Ditto

Sadly I was expecting the rise, the impact on your rate and your post. I know you've had feedback before on this site, I understand your circumstances a little but not the full details. I am convinced, but accept I could be wrong, that there must be a way for you to get a better deal. At my work we have a weekly team meeting where most weeks a member of staff offers a thought for the day. This week one of our receptionists reflected on the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse. There is a 30 minute animation which is available on iplayer. Our receptionists pulled several quotes from this book, but one struck a cord with me and it's this. "What is the bravest thing you've ever said? asked the boy. 'Help,' said the horse." As with earlier posts on this, I'm trying to respectfully offer advice and don't want to pry. I will happily remove the post if you wish. But I would just ask you to ponder the quote.

We've just been advised by our IT provider, despite earlier reassurances by Microsoft, that our non-profit E1 and E3 licenses are increasing. Here are the numbers: E1 - 25% increase E3 - 18% increase As a charity we will cope, but what are schools seeing around license cost increases. What about Workspace - any indication of cost increases on that front?

If I understand correctly, Bromcom cover 20% over each of the following 5 years, so a 5 year contract is need to cover the full amount. I think that is a reasonable offer, but a third over 3 years would be so much more compelling. Arbor offer what they call 'Pay for One', which appears to mean you keep paying ESS, but nothing to Arbor for all the core license fees (Attendance, Behaviour, Progress Tracking, Census and Statutory Reporting, Custom Report Builder, Student and Staff Profiles, Email and SMS) until you escape ESS's grip! This scheme obviously needs more careful review as there are a few more details to work through. Has anyone made use of either of these schemes? Ultimately I think both are additional incentives to move.

Definitely got this T-shirt! Mostly not too much wastage but when a teacher bought cursive fonts for Windows, when I said we are a 'google' school, there was a rabbit in headlights moment. I think to really crack this issue you've got to get the head, business manager/bursar and other finance colleagues onside build it in to the school process and repeat the message every year if not term. Yet when departments have delegated budgets, it's hard. However, if they don't follow process, you've got to be willing to not support, but then you need the head to back you up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-64458511 White ball, then spiral galaxy-like formation in the night sky over Hawaii. It is quite mesmerising! What's Elon up to now! Worth putting the clip up on a large screen - it's amazing just how many things are whizzing around up there.

That's a great shout! With a bit of effort, you could pull together a report of school attacks and the stories behind, the damage it has caused. Anything that reduces the schools chances of getting hit, has the potential to save the school a lot if financial (and reputational) pain. Can be a tricky sell sometimes, but maybe you could push the school towards Cyber Security Essential Plus. I think DfE promote CSE moves so that'll strengthen the case for doing so.

I'm assuming you want to stay with the school? Is there a succession plan angle to this. How about Assistant Network where you build up to the same skillset, offering cover for the times when the NM is not available, busy with other products or even just for the 'under a bus' scenario. I'd also discuss with the NM how you can balance your career development with the needs of the school - do you report to the head or NM. If the former, I presume you are at least dotted line to NM?

Blimey, looking after your rechargeable batteries is beginning to sound like looking after your off-spring!

I would think covering Bromcom's legal cost alone is going to put it into the extremely painful spectrum.

Magazine.

Practice run for the imminent Valentine's day perchance

I do feel withdrawing funding, dismissing the governing body and sacking the CEO is just a tadge extreme (deliberate understatement to keep the thread cool in spite of respected differences of opinion ). Sure, at this point the courts have ruled, on challenge from the losing bidder, an illegal tender has occurred. But additionally the judge expressed his sympathy for the position UL found themselves in. No corruption or bias was suggested. In many ways it's come down to some disputed points scoring and numerical errors. Yes, that may have led to Bromcom losing out on a sizeable contract, but then if the bid was run in a different way and legally, they might not have won anyway. At the end of the day, no one has died, there has been no manslaughter, no one has been found to have knowingly fiddled the books (perhaps topical but let's not go their!), no sign or suggestion of corruption. Now if UL were failing the children's education in a big way, I'd entirely agree with the suggested approach, but that's not the case as far as I can tell. So to conclude, subject to any appeal, it looks as though UL will receive a fine. We'll have to see what level that is. For me, if legal costs are included, what the remainder is would be a good guide to how seriously the courts feel the punishment should be for not executing this particular task well.

