PotNoodleTech

If they looked dodgy 4 years ago they probably still look dodgy now? //edit website looks better and have an address and phone number but it's all generic. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08441026/filing-history parent company had 4 employees last year....

Yep, it's been proven again and again in almost every industry that outsourcing leads to worse service. If they're starting from scratch and there are not loads of existing contracts to buy out, it's the ideal time to build an in house team to support their future needs. Start by hiring a competent IT Manager who can really drive things forward, then move to hiring technicians.

IMHO you'd have to be mad to look at Nextgen - its literally years behind schedule and the company have lost 30% of it's customers in the last 2 years. The company has also proven time and time again to be not on the side of the school(s), in fact the complete opposite.

Nope got rid of leasing back in the RM days (the days of being stuck for 5 years not being able to change anything and not being able to react year by year are long gone).

Version 12.34.76.52 according to add remove programs. Ill find out which PC she was sitting at tomorrow and have a look at the logfile.

Have you tried Crytical Power? https://www.criticalpowersupplies.co.uk/p/apc-symmetra-rm-6kva-online-230v-ups-syh6k6rmi/

Ok I can see where your trouble is i.e you want to restore your old MDT database so you can't use the in built in SQL version and have to install an SQL server but then that breaks MDT? I cant really advise further as have used MDT/WDS in built options for 10+ years so never run into this issue.

Oh thats not good. The only thing we noticed is apparently one of the pupils thinks a question was missing, and the other pupils answered that question. Trying to get to the bottom of that with the exams officer now but we didn't have any error messages or anything else noticeable weird.

Out of interest - Why are you installing SQL Express over the working system anyway? I've always used the built in click next click next during the install?

My 7 IT ones went off ok this morning. What subject were the tests in?? PS if the exam board kick up a fuss remind them that the software is not fit for purpose and doesn't allow the IT support personally to automatically test the software by clicking something like a "test connection" button which doesn't exist, but if they were competent and the test connection did exist we would be able to test every single workstation 30 minutes before the test starts to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Yes if a google search brings up almost nothing you may be in a spot of bother. How many wires has the fan got 3 or 4? it might be just a normal1 12v PWM fan but with a custom connector or custom wiring order? Push comes to shove get an identical power usage fan (should say the number of amps drawn at 12v on the fan sticker) and rewire/splice the connector?

Fair enough - I've never understood MATs obsession with hiding salaries. Most applicants want to know if they're talking £20k or £200k before they apply.

Tell them it wont work and remind SLT that all IT purchases need to come through you so you can identify any blockers/issues before money is wasted.

Looks like a heck of a good job! (technically you should be posting a salary ££ in this forum but that's nitpicking)

I think the simple answer is it doesn't really matter what everyone else it charging - you need to charge based on what you are paying for various things. What is your click cost on the lease? What is the cost per sheet of paper a4 and a3? Are you factoring in clawing back the lease costs through clicks - if so device your yearly pages volume by the yearly lease cost to get a cost per click. Toner should be included in your lease contract, if not divide the number of pages per year by the toner cost to get another click cost. Are you charging for staff time - reprographics staff, or IT support staff? Add all the above up and you got your click cost. I bet its loads higher than what you got now!

It is very refreshing for a company to actually tell us what has gone wrong and how they are aiming to fix it. Most companies would ignore us or outright lie and say everything is fine. That does get brownie points in my book, versus whatever the current temporary setbacks are.

Well - for a start you should be charging more for A3 as it's twice the paper and up to twice the ink per page?

Yes Acer are total garbage. We've had approx 90% faliure rate on acer chromebooks in 3 years.

Good thread! I've just been using google keep for years - I've tried out several different apps over the years but tend to gravitate to apps that are just super fast and easy to get in instantly open on any device and start typing. Keep isn't the best as it's not great (terrible) for organising large volumes of stuff but it works fast and I tend to transfer any big meeting notes etc into google docs or the like. My handwriting is senior consultant illegible so I automatically gravitated to wards IT and typing at an early age. (parents were supportive and thinking about it I probably owned many of the early organisers invented from in school school upwards, from early casios to psion to palm to HP Ipaq, etc etc) What about that new tablet that gets advertised alot on the TV/youtube etc I think it's "Remarkable" looks like a bigger better version of the old kindles which I know people loved due to the greyscale and speed etc

Banned for pupil pcs here which is 80% of equipment but doing staff now too - do have staff that need it such as for transferring work to 3d printers or photography cameras, etc - in the long term need to find ways around all that. Done it by GPO for now - is there a way to actually whitelist USB devices in GPO or do you need to use 3rd party programs as mentioned above? Cheers

Very interesting the last two posts!! it seems everything has drawbacks no such thing as the perfect manufacturer!

Wow I am quite surprised so many people have learned the same as me I thought I was just a grumpy old moaner! :D

I think you do need to check with a DPO. @GrumbleDook any ideas? From what I can see I understand the school need for this - but - you appear to be giving out this staff personal information to people who are not actually (yet) parents and pupils of your school? That's where my main concern would lie. If you were giving these out on the 1st day of September then I can't see a problem (other than if teachers or teacher unions objected). It is not something that many schools do.

10 year plan is completely pointless IMHO. 10 years ago I couldn't have predicted I'd have 2500 devices to look after 1:1 chromebooks etc etc.

We just use a PC hard wired in to projector etc. Anyone wants to show anything, they use that PC and hey presto it just works.