Buying and maintaining information and communications technology (ICT) systems is an expensive business. Between 1997 and early 2010 more than £5bn in direct government funding was spent on technology in schools, over and above money spent by schools from their own budgets.
But the withdrawal by the coalition government of funding for key ICT programmes, including £100m cut from the Harnessing Technology Grant in its final year, demands a more resourceful approach to spending by schools in future.
"Schools will need to look closely at value for money," says Ray Barker, director of trade association the British Educational Suppliers Association. "They will need to consider their uses for the technology and ensure they are equipped to get the job done.
"In the past 13 years we have built up a firm ICT infrastructure in schools, in the form of whiteboards, virtual learning environments and so on. The challenge now will be how schools take that on and decide for themselves what is right for them," he says.
Barker advises not to buy on the cheap. An inexpensive printer may seem like it is doing the job until it emerges that the ink cartridges need changing every other week. "Often the more expensive option works out cheaper and more reliable in the long run," he says.
Software packages from reputable companies, which include automatic upgrades and staff training in the price, also tend to be cost-effective. "There's not much point spending less on a piece of software if it becomes useless because no one knows how to use it," says Barker.
However, schools hoping to cut costs by sharing with other schools or consortia partners need to be mindful of licensing constraints.
Bulk buying by schools working in collaboration will become more widespread in the future, Barker predicts. "If you approach a computer company and say you want to buy 50 computers you will get a better deal than if you only want 20. The only problem then is agreeing on what you want to buy."
Schools also need to stop viewing ICT as a financial outlay and more as an investment.
At West Hatch school, in Chigwell, Essex, the number of servers was reduced significantly through virtualisation – making them web-based rather than keeping machines on site – which has saved £12,000 a year in reduced energy consumption and maintenance. Most servers run at only 30% capacity, and the more servers there are, the more cooling systems are required to keep them functioning properly.
Alan Richards, the school's information system manager, says: "We had accumulated 24 servers for various functions, but streamlined these to nine by virtualisation. It's not difficult to achieve, but you need to do the right research and planning, so you know what you are starting with and what you want to end up with.
"Thanks to the rationalisation, we are also now more able to respond to the future IT needs of the school."
In fact, the green factor is emerging as pivotal to cost-cutting where technology is involved, both in reducing energy use and minimising waste.
Ray Fleming, education marketing manager for Microsoft, says there are two ways of looking at cutting costs. "You can reduce costs in terms of spending on IT and by considering how the use of IT can help in the running of the school," he says. "Heads of IT won't necessarily be thinking about saving energy, as this doesn't come out of their budget, but the carbon footprint is something schools are becoming increasingly aware of."
Cost of copying
Typically a school will spend more on energy and photocopying than it will on its ICT budget. Flemming says: "An average school will use 1m sheets of paper a year and spend £60,000 on photocopying but only £56,000 on IT. If it is the case that 97% of students now have the use of a computer at home, do you really need to print everything?"
It is a matter of changing habits, he says. In London, for example, an estimated £11m is being saved by schools that have converted to a Dublin-based Microsoft email server, rather than using individual ones run by local authorities.
"Straightforward changes in IT management – such as putting computers into sleep mode when not in use – can help schools to save money and care for the environment. Just reducing printing by half can save the average secondary £100,000 over three years," says Flemming.
