Search the Community

Morning! Can you please tell me what sites you use for your day-to-day purchases? Ideally, I am looking for a site with an online shop where you can make your own choices (rather than have an account manager sticking to promoted brands...) when buying things like patch cables, headphones, iPad cases... Any and all recommendations are welcome. Thanks!

Bromcom is a tireless advocate for fair procurement practices in the MIS sector. As such, we read with interest a blog by Paul Wyatt-Pike on Ethical Procurement in Education: Referrals v Kickbacks: The increasing chatter around ethical procurement has become more prominent, particularly due to the thoughtful contributions from the Wisdom Partnership and experts like Finnemore Consulting. I couldn’t resist adding my observations to the conversation. Specifically, I focus on Local Authority schools; I will reference MIS only for context, shedding light on the often blurred lines between kickbacks and referral fees... Read more. Anyone interested in this topic may also like to know that there is an independently run, public LinkedIn group on the topic of school IT procurement – it aims to raise awareness of procurement best practice: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12863531/.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19681437 Panorama tonight investigates issues that should be of interest to all schools involved in procurement. A copier for £174,000, is this a record? What is the most paid for a single copier?

Hello, I am engaged in a number of conversations about the renewal of the old Becta ICT Services Framework, regarding which the DfE and the Government Procurement Service are currently consulting with industry. I would be very interested in any feedback from Edugeek members about your experience or perception of major infrastructure procurement in schools and colleges. Relevant questions that occur to me are: * How easy is it to procure significant ICT infrastructure for your school/college? * How useful was the old ICT Services Framework (or indeed frameworks in general)? * How easy is it to get reliable advice about (a) what to buy, and (b) how to buy it? * To what extent do you think your local requirements could be standardised (assuming that was a participative process) and to what extent do you feel that your local requirements are unique? * What are the main pitfalls that you need to guard against when procuring significant infrastructure (e.g. companies that go bust, proprietary lock-in, lack of pricing transparency, poor requirements analysis...) * What is your perception of the benefits of aggregated procurement as a way of saving money? * How important are OJEU (EU) procurement rules, which kick-in for public procurements valued at more than £150K? * How easy is it to get information comparing the performance and value of competing products? * How valuable would it be to have a "G-Cloud for Education" - i.e. an online catalogue of IT products for education, with transparent pricing, certifications and star-ratings? ...and any other questions that occur to you. This is not a scientific survey, of course, but if people are prepared to post their thoughts and experiences in reasonable numbers, I would be happy to do some legwork collating them, so that they can be shared with the DfE, the Governmnt Procurement Service, and other interested parties. While the current consultation is about the ICT Services Framework, the Information Management and Learning Services Framework will also come round for renewal in a couple of years and some of the same questions might apply again. Thanks for any feedback you can give, Crispin Weston

Hi, Just wading through the frameworks and lots in CCS, and just thought it would be worth asking here if anyone is a supplier (or is aware of a supplier) of enterprise wifi solutions - ideally Ruckus- that is can supply under an existing government framework agreement? Best fit i can find at the moment is PSN Services - Contract ID: RM1498 (Lot 8). ** Please note this is not an open invitation for all suppliers to start contacting me to offer services - i'm specifically looking for framework suppliers. If i cannot find a suitable framework then we will go down the procurement route where suppliers will be engaged with formally. ** Thanks, JB.

Hi I have a governors meeting later on and have been brought in to tell the governors what other schools do regarding their ICT procurement procedure. At the moment staff seem to be able to go out and buy a camera for their department and we wouldn't have a clue! We're aiming to stop this and centralise everything. Does anyone have any documents relating to this or (fingers crossed!) have a School ICT Procurement form?! What happens in your school if a) A Staff member wants to purchase a camera for their department. b) A staff member thinks they need new computers for their room (do theyhave a say?) Related to this is our Audit Management. We currently use a simple excel spreadsheet, which we try to update every time we purchase something (Obviously if staff buy something its not on there!) What do other schools use? Thanks in advance!!

I have considerable experience leading the procurement function of a local authority - with a focus on education. Just wanted to add some points of clarification following some recent threads I saw: It is true what some authors have said about moving from server-based software to cloud-based software not being a simple 'upgrade' or contract variation. This becomes a material change to the product purchased by the school(s) and should be the subject of a new procurement. This could be via a framework as opposed to you undertaking an exercise yourselves When thinking about your procurement strategy for MIS, you mustn't define MIS as a bronze (simple, low value, low risk) contract. You can search for the 'Contract Tiering Tool' from the Knowledge Hub for help with defining gold, silver, bronze contracts. This will have a knock-on effect on how you undertake the financial assessment of bidders and suppliers. And it should mean that you will not rely purely on delphi scores from credit referencing agencies and you should undertake a full assessment. You can also search the Cabinet Office's assessing the economic and financial standing of suppliers for a guide on how to do the financial assessment. If you do not have the in-house expertise to do this, you can buy-in support. You assign a weighting to price. This normally depends on your assessment of how 'standardised' the good is - the more standardised the good (say taxi services, or waste collection) the heavier weighting you would assign to price. The less standardised (say alternative provision for pupils at risk of exclusion) the heavier weighting you would apply to quality. You can find advice online about how to decide price/quality ratios on government websites and from legal firms experienced in public services. If you see 2-3 recent tenders for MIS's and they have applied consistent price/quality ratios, it's probably safe to assume it has been well thought through Some frameworks will have undertaken the financial assessment of suppliers, but some will not have, so you need to check the particulars of the framework you're considering. An obvious point - but you need to be very transparent and very fair. Don't put yourself in a position where you could subconsciously favour a particular supplier. Or a position where you leave yourself open to challenge from unsuccessful suppliers. For example, if you are part of a group of schools, and a prospective bidder is already delivering in some of your schools so they have access to staff, make sure they do not receive any more information about the upcoming tender than other prospective bidders. Try not to accept any freebies from suppliers and don't allow relationships with contract managers to become more than just professional (barbecues, lunches, holidays - it happens more than you would think!) I'm happy to try to clarify any further procurement queries.

Breaking news, Becta have published the School MIS and Value For Money report 2010. Absolutely fascinating reading, i'm still processing it myself. Becta Local authorities - Procurement - Infrastructure - School MIS and value for money report 2010 Roll up - Roll up, get your copy now, before Becta disappears. Interesting look at the marketplace; penetration of different companies and the changing landscape. The best bit is a recommendation for there to be a freeze on changing governmental guidelines for reporting etc. Will it happen...? citation page 4: Lots to take in.