Leaving BGFL

[Tricky_Dicky]

Hi all,

Basically I'm looking at what Link2ICT provide for us and the amount they charge and I'm wondering if it's actually good value for money and in the best interests of the school.

They currently provide, Internet, Policy Central, Sophos, CMIS support and remote backup for £12500 pa.

Does anyone know if it's possible to actually "leave" BGFL and go it alone, so bring in my own firewall, antivirus and internet connection and if so would it be worth it?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Rich

[Michael]

I have heard of schools doing this, but you've also forgot about internet filtering too. £12K seems a lot, however in business terms it really isn't. I have no doubt in my mind going it alone would cost the school more.

[apearce]

THe BGFL system offers a lot for that cost. I would look at the issues you have and see if you can work on just these - for example - BGFL email to another solution.

[russdev]

You main sticking issue in NEN and how you justify not having access to that.

 

Russ

[Tricky_Dicky]

What's NEN?

For webfiltering I was looking at Smoothwall and bringing in the entire package for filtering/antivirus.

Rich

[Dos_Box]

The National Educational Network. if you leave that then you have lost access to a lot fo free online resourses and safety nets.

[russdev]

First should say I assume you are state school.

 

National Education Network - The National Education Network

 

This network all RBCs are connected into. Problem comes you should be replacing a "like for like" service which includes resources that NEN provides (even if not used).

 

As apart from being in a RBC there is no way to access NEN so that is the stumbling block. If the head can justify the decision then should be no problem.

 

This is not to put you off but this decision has to come from the head as moving away from an RBC it gets very political.

 

Russ

[Tricky_Dicky]

First should say I assume you are state school.

 

This is not to put you off but this decision has to come from the head as moving away from an RBC it gets very political.

 

 

Yes we are.

 

I was wondering about that. I hate politics!

 

Ah well, it was worth looking into. I just sometimes feel that Link2ICT aren't putting the schools users first and that it often boils down to cost savings which I know are important but it bothers me when a childs education has a price put against it. That isn't to say that I expect any amount of money to be thrown at things I would just like things to be best value.

Take the SIP project, we have some lovely Cisco switches but not exactly connected well and it does make you think did someone just go with Cisco because no one gets fired for it?

Rich

[Sylv3r]

Hi all,

Basically I'm looking at what Link2ICT provide for us and the amount they charge and I'm wondering if it's actually good value for money and in the best interests of the school.

They currently provide, Internet, Policy Central, Sophos, CMIS support and remote backup for £12500 pa.

Does anyone know if it's possible to actually "leave" BGFL and go it alone, so bring in my own firewall, antivirus and internet connection and if so would it be worth it?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Rich

 

If I am honest, you get quite a bit for your money, I am not sure what sort of service you are currently receiving but I would doubt you would be able to get value for money as welll as all of the above services from another provider for the same cost.

 

Not to mention, the hassle of moving MX records etc to an alternative provider.

 

As an aside, we currently pay around £19k for a 10MB connection (receive around 5MB) and web filtering - other than that we get little else.

[Alis_Klar]

@Sylv3r : What is your RBC? Is that cost from the "default" provider/Local Authority? And MIS licencing/support is extra?