MANAGING ICT
Ray Fleming’s blog entries are a must- read for anyone
concerned with ICT in schools. In a précis of his blog entries, he discusses ways to achieve cost- savings in ICT budgets
simple and effective cost-savings. I believe it could make a big difference by saving more than £300,000 over three years, ensuring that learning in schools is not jeopardised. Three strategies, stop-switch-save, mean that
I
savings can be delivered in your ICT budget, as well as your school’s electricity bill, phone bill, heating and communication methods. The summary below outlines various cost-cutting
methods, with the three-year savings figures based on a typical secondary school with 1,000 pupils, 400 computers and a dozen network servers.
Upgrade
Upgrading your computers to a newer operating system can enable you to use the power-saving features more effectively, especially during periods of low or non- activity. You should also ensure you are buying new software in the most cost-effective way by using the right licensing scheme. There are many different schemes, and the worst thing you can do is walk into your nearest software
N RESPONSE to the government budget cuts, schools are now focusing on the areas where the axe is going to fall, and how it will impact their learning environment. But these cuts do not need to scare anyone and they certainly do not need to take opportunities away from students and staff.
There are areas where ICT can help you to make
Saving money
with ICT
shop and buy the first package on the shelf. Take the time to find out which software and licence is right for you, it could mean the difference of hundreds of pounds. Potential saving: £95,000
Switch to laptops
A power supply for a laptop is typically rated at 50 to 70 watts, which is significantly lower than a typical desktop PC. As an alternative, a number of manufacturers have introduced lower-power desktop computers, which can save over £100 in running costs. Potential saving: £15,000
Communication
By a combination of communications servers and applications, there are a number of schools who have discovered that they can save money, as well as add new facilities in schools. These applications can give you internet phone
calls inside and outside the school, conference calling systems, secure internal instant messenger, and remote desktop sharing. They can also offer you the ability to deliver training or lesson materials over the web,
through any software, to groups in any location with an internet connection. Potential saving: £30,000
Remote access
With the latest software you can improve secure remote access to your network from outside of the school. It has become increasingly common for secondary schools to require secure access to the school network for staff working from home or out at external meetings. In fact, Becta’s advice for schools in keeping data secure, safe and legal now stipulates that staff should not have copies of sensitive pupil data on their own laptops even when off-site, but always connect securely to the school network to get access. Potential saving: £15,000
Do you need to buy so many computers?
The government has been promoting the idea that every pupil should have their own computer, and now over 90 per cent of pupils already have their own home computer, laptop or mobile phone. At university, over 95 per cent of students now arrive on campus with a laptop, and the majority of universities now provide some form of network connectivity for them to allow
their own laptops to support their learning. It has meant that universities need to buy fewer computers for everyday tasks. Although some schools have already taken this step, for the majority of schools, I think this is something to think about as a medium-term strategy to reduce the ongoing capital costs and replacement cycle. Potential saving: £60,000
Dramatically reduce printing costs
With new software, and with a school learning platform, staff and students can post work onto a shared site without printing each piece out. But the provision of the technology has not yet been matched by a change in people’s behaviours – many secondary schools report that they are still using one to two million sheets of paper a year in their printers and photocopies. Projected savings from more effective use of a
SharePoint-based learning platform, by reducing reprographics costs for learning, as well as more effective online communications for meetings and management, are around £25,000 a year – and more if every department adopts a new working style. You can also dispense with the cost of running
printers for every classroom in every department by making it easier to have work copied in the reprographics department, which reduces your printing costs by over 80 per cent. Potential saving: £100,000
Switch off
Did you know that instead of running your own email servers, or paying somebody to run an email service for you, you could simply just switch to a free cloud-based service? The former-Department for Children, Schools and Families used this example in last year’s discussion guide on school efficiency savings. Potential saving: £30,000
All of the above tips are just that – tips. When it comes to saving money across your various departments, it pays to evaluate where spending in one area of your budget can save in another area. UK businesses have had to streamline in recent years and the education sector is no different, with significant savings on your running costs without harming learning and innovation, there are big benefits in the long-term.
SecEd
• Ray Fleming is education marketing manager for Microsoft UK. If you want to turn any tips above into cost-savings in your school, then you can find more information on the Microsoft Schools blog, at
http://blogs.msdn.com/ukschools/
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SecEd • June 24 2010
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