Alternative support providers

[jedithug]

Hi all, as part of a cost cutting and efficiency drive at our school I've been asked to find alternative IT and SIMS support. We use the county LEA at the moment and it has been deemed too expensive. Would like to hear any suggestions, recommendations, or horror stories from anyone who has travelled this road before.

 

I'm based in the West Midlands and have a team of two techs with me to look after a site with 500 machines. One tech is a hardware specialist and the other builds linux servers as a hobby. I do the planning, organisation, and politics. We are currently in the process of migrating from an RM CC3 network to a vanilla setup and we are looking to go down the virtualisation path next year.

 

We reckon we could cope with most things between us apart from server disaster and SIMS not doing what it says on the tin.

To date all I have is a quote from Capita for SIMS support.

 

 

Forum Mods please feel free to move this thread if Im in the wrong section.

Edited December 7, 2010 by jedithug
Update

[Ric_]

It might be worth adding a little more about your expectations and location. What IT support do you require? How many people do you have performing support onsite and what are their skills? Have you approached Capita directly for a SIMS support quote?

[Jamman960]

Also is the support you recieve from the LEA not subsidised?

[maark]

IT support - depends how much in house knowledge you have and what system you are running - if it is standard microsoft then there are a lot of potential companies but can be hard to find a good one. Can do without one if you have the know how.

Sims - look at licensing costs - it would cost us as much to buy the licences from capita as it does from the LA with support included. Direct support from capita was not very good last time I used it but that was a while ago - may have improved.

[Butuz]

Realistically the only way you are going to save considerable sums of money is if you take all support in house using existing staff. If you just change the company you are using you'll still end up paying thousands per year, just to another company. OK some may be a bit cheaper than others but then some are worse than others so I guess the key question is - what level of support do you actually need over and above the existing ICT support staffing you have?

 

Butuz

[jedithug]

I dont think the support from our LEA is subsidised, we are paying nearly 20k p.a.

[enjay]

@ jedithug - I'm in a similar position to you. Currently RM CC3 but considering a move away, not solely for financial reasons but also because I'm not sure we want CC4.

 

@maark, butuz and all - any recommendations for support companies which jedithug and I should speak to?

[MK-2]

I'm not sure we want CC4.

 

 

good choice

[enjay]

good choice

 

Thanks. I thought so, too :-)