Procurement

Buying even a small IT system can be a headache for many institutions, because they may lack experience in system procurement and knowledge of the educational ICT marketplace.

Typically, and especially for small or independent organisations, they may:-

• Use general business IT suppliers or consultants, who do not have relevant experience in education.
   
• Not be aware of the many excellent systems specifically designed for educational use. and struggle to use those developed for business users.
   
• Devote significant in-house resources to develop a local system, only to find that it takes a very long time to reach the implementation stage and does not provide the functionality expected.
   
• Spend more than they need to, on hardware, systems and software, because they are not aware of the large discounts or special software licenses available to the education marketplace.
   
• Fail to take account of new technologies when replacing legacy systems, thus not obtaining the maximum benefits from the expenditure.

We can help overcome these problems by providing impartial and independent advice on the procurement process, develop and write specification documents, manage tenders, evaluate bids and help you choose the right suppliers for your organisation. We can also assist with implementation of new systems and help you manage the change. Please contact us for an informal discussion on how we can help you.