ICT Strategy for Schools, Academies and Multi Academy Trusts
We have the privilege of working with some fantastic customers, and it is a true pleasure to share our knowledge and expertise to improve how you work and embrace technology. Working with us to drive your IT strategy can bring tangible benefits to your organisation.
Strategic Plans
As standard, our service includes planning for future technologies and replacing existing ageing products. This doesn’t cover only hardware but also process and systems.
Typically a strategic plan will cover a 3-5 year period, and in the case of MATs, we aim to work with CEOs, COOs and local SLTs to deliver a coherent trust-wide approach.
Some Benefits of ICT Strategic Plans and Strategic IT Support
- Controlled, realistic budgets
- Clear, structured approach to IT improvement in plain english
- A consistent approach with justification for your board of trustees/governors
- Improved work-life balance through planned solutions that are tried and tested
- An ICT vision that you can deliver to your teams with their full understanding and support
What is included in a Strategic Plan?
We cover everything from the basics, the bread and butter computing items such as PCs, Laptops, Interactive Screens, WIFI, Networks and even spares like mice and keyboards. The plans stretch up to more complex Cloud first MAT-wide Email, File Sharing and collaboration tools.
It depends on your desire for improvement and the changes in the world of technology. Our job is to educate you about what is available to benefit your situation and what is needed to drive your school IT budget and plan.
Recent examples of necessary improvement are the drive for Windows 11 readiness, and we’ve been planning for two years for the 2025 cut-off of Windows 10 support and the new hardware standards imposed by Microsoft. Or the changes in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) for 2023 and the need for DSLs to understand more about appropriate filtering and monitoring.
Why is IT Strategy this important?
We know budgets are tight and we aim to help guide your use of that public money to deliver the best outcomes for your staff and students.
Guidance and technology change regularly, and we keep up to date on your behalf; we produce plans that move schools forward while being realistic about budget, skillsets and time.
Some recent examples of guidance changes or products that we’ve tested and reviewed.
DFE Technology Guidance
Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges – Guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Keeping Children Safe in Education Compliance
KCSIE 2023 – Compliant Monitoring from Securus
KCSIE 2023 – Compliant Monitoring from Senso.Cloud
IT Consultancy and Strategic Planning
Our ICT Service Level Agreement customers get these services for free as part of our account management process. Our education IT support technicians know your site best and will feed their local school knowledge into the broader strategic plan giving us ground-up knowledge for a top-down strategy.
We can offer this service on a consultancy basis, please email: [email protected] for more information and to arrange a brief call to discuss your needs.
Related Information:
School IT Support for Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire (evolveitsupport.co.uk)