Grommit

Don't forget The Cult in are performing a small gig at CC Club in London on the 7th June

Bugger!.... next plan...

So somebody needs to phone up all the secondary schools in Bristol and find out what the Senior Teachers think of the ICT now it is a full Managed Service..

I believe that Fronter are going into London by themselves with a Partner of the LGFL.. there is no Northgate involved.. just a couple of Norwiegens and the LGFL This is what I was having a discussion with someone yesterday about RM becoming like Tesco.. They are getting so big and undercutting everybody just to get the contracts that soon there will be no-one left to compete with them and kill the small businesses........

What I would do is hire the services of a Network Guru and build it yourself with a Vanilla Network with Ranger as the additional security...

This is very intresting as it is written in the BSF Rules that if you want the BSF funding you have to be fully manage.. how did you get around this to the "hybrid" system... Do you still have the same role of running the Network ?

do you mean undervalued by the Education Sector so they can now move to the private sector ? As I don't think RM, Captia, RAMESYS or other will pay the Network Managers and give them the control that they have now in the schools.. Do you have first hand knowledge of Network Manager getting same pay and control under a BSF school?

You only have to look at mess in Leicester with bsf to realises what happens when companies who bid bsf contracts don't think about the tender and then win. Being that you are in Scotland and not under bsf you do seem to take this very personally. Russell Sorry Russel.. I am not in Scotland but in England working in a Pathfinder School in the West of England... My jaw dropped a few years ago when the BSF consultants came in and said that the ICT department would be Service Managed, all staff would be TUPED or retrenched and that the school had no say in it.. Thats why I am so vocal.. because I have been there and understand what in means to see all that you have worked for get flushed away and know that you have no future because some low paid drone in RM will be the one working on your server and the rest of the school servers in the county... and if you want to work in te school you have grown to love with the staff that you have bonded with over the past 8 years you have to become a low paid techie drone.. Yea I have an agenda.... and thats to get the ICT managers of England mobilised to save their jobs.. Russel.. what is you role now ? and please can you tell us how you propose to keep your job when the BSF rolls in.. because as I know the Prefered Bidder in Leicestershire pulled out and they had to get a new supplier... but that will still not stop the BSF from taking over the ICT

Pleeeeaaase... I know of people that have been sidelined because of the BSF and it's gonna get far far worse as the BSF steamroller really starts moving... We were told that only now will the BSF ball start rolling... the pathfinders have just finished and the main program is about to roll.. So.. carry on with you job as tho everything is ok and when they TUPE you or show you the door I hope your skillset has improved and your CV sorted or change careers... because unless you want to be a toner / password changer there is no future in the Education IT sector... Resistance is futile... we are the RM and prepare to be Assimilated into the Managed Services Collective

Hi Whats is PARSql PARS.net InkScape VLC

Has anyone got contacts with Teachers, HOD's, AH's, DH's or Heads at schools in the fallen counties ? Then we can get a SLT point of view from these schools and that counts for a lot with other Heads... All we need is 4 or 5 schools saying that the service is bad, overpriced, restrictive and NOT Value for money then the whole enforced managed services might go down the pan... http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5499

Good point... Lets bring another point into the topic.. OFSTED.. now how many of us do the most bizarre things that are OTT and not standard practice to make sure that the OFSTED runs smoothly .. I mean the teaching staff are all running like maniacs and the SLT are freakin out... So how will RM techies be involved in this ?.. because in OFSTED every PC and every white boad has to work with a spare in the corridor in case of PC or Projector failure.. etc.. Teachers come up with some awkward ideas to teach during the inspections and we have to make sure that it all works (i.e.Assembly.. powerpoint with embedded video, DVD to be played, CD with music and a mic for the teacher) all to be run in a 15min slot.) Sorry whats that?..... you are being observed next period by OFSTED inspectors and the projector is not working... "sorry I have a job list and I don't work for the school ...... please contact the helpdesk and a job ticket will be issued..." said the now deceased techie

Do not be fooled... RM is the devil and they will be taking your job in the near future... Stay with ranger.. It's far far cheaper and more flexable

I know for a fact that the company that the won the LEA tender to supply a price list for kit for schools in our LEA (RM) is more expensive than my supplier that gives automatically 3 years warranty on all equiptment.. When I raised this i was told RM has been chosen and thats that.. you have to buy from them for this project.

