stevengough

I'm warmed and touched that my previous comments were obviously recieved in the manner they were intended. (blush) I wouldn't begin to try and sway anyone from doing due diligence over the growing multidude of products in this area, but I'm aware of how limited time is for non-resident techs and how scary unfamiliar technology can be for teaching staff. Frog (and others mentioned above/below) provide locally hosted solutions, which inevitably represent extra overhead - they have to be set up and integrated into the local network, plus whatever nursing or modifying that comes along. Frog in particular don't (currently) provide an off-the-shelf solution for primaries but suggest that local secondaries host and support the platform for their feeder schools, kind of acknowledging the skills and support gap between primary and big school. It's a high spec product with value-added like their own remote access system onto the school network - and anyone who's tried to get ports opened in Northamptonshire fill in their "rejected by Tony" story here - but probably not something many smaller schools might really need. Last word, because I really don't want to wear out the welcome mat, especially with a my size 11 carbon footprint. Local hosted solutions aren't going to help anyone save the planet - see what I did there? - but seriously, it's not just the setup and maintenance but the whole running cost, servers left running all day everyday, plus extra stress attached to things like additional local backups ... As Tony's said elsewhere, it all depends what a school wants to do and what they can support. Northamptonshire picked a broad church solution with "enable", but there is some virtue in being a common denominator. It suits the needs of many... ... which, as we all know, outweigh the needs of the one. And now I'm off to polish my shrine to St. Shatner.

Like grumbledook I'm based in Northamptonshire's redbrick bunker - hi to anyone who's missed me from the IT mgrs meetings (...tumbleweed...) What's keeping me away is cosying up to the LP+ team as they work to try and give schools a running start with the platform before the bills synthesia's talking about start to roll in, so there you go - interest declared, tin hat on. For anyone who might find the costs and other implications a bit scary, let me smile winningly and try to offer some consolation. I won't even try to argue the idea of a "small fortune" - the numbers game's not my bag, and as Albert said all things are relative - but for Northants specifically there's definitely a "big fortune" to offset for schools who can get on the bandwagon right now: free training, other input (some possibly from me - who can put a price on that?) - a great big, genuine added-value lead-in, which anyone holding off and/or thinking about bootstrapping in splendid independence from one of the Many Other Providers Available come leaf-turning time won't feel the benefit of. Once the service does become billable, it's also worth keeping in mind that - for the school anyway - this is a full service package that comes with support, training, a Becta-accredited "wish we'd thought of it first" philosophy, and advice from the bona-fide educational experts with whom I'm currently serving. I'd be a fool to try overplay the technical card here - it's been years since I seriously lifted the lid on any blinkinlight-fronted biscuit tins, and you'll spot the flannel in a minute. That being said, I can at least say with some degree of authority that there are benefits to techie-lite schools taking up the LP+ system. There's nothing to worry about on site - no licensing, no hosting, no maintenance, no worries beyond those odd occasions (call the Americans!) when the Internet goes off. All that extra work that won't need to get done! I'm going to catch heck for this from grumbledook shortly:(, which is why I've just thrown in his favourite Internet joke. For whatever time it remains readable, "in the interests lof balance" etc., hope it's useful to someone.