LeicestershirePrimary

Thanks everyone - there is lots of good stuff in here. I agree that it isn't simply a hard cost thing but a question of demonstrating that we are getting value for money, which is a much harder concept than cheapest. To answer "are we getting value for money?" we need to understand What we are getting What we value What we are using What it is costing us What the like for like alternatives cost I am going to try and pull together a questionnaire of that will help us to determine the first 4. Many of your points and suggestions will feature in the questionnaire. I will let you know how I get on. My observation for Broadband Consortia would be that in the strained economic times, schools are going to want to have more flexibility in the offering - so, if I don't want VC to day, I don't pay for it but if I want it tomorrow, I can add it as a module. If they won't offer this then school governors will do what I am doing and question the value for money. In that we are paying for more service than we need. Thanks again

As a Governor, I have a legal obligation to ensure that we get best value for OUR school. I legally cannot therefore pay for services that we don't use; even if it is for the good of the whole education system. My next steps are to ask EMBC/NCC to tell me what services of the package we are using - what our peak bandwith usage has been; whether we use Video Conferencing etc; I am fairly certain that we don't. I have found a company offering 2Mbps filtered uncontended for about £1200 per annum and 10Mbps for £1900 (I am awaiting a formal proposal to check that I am comparing like for like). I will let you know more as I find more.

I need to ask the question but, the recent change is due to the removal of a grant....I will ask the question.

Waldronn2000 - that is really interesting; £4k per annum rather than £8k; It sounds as if you get similar provision if not slightly better provision - who provides the service for you?

Thanks everyone - I have found out a little more. We currently get 4Mbps and a contention ratio of 4:1. It is a Fibre connection. As a number of you have pointed out, we get some services - Filtering, Firewall and internal eMail. It still strikes me as a shed load of money - it represents almost 2% of our overall budget and with the coming cuts, one assumes that it will rise as a percentage. Thanks everyone

Hi there, I am a governor at a Primary School in Leicestershire. I run my own consulting business so know about IT in the commercial space but not in Education. I recently joined the Finance Committee - we are being quoted £4000 to provide broadband for our 140 child Primary School by the County Council for 6 months. It strikes me as a huge figure - am I right in thinking that it is a lot? What do I need to consider if going for my own ISP Many thanks