That is a good point GD... There is going to be a massive cull of IT Professionals in the Education Sector.. there is a massive pool of knowledge that is just going to be wiped out by "profit" What a loss to the Country... I mean it's not quite the same as shipping a few thousand helpdesk roles offshore.. We are talking about IT Managers and Technicians that had years of knowledge

90 days.. They only have to keep you for 90 dyas after thet they can do what they want.. A couple of years ago I was in a BSF meeting with a lot of companies in an "informal" chat with the Council... It got a bit heated around responsibilities and I mentioned that my first responsibility is for the School and the school is my only priority.. and a company director stated quite clearly that his responsibility is first to his shareholders and then to the client.. So I sarcastically mentioned "Oh i see it's every child matters with you then".. and it then kicked off a bit

I know the Managed Services consists of all the PC's and Printers at approx £100 per child.. But.. What about. Vandalism: Will this be an additional cost if the "BSF Company's" Technicians have to repair damage to equiptment ? CCTV and Access Control: Will this be included in the £100? as our Access Control and CCTV maintainance package is quite high as we do not have a bog standard IP camera set up but a "new" Verint dedicated System. Whiteboards: Promethean are not RM so will there be additional costs to the school as RM don't fix Promethean Boards? After Hours: Will there be additional costs for weekend calls and evening calls ? Would a ticket have to be raised for every job and then each job assessed to see if is part of the SLA .. ( and if is not part of the SLA like additional CD installation, moving a printer, replacing a vandalised mouse) then would the technician not work until a signed purchase order had been raised ? Would the School Management be able to instruct the technicians as the technicians really no longer work for the school and they only jobs they do are the ones raised through the helpdesk and instructions recieved from the Managed Service Company? Our School now.. 1200 Kids ICT Staff: £55 000 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 £75 000 for everything 18 hours a day 7 days a week BSF Basic Cost: 9 - 5.... 5 days a week Support Contract Basic cost £120 000 = £100 per child this is a basic cost for only Servers, PC's (under 3 years ) and Printers Additional maintainance CCTV £25 000 Cashless Catering: ? Telephones: ? Photocopiers:? Legacy Equiptment:? AV and Media:? After Hours: ? Vandalism: ? Alsrady 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

Sorry isn't that "company" not "companies" as RM have won 90% of the bids.. Question 1/ Can I still be the Network Manager and keep my Position and Pay Scale?

Just read the above in chapter 6..........interesting. I wondered where academies come into it. Same story... If they want the money they have to be managed.... I mean what a strong case ?!?! nothing... "we like our network manager" or such like... Nope the steamroller rolls and we are getting squashed out of our jobs and there is nothing we can do about it... Just the other day I was speaking to an County Education official who said that we have to buy some equiptment for a project from the prefered supplier and that this supplier (RM) had gone through the European Tender Process to get the contract.. I looked at the RM price list and said I could get the kit cheaper from my own supplier.. I was told.. nope you HAVE to by from RM because they had won the tender process.. Now isn't our jobs to save our schools money by finding value for money ? .. yet this just proves that the prefered supplier might rip offf the schools and there will be no-one to query the goods/price/reason.....

The bottom line is.. A. either the school finds another position for you paid from a different budget or you get TUPED... If the school wants to keep you as ICT Manager then they lose the funding.. end of... I have heard that a few "we really want you and don't want to lose you" Network managers have had the retoric drop quite a bit when the million or so pounds is dangled in front of the SLT

Chapter 6 is about ICT and they state that ICT Managers are finished... in a round about way... http://www.p4s.org.uk/documents/AnIntroductiontoBSF.pdf

True, I have a freenas box setup for software raid on my FTP server. An old celeron in an old RM box. As its only for simple ftp jobs it works quite well. With S.M.A.R.T enabled on the disks this reduces over heads too. [ Not sure by how much though ] Good luck with it !! On the Buffalo.. is that SW RAID5 or HW ?

I have Just bought a Terastation II with 2TB.. and I hope it works with my mixed domain...

sorry mate couldn't let that go... A little out of order enough said?? I see you don't phone the Indian helplines then....

I agree... we have loads of tham around the site and they are great... they have 4 ink slots so are cheaper to run....