Grommit

I think that's what he was getting at.... The teachers will not be able to ask for a quick upload... the drones will have to ask Head office as they Can't access the Servers..

Ranger is owned by RM... also Ranger would have nothing to do with loading slowly as it would be the profiles loading that makes it slow.. In Vanilla GPO's you do not have the title Check feature.... With wireless we had issues that the device driver would not load untill Ranger said it was OK.. but Ranger could not load because the device wasn't loaded :-) There is a New Ranger Print Manager out now..

This is from a friend of mine who has a friend who is a Network Manager... he was being TUPED as a Technician.... but this was the early days of BSF and schools were able to get out of Managed Services Contracts.. "A school close to me has taken their ICT out of the managed service. They had a site manager working on site for the Managed Service Company. Any IT requests had to come in writting to him from the headteacher, they where then sent to the PFL's head office to see if was a chargable request. Once confirmation of charge or no charge was agreed the PFL scheduled their IT tech to do the job. If it was a chargable request the Head had to agree to the cost and fax a purchase order over to the PFL's head office, who them scheduled the job. Think 3 weeks to move or install printers. A two pence piece in a floppy drive was counted as vandalism and the drive replaced, even if the drive worked after the coin was removed. 10 minute job £65 charge. Replacing 15 in August soon mounts up

Yep.. what happens to the higher paid Network Managers... could you ask ?

What happens to Edugeek when we are all BSF Drones ? We wouldn't need to come here asking for help as we would get that from the Managed Service Company.. We wouldn't come here complaining that something wasn't working as we would be bound by the company rules stopping us from discussing faults on an open forum.. So what will Edugeek become in 5 years when there are no Governemt School Network Managers around and very few free technicians? The traffic will dry up and the ad funding as well

When they moved our servers and comms cabinets in the refurbishment they assessed the cabling from the server room and if the cable could be rerouted they did but if not they re ran the cables All the rooms fed from the comms cabinet were redone so the old patch panels were ripped out and new ones put in.. We did try to save the old patch panels and cables and store them in the ceiling but the demolishers just destroyed everything... As for our server room that was moved and the cables re routed..

OK... this is how it will work... Your entire system gets gutted and rebuilt... all PC and servers under 3 years old MIGHT be kept on.. but after they are 3 years old they will not be supported You will not be able to build PCs as the Managed Service Company will be building them and supplying them.. (you might be lucky to hump them around the site and get to install them)(if you are TUPED) As for the software this might be asorbed by the Managed Service Company and discounted on the PCs that the school will be buying.. You will not work for the school any more and your boss will be a team supervisor at a large company so you will no longer be "chatting" to the Head Teacher anymore as there will be a suit at The Company who will be the account manager.. You might get Reprimanded for talking to the Head as you will just be a drone taking instructions from a help desk Heh heh... what I mean is that we are there if needed.. where as under the BSF you'll get nothing out of hours

This has been discussed before.. Our School now.. 1200 Kids ICT Staff: £65 000 Jobs handled PC's, Servers, Printers, Vandalism, Projectors, Telephones, AV for lessons, AV Screens, OHP's, Hand Holding for OFSTED and other Lessons, Lesson Covering, SIMS (installation and bug fixing at workstation), Cashless Catering, Photocopiers, off site AV productions, Access Control, CCTV, Library Database, TV's, Plasma's content, COMPLUS Tanoy System, CCTV event capturing, VOIP, Video Confrencing, and legacy equipement (3 year old PC's and Servers) which are still working fine but the BSF said they would not support.. maintainance CCTV: £25 000 Total £80 000 for everything 18 hours a day 7 days a week BSF Basic Cost: 9 - 5.... 5 days a week... only Also all faults have to be assessed to see if they are covered and if not a PO has to be issued before any work gets done.. BSF Support Contract Basic cost £120,000.00 = £100 per child this is a basic cost for only Servers, PC's (under 3 years ) and Printers Additional work we do that is not under the basic BSF Costings maintainance CCTV £25 000 Cashless Catering: ? Library Software: ? Teacher Hand Holding: ? Access Control: ? Specialist Tanoy System: ? Movement of Equipment: ? Telephones: ? Photocopiers:? Legacy Equiptment:? AV and Media:? After Hours: ? Vandalism: ? Alrady the costs have doubled and we haven't even started ... And the BSF pays for the first year and then the School has to pay out of its own budget for the next 4 http://www.edugeek.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8325

I think you'll find that down South most of us do... we also have to pay £200k for a 2 bedroom flat

Well lets just say.. Contultancy fee's are gonna be 200k plus add £100 per student for Managed Services... BSF pays for the first year but the other 4 the school has to fund.

