James_Bird

Always great to hear positive feedback, thanks guys. For those of you who are at BETT - pop over and see us on stand H39. James

Hi Steve, Thank you for your feedback. Allow me to point you in the direction of the weblink for downloading the research ahead of Saturday: Stone Group Research Report This will allow you to see the full findings of our research, and most importantly, in the intended context. Stone’s assertion, in short, is that due to the growing reliance on online teaching resources and the growing government expectation that pupils have reliable access to school networks whilst working at home in the evenings, the provision of out of hours support becomes all the more vital – in turn making the statistic you mention that only 14% of schools offer out of hours technical support to schools and staff all the more surprising and concerning. Furthermore, we have found that whilst the rest of the public sector has followed government guidance to embrace third party service provision, the vast majority of ICT services to schools and colleges are delivered using internal skills – with 51% using no external services at all. To quote my remarks in the press release issued to launch this research: “Budget cuts are an inevitability in 2010, but it’s clear from this research that schools and colleges are not currently following what is occurring elsewhere in the Public Sector by considering the use of external resources to maximise the quality of service delivery on the available budget.” “Schools and colleges need access to tailored services that can supplement the existing skills and expertise in-house. Skills that can ensure new services are delivered rapidly, systems are acquired in a financially expedient manner – such as via residual leasing – and innovation is enabled rather than constrained. It is time to consider all the options available.” Naturally, I look forward to discussing this research with you, and the forward strategic plan for The Stone Group, on Saturday. All the best James Bird, Chief Executive, The Stone Group

Hi, i'm James. I'm the CEO for Stone Group, based in Staffordshire. Look forward to chatting to you all. --James