing Executive. “The experience and expertise Andy will bring to the team will be invaluable and compliments the current skills the team already has.”

Andy joins Saratoga after 4 years at Mazars, where he completed his ACA studies to become a Qualified Chartered Accountant.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Mazars and that experience has given me a strong foundation,” said Andy. “I am now looking forward to my time at Saratoga. To be involved with a fast growing company at an early stage is really exciting and I’m ready for the challenges ahead. This role will give me an opportunity to develop my skills further as I have responsibility for the company’s financial affairs on a day-to-day basis.”

Andy has a degree in Economics from Cardiff University, where he studied after completing A-Levels at Bournemouth School.

At last we have got around to creating (and using!) a Saratoga Blog. Being an IT company, people expect us to be doing this kind of thing, but like everyone else, we have to take time out of our normal business to do so.

Now we have made the jump into the blogosphere we intend to do it properly. Please come and see us again to find out what stories, news and expertise we have to share. We will also be asking for your input and looking for worthy blogs to link to - if you know of any great techie blogs, please let us know.

Bye for now,
Wayne