Search the Community

CSE is looking for a Managed Service Engineer to join its team in the South-East Birmingham area. Successful candidates will be excellent communicators who excel both working within a team and also working alone. They will be able to manage their own time and be able to work to a schedule. The role is to help support a large secondary schools' ICT system. This will include diagnosis and fix of various day to day ICT System issues including device problems, user access issues, projector/whiteboard problems, adding users, print management, checking backups etc. The successful applicant will help manage (open, close, update) Service Desk tickets as they are added and be able to prioritise issues that affect Teaching and Learning, then escalate to the Network Manager where required. Required or beneficial experience includes: •Network support in an educational environment •Windows Server and desktop OSs •Infrastructure experience (switches, Wi-Fi) •Active Directory •VDI/thin clients •Network backup (Symantec Backup Exec) •Network services (File and Print) •Desktop deployment (Windows 7/8/Apple) •Full, clean driving licence is desirable A CRB check is required for this role. Benefits include: •Competitive salary (£18k-£21k) •Company pension •Private health care To apply, please email a CV and covering letter including relevant experience and current package to [email protected]

We need to get three quotes for a managed print service. We've had a couple but I'm keen to see we get best value and that includes good service which you can only mneasure from others recommendations. Does anyone out there have their printers and copiers managed under the same contract? Do you get good service? Who do you use? Thanks ChrisJ

Anyone had to buy themselves out of a managed service contract. Someone I know (yeah it really isn't me) has just signed a 3 year contract without getting 3 quotes first as the supplier put frighteners on them saying contract would run out. They've signed what appears to be grossly overpriced and the tech that turns up for half a day is not particularly helpful and is very possessive over who can have what access (eg 3 weeks to get password to allow staff to install drivers for home printer!) to the point that he's being obstructive*. As its a small school there is no in-house tech expertise which is why I've been asked to help. We've organised introduction meetings with 2 other local managed service providers and initial impressions are much better and quotes are less for more service. We're contacting other schools in the area that use these providers for references. With so little of the new 3 yr contract used we think its going to be cheaper in the long run to get out of the new contract and start a new contract with one of the alternatives. Anyone got any experience of this or know what options are available? Thanks ChrisJ * eg not releasing server admin password which we asked for so we could access server console to get its specification and get free disk space stats in order to spec up an upgrade/replacement/alternative. They came out with some bull story about Data protection Act (you can't let them see the server or they will have access to all your students home details and your staff records etc) and put the frighteners on senior staff so they ended up not wanting to let anyone else see the server either!

came across this article today - Outsourcing ICT as part of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) | Education | The Guardian Interesting section on Jim Knight's reaction to being asked id PFS has powers to prevent a school opting out of managed services, "This has caused such concern in schools across the country that questions have been asked in parliament. Ken Purchase, Labour MP for Wolverhampton, raised it with the minister for schools, Jim Knight, whose response was unambiguous: "Partnerships for Schools does not have powers to prevent a school opting out of proposals for authority-wide ICT programmes. Where a school wishes to opt out of the managed service, it must submit an alternative business procurement case. This must demonstrate that the school's alternative provision will be at least of an equivalent standard to the managed service proposed by the local authority, that it is able to link up to the area-wide solution, and that it passes a value-for-money test to ensure taxpayers' money is being well spent." I'm sure GD has mentioned this before somewhere but I can't locate it.

Job Title: Education IT Technician Department: Managed Services Salary: In the region of £16-18K depending on experience Employment Status: Full-time, Permanent Location of Role: Lymington, Hampshire The post holder may be required to work at other locations as required, particularly during school holidays. Responsibilities: • To provide onsite 1st line technical support for the school’s ICT systems • Ensure equipment is installed and ready for use by staff and pupils • Utilise the Helpdesk System provided to manage all tickets and requests • Ensure all tickets are up to date at all times • Manage priorities and working time effectively • Ensure monitoring alerts are investigated and where required logged on the Helpdesk • Communicate with School Staff and appointed Virtual Network Manager • Liaise with third party software and service providers where required • Maintain customer IT records • Be polite and courteous to all clients at all times • Be ready to start work at your allotted time Technical Requirements: • Understanding of Microsoft Operating Systems and Applications • Ability to install ICT equipment including, but not limited to; desktops, laptops, A/V equipment, printers, projectors, apple products • Be able to diagnose and resolve faults or issues on above equipment. Essential Requirements: • Excellent communication skills – all mediums • Ability to multi-task and prioritise • Ability to liaise with staff at all levels of technical knowledge • Enthusiastic and pro-active, keen to be involved • Ability to work unsupervised on a daily basis, self-motivated • Outgoing personality • Interests/hobbies on top of IT • Reliable and presentable • Driving license Desirable Requirements: • Experience of delivering IT support into education • Knowledge/experience of mobile technologies used in education • Have experience of installing third party education titles General: Due the nature of the role some heavy lifting will be involved so be aware of your Health and Safety responsibilities. The successful candidate will be a self-motivated, well-organised person who shows attention to detail, communicates well, and can work well independently. They will have good all-round IT skills including experience with hardware, and will be able to show knowledge in a variety of IT disciplines used in education. They will be willing to work flexibly, sometimes outside of normal core hours, to assist with special projects or to deal with particular circumstances. Medhurst provide services into the Education Sector and as such are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. We will carry out an enhanced DBS check on all staff and continued employment with Medhurst could be affected by the results of the DBS check. Further Information: Please contact Anne May on 01489 563000 / 07810 648448, [email protected]

Hi All, Just a question to see how many schools are actually sticking with the managed service provided from the BSF service provider once your initial (5 years?) contract is up? Are you happy with the service? Are you renewing? Are you looking elsewhere? Be very interested in hearing peoples thoughts / stories...

I thought our local providers were bad for price gouging but if this article is to be beleived they may be 'comparitivly' ethical. Yikes, I'll run their site for that ammount. Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | £32k a Day For Birmingham Council Website £2.8million for council website as 26,000 face job cuts - UK Wired News