by James Fletcher l September 30, 2011 l No Comments »

The latest report from BESA contains some interesting findings, but nothing unexpected. Schools finding their own way with their ICT strategy? Hardly breaking news, certainly in the Primary school sector. The £70m per annum invested in Becta was in my view money wasted as outside of the mechanistic, inflexible BSF schemes, school ICT strategy over the past few years has been haphazard at best and chaotic at worst. Contributing to the ICT support for Primary schools remains fragmented across the UK, with a huge range in the quality of support services.

However what the BESA report highlights is that the need for effective IT support as IT remains core to teaching and learning in both the Primary and Secondary sector. The report indicates that almost half of Primary schools expect to maintain or increase spending on IT in 2011/12, despite the gloomy predictions for school funding – given that most Primary schools outsource their IT support there is an ongoing responsibility on the IT support industry to ensure the return on this ongoing investment is maximised, and children are given the fair crack at the IT whip. Schools themselves also need to realise that investment in IT needs ongoing maintenance, and need to invest appropriately in their support services – the IT support industry in education has a legacy of very low support contract costs, which undermines the initial investment as it generally results in poor levels of IT support.

Written in response to: “BESA: Schools must go it alone over ICT strategy“

by Christian Nagele l September 26, 2011 l No Comments »

To succeed in cloud, channel partners must work hard to educate themselves, says Ian van Reenen

While cloud services are still relatively new and many businesses are unaware of the opportunities available, more organisations are adopting web-based services every year.

Fears over security and privacy are subsiding as organisations come to understand the nature of cloud services and their potential benefits, and there is a renewed focus on CIOs reshaping IT services as a competitive advantage rather than a business cost.

Meanwhile, mobile devices have put online services in the hands of every employee and reshaped their expectations for IT delivery. Users not only have a clearer vision of what is possible, but they also expect it to be made available as easily and quickly as installing a new app. And if their IT department cannot provide it, they go ahead and do it themselves.

Read more…

by Ian van Reenen l September 21, 2011 l No Comments »

Becoming a successful IT service provider isn’t easy, no matter if you’re a corporate IT team, a Managed Service Provider, or a Local Authority supporting schools. Using world-class remote monitoring and management (RMM) software like CentraStage makes supporting those devices far easier. When you add in an business management platform such as Autotask to the mix you can automate and streamline pretty much anything!

Linking those two business critical platforms together can:

• Improve your services workflow.
• Centrally monitor and manage services to all your clients.
• Reduce costs and increase profitability.

Interested? Watch the recorded presentation and demonstration here! Where Rhonda Hain (Autotask) and Ian van Reenen (CentraStage) take you through the benefits.

For further details on Autotask visit www.autotask.com or contact sales@autotask.com.

by James Fletcher l September 16, 2011 l No Comments »

September

Wed, Sep 28, 2011 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST

October

Wed, Oct 12, 2011 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST
Wed, Oct 19, 2011 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST

In the event you can’t make one of the above, or you feel a custom demonstration would suit your needs best, please contact us sales@centrastage.com

 

by James Fletcher l September 12, 2011 l No Comments »