Technician costs

[thesarie]

Hi all,

 

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, didn't really know where to post this.

 

I'm an ICT coordinator in a one form entry primary in Barnet and I've been asked by our Governing body to justify the costs of all of our major ICT costings including admin tech support and curriculum ICT support.

 

We don't really have much choice when it comes to admin support as the borough support take care of it but I feel we get good value from our Curriculum support and I just wanted to see if I could get some comparitive costings from fellow Edugeekers.

 

We currently have our technician for one 3 hour session a week at a cost of £85 per session which comes out at £3400 annually based on a 40 week year. We've also recently had a brochure arrive from another local company quoting £4995 for the equivalent cover from them.

 

Would really appreciate any info you could give about the support you receive.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

thesarie

[apoth0r]

Hmm, well let's just say you could get 5 hours out of me and change for that money per week. Unsure of the guys business model but what exactly does he do for that money and 3 hours a week? 1 Form I'm presuming you have quite a low student population, 80-100?

[SheldonCooper]

Five hours a week for less than £85 a week?

 

That seems a little .... errr... cheap?

[danrhodes]

Hmm, well let's just say you could get 5 hours out of me and change for that money per week. Unsure of the guys business model but what exactly does he do for that money and 3 hours a week? 1 Form I'm presuming you have quite a low student population, 80-100?

 

Think your under selling youself there mate, £85 is cheap!

[apoth0r]

It's not in relation to the budgets of primary schools. Schools shouldn't be spending more on support than they do for equipment, they don't move forward. Secondary schools have set the standards for education in their costings, primaries suffer because of it.

[witch]

Five hours a week for less than £85 a week?

 

That seems a little .... errr... cheap?

 

No, it isn't. Us primary techs don't get paid very much y'know. Especially down here...I get less than £10 an hour so you'd get more than 5 hours a week out of me for £85

 

 

In terms of external support then yes, I do think that £85 is reasonable - seems a lot to me but then I am paid very badly!

One school I know pays £399 a year for one 3 hour visit per month, but crucially, they do get telephone support all the rest of the time. Do you?

 

 

I used to work in a first school for 10 hours a week - 2 a day, and that would work out at only a bit more than you are paying now, but if an in-house tech is not the way for you to go, then I would think that your current deal is reasonable

[apoth0r]

Thanks Witch, I'm old school because I came from a in-house tech role back in the day so I charge a little bit more than in-house to cover petrol. Remember most do it as a part time venture, so it's extra cash not a fortune builder.

[Hightower]

No, it isn't. Us primary techs don't get paid very much y'know. Especially down here...I get less than £10 an hour so you'd get more than 5 hours a week out of me for £85

 

Thing is with companies like this, they send out a lowly tech, but if the brown stuff hits the fan at said school they also have the expertise in the company to be able to continue to support the school.

 

Whereas if they were paying £85 for an individual to come and do it, if they haven't got the skills required then it's game over.

[featured_spectre]

We pay £5000 a year and hand unlimited call outs (not that I use them much, however teaching staff prefer to go to them over me as I tend to try and teach them the fault so they dont do it again).

 

We pay extra for server installs or major rebuilds, but thats an obvious one. We have around 3 techs to our disposal for this cost.

[apoth0r]

What's edugeek for HighTower?

4th Line

[elsiegee40]

The hourly rate you are paying incorporates 2 elements: the hourly rate received by the tech (his/her pay packet) and the overheads of employing that tech, i.e. employer's NI, pension, etc

 

This means that if you only took my hourly rate into account, you could have 7 hours of my time... but taking employer's contributions into account, it would be less than that.

 

LA will presumably be trying to earn money by selling these services to schools... so they are unlikely to be doing the job at cost; in the end I feel less than £30 an hour you are paying, particularly in London, is probably fair.

[apoth0r]

Which is possibly why schools should have a trial of a company before committing. I always offer trials because then they know what they are getting, if they are happy I'm happy. If they aren't then well they need to find someone or a company that will provide what they need. Too many schools rush in when in fact each school is different and will need something different to effectively provide the service they need.

[bossman]

I know that our LA charge the primary schools for one half day per fortnight 4k per annum.

I did approach our feeder schools with a cost of the same but for one full day per fortnight which would have paid for a first class IT technician with a good skill set.

[crc-ict]

@ Witch – Payed badly isn’t the word I am shocked. Really? Less then £10ph?

 

I'm a full-time technician in a large (1600 students approx) secondary and only get paid pence more than £10ph

 

We used to have a 'junior' tech who was on considerably less than that.

[HodgeHi]

I don't think its all about the cost of someone coming in and repairing stuff that doesn't work. What about additional services to complement the curriculum and learn pupils about use of ICT?

 

For example, setting up a mail server that pupils can use to learn how email systems work, a web-server that pupils can upload websites to? For 5 hours a week and at £85 are they going to configure and set these sorts of things up?