County and borough ICT Support have a very bad reputation.. Why cant we stay in House and have a LEA Uber Consultant make sure that the ICT is correct and up to the standards laid out by the BSF. No we don't want to be controlled by the LEA and told what we can buy... if my Head wants that he gets it.. why should he have to jump through hoops ? Maybe I am lucky that i have 700 PC's... 400 new and 300 oldish.... User the BSF i would have to dump the 300 oldish P4's with a gig of RAM and XP Pro SP2.. yet these PC's are working great and being supported.. I have a couple of servers older than 3 years... they are workig great.. yet I would have to dump them instead of adding to them.. This is where the BSF fails... there are lots of schools with perfectly working PC's/Apples and Servers that either won't be supported or has to be dumped.... just because it's over 3 years old.. Yet under my idea we add to the systems saving tens of thousands... and only replace when we have to and not have forced refresh..

As I mentioned before.. The LEA employs a Uber Consultant that will go around to each school and make sure that all the schools that opted out of the Managed Services are meeting certain levels .. Take Lambeth... that is a RM managed Service Borogh.. yet half the schools opted out and the same reasons are the same ones that the BSF raises... (loss of control etc) So make sure that a school has a standard to remain In-House ie FITS... and than the Uber Consultant can watch over them and advise them...

Oh crap now Grumbledook is trying to play sitting on the fence and it's not all bad and it might be quite good card.. Christ you guys just kill any movement to support In House ICT

I don't think so... You have always made your stance clear on RM and the BSF Here someone tries to put the fear of God into Teachers to try and start a groundswell against Managed Services and the disaster it will create not to mention the loss of our jobs.. and you try to pacify them by saying it’s not so bad….?!?

I do not understand you Dos_Box.. here is someone trying to start a ball rolling to stop the cull of ICT Managers and keep ICT In-House you defend the BSF ?!?! Why ? It is not all doom and gloom however. Some companies will bend over backwards to accomodate you. But unfortunately it is too early to see which will provide the best service. Why did you say that...? are you trying to sabotage any movement to stop the BSF .... Is your job that safe ?

We are trying to stop the BSF steamroller but it is flattening In-House ICT support all over the country... The school has no rights... if you want the money.... lose your ICT Manager and Department.... . If you want your ICT Manager and Department..... you lose the money... Thats your right..

I beleive that SOCITM had some input into way things are

Yes it does...... They have no choice apart from opting out... and no school Head will face the backlash of losing over a million pounds in ICT There was a time in the beginning where they were able to opt out but the P4S and BSF closed the loophole.. Remember also that only the first year of the Managed Service is paid for by the BSF.. the rest of the 5 year contract is paid for by the school out of school funds and this will be over a £100,000 per year for a medium sized school.. Plus all further ICT Equipment must be bought through the Managed Service Company for the duration of the contract.... so if they overcharge you for the new laptops you want you can't go else where.. Plus there will be no Network Manager to protect the School as the Managed Service Companys function first and foremost is to make a profit for it's shareholders (that's why it is in business).. where as a Network Managers function is to protect the school... Just think of the BSF ICT as The Borg..

I se that is has been discussed... but I am looking for advice to which one the Edugeek Members believe is the best.. I'm looking at Bloxx as well

we don't know mate... it seems the govenment decided to listen to shorsighted ICT Consultant Bean Counters and BECTA and decided to destroy the ICT Support Community in English Secondary Schools .. in belief that paying double for less support is a good thing..

"Sad but True" There is one thing that I would like to know tho.... as Network Manages we get £27k - £35k + in wages..... Will we be Tuped at the same rate ?

Hi ICT Nut... Is the new Feb 2008 version ready yet ? :-)

Looking at other types of filtering as Netsweeper seems to be not fit for purpose.. Looking at School Guardian but it seems very expensive... £3000 for 400 pCs ? any suggestions ?

It'll happen like this..... you'll all be sitting down and then your arse will fall out as they say all ICT will be taken over and controlled by a Managed Service Company and that the staff will be TUPED as Toner Drones... Then basically you will be the person that is expected to happily sell your job down the river by helping and advising the consultants to take over your job and install tonnes of flashy new kit which you will not be in charge of..

Still doesn't work :-(