Building Schools for the Future

[Dos_Box]

For those of you who have not heard yet, there is a govt project to start building schools (often from the ground up) which are designed for and inteded to meet the educational needs of children in the 21st century. the site is here...

http://www.bsf.gov.uk/

...and most interesting is the partnership with IT companies to equip and run these school networks. No longer will the admin be independant and be able to provide best value by sourcing the best equipment at the best prices. On the other hand at least you can be assured that all of your equipment is modern!

[russdev]

i think this is bad mistake i think we have seen where schools use 'managed solutions' and the support staff on site have no control over what they can can't do.

 

Yes create these schools and get rid of more ict support jobs...

 

Russ

[RobC]

i think this is bad mistake i think we have seen where schools use 'managed solutions' and the support staff on site have no control over what they can can't do.

 

Yes create these schools and get rid of more ict support jobs...

 

Russ

 

Russ, not only have I seen it, I am suffering from it right now! The schools in Moray are all under a managed service from Fujitsu. Now I won't say that there service is bad, because some of it is very good & we do have up-to-date kit. However, admin is tricky & there have been several occasions where I would have been able to fix a problem in 30 seconds flat, but it has taken more than a week (or two in some cases) to get the job done simply because it has to go to the Fujitsu helpdesk, and then be passed into a job queue before being completed.

 

Case in point: File Restore from Backups.

 

The backups are all done on the school's main server (we have two - 1 File Server/DC & 1 Exchange/Proxy Server) each night & I am responsible for changing the tapes. If we need a file restored, we have to log a call with Fujitsu. Once that call gets to the top of the job queue the local Fujitsu office (in Inverness, which is a different council altogether who also use Fujitsu) phone me up to get me to put the correct backup tape in. They will then restore the file & e-mail me to say it's done & that I can put that night's tape back in.

 

Total time taken: 1 Week+

 

I can do this in 5 minutes, and that's only because it takes 3 minutes to walk from my office to the server room! But because we are not allowed direct access to the server, we cannot do these tasks.

 

So there you have it. Managed services are all well & good from a financial point of view, but are completely useless from a "I need this file restored ten minutes ago because this pupil has to hand it in to me today or he fails his course & all the forests will burn down & the horsemen of the apocalype will ride!" point of view.

 

[russdev]

maybe it is time to write to mp

 

did they even bother to consult schools and lea's on this...

 

Russ

[GrumbleDook]

BSF initiative is full of things people are unhappy with ... and there are 2 basic reasons why these unpleasant things are not seen as unpleasant by Govt ...

 

Money and politics.

 

And there are 2 things that will force things to be change .... money and politics.

 

It's a sad fact ... but true.

 

In some places outsourcing seems a success ... Newport LEA have a centralised support solution, but they also allow for flexibility in the schools.

 

From what I have seen ... when the company itself provides the techies things are more flexible with getting things fixed ... but when all they provide is a managed solution it becomes the nightmare the Rob is in ...

 

I suppose it is all down to innovating ... if you can show that you and other techies in the school are pushing forward new ideas, and are making a difference educationally (not just making sure the machines work) then you can always argue that the lack of flexibilty of outsorucing will stifle this. That's why we have ties with County support, but they don't tell us what to do ...

[Dos_Box]

If a problem cannot have someone hands on within a couple of mins in a school (especially around exam time) then there is something wrong. Any local network manager who has access to neither servers or an admin account is almost paralysed.

It will be something to see if a managed solution on this scale employing industry techniques fro support will cope. After all, most companies don't have 1000 employees all intent on breaking their network and vandalising the desktop machines!

[russdev]

this is true how you would run ict ks3 sats exams under a managed solution not quite sure.

 

Second ironic thing consdering push for fits and discussion we have here on fits it goes against everything that fits trys to do..

 

Russ

[MkII]

I'm all for centralised resources where common sense says that's the most efficient way to do something. That's the great thing about edugeek - we share knowledge and hopefully gather it here so that all techs can benefit. I don't see it as outsourcing support.

[kevin_lane]

has this happend to any one else reg

 

if so is their a an opt out basiclly we have recived a tupe briefing and that tells me nothing should i be speaking to my union

[Oops_my_bad]

has this happend to any one else reg

 

should i be speaking to my union

 

Absoloutely.

[Deaks]

There's a whole Forum for BSF, check out the various threads there.

[gremlin-01]

As well as having a it position i have children both in schools that are due to close in 2009 and move to new built schools, although i think it is a good thing that they have new surroundings and equipment i feel for the it staff fighting for there jobs. The changovers in mersyside area dont seem to be arranged with any staff in mind. Is anyone in the middle of this in the liverpool area?