 

Having a technician in the school isn't just about fixing broken stuff. It's also about what else they can bring to the Infrastructure to develop the use of ICT in Schools. IMO anyway.

[apoth0r]

Fuels the fire?

I offer a value for money service, it's not done on the cheap, but it makes people realise they don't need to tie into corporate contracts that take away the quality provision i provide. I taught ICT to every class in a primary school for two years, who from a corporate IT background has that to share?

I know what works in the classroom, i know how to get the best from the equipment available. Doesn't mean there shouldn't be more provision for use or have the quality of equipment they deserve.

Making do, will not do, and that can be backed up by most of the governing bodies that deal with ICT in schools.

[witch]

Yes, I know I am paid badly - and after 8 years in this game, with responsiblity for AD, GP, choosing new kit, inputting into budgets etc , I don't think I would count as a junior tech either!

But them's the breaks - Dorset see me as a lowly IT tech and that is what they pay.

 

I still want to know if the company mentioned by the OP offer telephone support.

[thesarie]

Thanks for all of your replies, I didn't anticipate this many so soon.

 

There seems to be a big range of prices for technical support out there.

 

Just to add a few details to the support we currently get. Our technician is available by mobile phone and e-mail (straight to his phone I believe) all day every day and will always come in if we have an emergency and hasn't yet charged anything extra for these ad-hoc visits. We've also used his knowledge a lot towards furthering the development of ICT in the school - as he visits many schools he sees much more different technologies than we do.

 

Of course, server installation (happening soon ), network and av installation are provided at additional cost.

 

We have 7 classes, approx 210 pupils, 30 staff, approx 50 desktops, 10 laptops (soon to be an additional 45 laptops ) an RM CC3 Network (soon to be decommissioned and a vanilla network put in its place) and prometheans in every classroom.

 

This is good research and I will compile all of this data for our governors.

[witch]

Sounds a reasonable price for external support given the techs availibility

[Mr.Ben]

I thought that single status was supposed to sort these differneces out for those of us employed in Schools. I know it hasn't as a n IT tech working at my council earns more than a network manager still, even though the systems are now approaching the same levels.

 

£85 is ok, When I do work for a friend during my holidays he charges £30 an hour for me to do installs etc. I keep £25 + Petrol.

 

I'm afraid that you get what you pay for in most cases, of course one of the goveners mates can do the same job for a pittance, but does he have the experience of working in schools and all of the solutions that are needed?

[bossman]

It is the old story of Supply and demand is it not:

 

In this digital age the more people who flood the market with their skills the lower the cost for the consumer.

 

Skills come and go as different technology makes advances but the underlying technical abilities like good customer service and knowledge is irreplaceable on the cheap, as has been mentioned you only get what you pay for.

 

If a person wishes to give their knowledge and use their skill set for a pittance then that is up to them, but what it does in fact is de-skill the whole IT framework in that people will only then pay what they believe to be a fair price as the IT professionals undercut each other to get the work, eventually cutting their own throats into the bargain.

 

Simple maths really: More = Less

[apoth0r]

Foot in the door prices as Bossman suggested. Everybody does what they need to

[ricki]

Hi

 

What I would investigate is not just the cost but also the service that you need. Many managers try to put things in nice neat boxes for financial reasons but ict support and what it costs is so much more. The following things will change the amount of ict support you need.

 

Number of computers.

Age of computers.

Are they networked if so how?

Is there a domain and if so what?

How has it been looked after in the past?

Have you had good ict support in the past?

Is the network patched up and up to date?

Is it a mess?

What support do you need in terms of hours?

Do you need all the hours together or do you need people when things break?

Does a contract cover call out costs?

If so how many and are you likely to exceed this?

How much extra will this support be?

 

What I would do is contact the large secondary schools near you and see if they can support you. They might be able to offer you a better deal in terms of providing what you need as they are closer than a external company so can do more call outs.

 

The other route that works well is to form a group of primary schools and employ a full time technician that supports a cluster of primary schools. I have seen this work very well as the technician gets to know exactly what a primary school needs as this is all they do, rather than a business it technician doing what they think.

 

Richard

[GrumbleDook]

I think it is a fairly reasonable price and would back up the views of others by saying that it is not just the time spent on the ground that should be costed in, but also telephone support, access to advice based on education rather than just technology, good customer service, consistent information and documentation, etc ...

 

One of the problems I have in our area is that sometimes it is inconsistent, mainly because the schools does not know what to ask for ... sometimes they may get something that is over-priced and they need to shop around occasionally to make sure they get what they need. Sometimes it is one of the Governors who can help with this, sometimes the LA, sometimes another school ... nothing wrong with this, but sometimes it comes across to support providers that someone else is coming in and giving advice that *they* should be giving ... it is more about making sure the school is asking the right questions though.

[Vegas]

LT have asked me to look into providing a tech for primary visits so i'm just putting some figure together so this thread has proved very useful. Can anyone else provide me with an idea of what they charge primaries for support?