Broadband Choices for Leicestershire and Leicester Schools
Carole Morris and Simon Goodall presented the options available to local schools as the current EMBC network contract runs out in October 2012.
The short summary
The strongest single message was “Doing nothing is NOT an option”. The current EMBC network will be turned off on October 31st 2012.
Schools do not have to buy from any of the recommended suppliers, some powerful question flow charts were presented to help with this.
The Cisco router (in County schools) belongs to EMBC the Cisco VLAN switch belongs to the school.
If you need a new connection installation – beware of hidden “Excess Construction Charges” ECCs – these could run into many thousands of pounds.
The Local Authority will NOT be involved in any contracts for network provision after October 31st 2012 – these will be directly between schools and providers
You did know that Capita now owns Synetrix? The Synetrix name will steadily be replaced.
EMBC will be the schools section of emPSN (East Midlands Public Sector Network)
The letter all schools will receive declaring that they are ‘members’ and allowing procurment of emPSN services is simply a legal requirement from an Education Act. It required no action by the school.
GO TO one of the sessions at the King Power Stadium (Leicester City FC) on January 25th.
emPSN has created a web site www.empsn.info/embc It should start to contain more detailed information
The ‘Longer’ summary is work in progress – please check back.
You know this feeling ..
We are encouraging schools to make an informed choice about their future braodband connectivity and servcies. Although schools do not have to buy from the framework I would recommend that you obtain pricing from emPSN Framework suppliers for connectivty options and services as a starting point. Remember also the documentation in EIS that will guide you through your decision making.
Thanks for that Carole.
I wrote a web page a short while ago (June last year) making some suggestions and ideas for people to consider. http://www.systemed.co.uk/solutions/services/broadband-in-schools/
If I was a headteacher in a school I would very seriously consider the offerings from within the emPSN framework, and if there’s a way that our company can help a large number of schools make a ‘super agregate’ agreement with emPSN suppliers, I’m certainly keen to investigate it.
Stevan and Alan are absolutely cerorct you only pay line rental once to which ever service provider you get the service from. But I do not agree with them when they say you will get the best deal through a bundle from one provider. I get my land line from one provider and my broadband from another as by doing that I get the best service for both services. Also I now have a digital phone which operates through my broadband which gives me a deal that is not matched by any other service provider, so my normal land line phone is for incoming calls only