It's clear from elsewhere in these forums, both Arbor and Bromcom are not perfect (other MIS are available). There have been repeated reports about access and slowness problems with Bromcom and then there is this thread for Arbor. What's challegening is weighing each up in terms of what support is going to look like and what future progress and investment is going to look like. Both products have surged in recent years so I think it's reasonable to expect some growing pains, but it's how well, and how quickly those are dealt with that's important. I think that's a really hard thing to do, and to do so in a legally tight tendering way, even more so. The point about going out to schools and speaking them is a really important one. My last significant role was running Progresso. I came to it after they started to improve it massively from what I learnt was a disastrous report. Their market share has collapsed since and ultimately, I think they never recovered from the launch. But one good thing I recall is that there was a Progresso User Group, that was initially supported by Advanced, but not dictated too. Do either Arbor or Bromcom have user groups where you can meet, share experiences, support each other and ultimately provide strong and constructive feedback to the software provider?

Darn, two typos picked up this week - @mikeprice, move aside

Love it! When on first joining the local tennis club, a bunch of old codgers were bemoaning how expensive it's been getting to heat their swimming pools - no pun intended, well maybe, but their well out of my depth. More recently, a conversation about cleaners came up and I used much the same butler quote! Who has a butler nowadays? It's a marvellous concept, but sadly not something I have access too.

I know some of this forum use what was called https://chromex.io/en/, now known as https://www.trelson.com/assessment/ - does anyone know if they tackle this issue?

We have a cleaner once a fortnight. OH would regard me as the 'gadget' if I proposed that cost saving More seriously, the hovering bit isn't such a drag, it's the bathroom and kitchen cleaning, and we're not yet their with robotics yet - well not at an affordable level.

Bank switching is at a high and no doubt reflects people looking around due to cash incentives. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64399666. Has anyone done this and how did it go?

Speculatively, if an appeal is successful, will it change people's stance. A key difference between say a speeding fine is you are dealing with absolutes. This case judgement is one around much more nuanced interpretations and it's not beyond the realms of possibility of it being overturned.

I believe it's relevant to this thread, but mods, please move if needed. I've been looking for details around the Bromcom vs AET case - I can't find much. However a couple of things. There was a FOI request https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/notification_to_bidders_re_recen#incoming-1872191 which shows they abandoned an offer to anyone. The letter that is linked, states "has received correspondence from certain bidders" - I don't think we need Inspector Columbo and his Basset Hound to hazard a guess at who that might be. The other is more specific around procurement legislation, but specific to this case - https://www.arthurcox.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/December-2022.pdf It wasn't so long ago that AET signed up with Progresso as it was at the time. I can't find much on that and whether Arbor, Bromcom or others were in the bid, but it would appear they weren't challenged at that point. Although it's not guaranteed, you'd think that suggests AET know how to run a procurement legally? If anyone knows more about the AET procurement when they selected Progresso in late 2016 or the recent one that was initially awarded in Oct 2021, but it would appear abandoned subsequently, I'd be interested to hear. All-in-all, there's a lot of school money being diverted from the fundamental purpose of schools, due to procurement processes and legal requirements.

I don't think it's come up in conversation yet, but didn't UL have an external consultant to help run the process. If yes, I wonder what their liability is and what cover they have in place.

Might be worth looking for the same from another source - aren't amazon workers on strike?

The family were going to watch For All Mankind, as it was highly recommended to us. After a search of Sky movies, Netflix, Amazon and generally, we learnt it's only on Apple TV. Nope, not happening. So I searched for a shortish space based alternative and ... We watched A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon Not at the level of the best Wallace and Gromit movies, but a few good laughs and a cheap 90 minutes of light entertainment. I amazed the kids let me get away with the somewhat tenuous theme-link

It's a fair point, and with time maybe those that dislike the decision will come to accept that the legal basis of the case is justified and will lead to better run procurements. Some never will though - it's a bit like 'that' local school that has a tarnished reputation, but it turns out to be related to an incident 20 years ago and it's a darn good school now!

Google 'loft legs' or 'loft stilts'. Wickes offer a solution that is 'raise the floor' style. There are some more expensive insulated flooring option, but they are very expensive. Don't squish the insulation though. *** Edit, I should add the cost of insulation has rocketed, along with many building materials. I bought some sound insulation for a bathroom a week ago, it was 3 times the price of 3.5 years ago. I could get a better sqm price only if I bought a lorry load! Delivery charges have rocketed too ***