hillskill Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Hi All, Just a quick one to ask you about! I'm a Network Manager in a secondary school, relativly new to the school as have been here only 6 months. I'm currently drawing up a development plan and proposal to improve out ICT facilities over the next 3-4 years. This proposal will be presented to the SMT Team, head and Govenors. What I wanted to ask from other school ICT Support staff was do your SMT team team actually listen to you and take heed on your advice? More importantly are they willing to invest money when you say its needed. It can be very hard to convince a non-techy to spend £1000's on software or servers they wont be able to see!!! Thanks in advance!
teejay Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Yes they do, but you have to sell it in a way demonstrating the benefits to the school, either increased productivity or improvements for Teaching and Learning. You will generally get nowhere if you get technical.
hillskill Posted January 15, 2009 Author Posted January 15, 2009 Thanks- I will keep the techno babble down to a minimum!!
teejay Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Also, forgot to mention, on first presentation and costing leave yourself plenty of 'wiggle room' in the budget so that you will definitely come in under budget. Nothing worse than overspend on projects, gives you a bad rep for next time.
hillskill Posted January 15, 2009 Author Posted January 15, 2009 a bit like scotty always over-estimating his repair times to captain kirk! Think I get what your saying!!
sidewinder Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 They kind of throw money at us here, though sometimes they get a bit carried away with wanting more clients so we do have to remind them we need more backend stuff to support them We get about £20k for network infrastruture though
FN-GM Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 I would take them to another school to show off what they have. My new school had a budget of £3,000,000 on IT and Technology. We have many people from other places looking at the equipment. Z
dan400007 Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 My new school had a budget of £3,000,000 on IT and Technology. Marble floored server room?
FN-GM Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 at the moment there is that much crap in there you cant see the floor! We have a nice office though. PS: its not BSF
pete Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Yup. Hint: ours love diagrams, especially if there are maps / proposed layouts involved.
elsiegee40 Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Yes they listen to me, and as long as it doesn't cost too much money they'll act on it. I have a pretty good relationship with the SMT, I'm pleased to say. (If you'd asked me 2 years ago, I wouldn't have believed I could have said that!)
PEO Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 at the moment there is that much crap in there you cant see the floor! We have a nice office though. PS: its not BSF I would have gold plated connections for everything
Tony_Mc Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Yes, very much so. It has taken time but I totally believe that they have faith in me and do listen to me. the best advice is never bullshit about anything, if you are not sure tell them that you will be looking into it and also talking to other school is a great talking point to show you really understand what a school needs. as mentioned leave the technobabble down to a min and draw on examples where what you are proposing has been used and show them that is has worked and if it is a bad example tell them WHY, as long as you are honest, open and have every answer that you think will be thrown at you. and don't be a yes person. the amount of respect you can get from a well worded "no" is quite impressive. hope that helped. Tony
Kitkatninja Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Yep, they listen to me, this is due to 1. Partly due we're a good team and get things done and 2. Partly due to our predecessors and the mess they did... Hence they see for themselves the improvements. We always give 3 options: 1. Cheap & nasty 2. Average & OK 3. Expensive & excellent Give pro's and con's, also running costs. Most of the time we always end up with the go ahead for the average costs, which suits us fine. The prices we base any project on would be web prices, once we've been given the go ahead, we then start negotiating with our suppliers. -Ken
TechMonkey Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 Same as Friez. Generally, as a group, they do. Certain individuals have selective hearing sometimes or just plain ignore us.
hillskill Posted January 16, 2009 Author Posted January 16, 2009 Why do you get air con and I dont??? LOL
GrumbleDook Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 As much as a 'no' is often needed you can come across negative if used to often. Try using the line of 'it may technically be possible but a) increases workload 50% meaning we can't do other things b) will cost 50% more than we have or c) having looked at other schools who have done / tried similar it has had minimal educational impact. Backing the last one up with evidence will be the thing that gets you most respect in my experience.
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