Member Article

Knights Templar School expand ICT provision through savvy purchasing

There are many factors which play a role in a school’s purchasing decision, particularly when investing in ICT equipment. Criteria such as quality, reliability, support and price are usually top of the list in the decision making process.

It’s important to shop around and understand what’s available to schools as product choices, machine specifications and prices can vary considerably.

The Knights Templar School in Hertfordshire, a secondary school and sixth form with a rich and interesting history dating back to the 1930s, did just that. They utilised the highly respected IT forum Edugeek to seek advice and expert knowledge on ICT equipment specifically for the school environment.

That’s when they discovered ICT Direct, suppliers of high quality ICT refurbished equipment to schools.

ICT Manager Andy Field at The Knights Templar School commented, “We are always looking for a good deal and tend to shop around with several suppliers. No other supplier come close to offering the 24-months gold warranty for free that ICT Direct offer. The majority of other suppliers of refurbished equipment only offer 12 months warranty and none of them are as comprehensive as the one ICT Direct, so this was a massive plus for ICT Direct.”

Over the past 2 years The Knights Templar School have been so impressed with ICT Direct that they have purchased around 150 Computers, 25 Monitors, an Apple iMac, plus several accessories and believe they have saved around £30,000 by buying refurbished equipment through ICT Direct.

These considerable savings of course provide massive benefits to the school.

Andy continued, “Making these huge savings has allowed us to change our equipment at a much faster pace and improve our ICT provision across the whole school. We are now in a position where we can make great savings on our ICT budgets moving forward and knowing that all the computers are covered for at least 2 years means that we don’t have to worry about a large maintenance budget either!”

So many ICT companies have a reputation for poor customer service, but that isn’t the case at all with ICT Direct. The Knights Templar School have only had a couple of issues from their vast shopping list and these have been dealt with swiftly and without question. Even when one computer made a little more noise than the others due to one of the fans, a quick call to ICT Direct meant a replacement fan was in the post for the next day.

People are nervous about purchasing refurbished equipment and that is understandable, however the ICT equipment supplied by ICT Direct is from highly reputable brands such as HP, Dell and Lenovo and are business grade machines, making them a higher specification and more robust than standard consumer grade machines that schools use.

Andy concluded, “Only a couple of years ago I would never have imagined that when looking for replacement hardware that I’d consider refurbished equipment. Having tried a couple of suppliers in the past I’ve always purchased new. Refurbished equipment wouldn’t prove cost-effective as things would go wrong. With reduced warranty periods what you would save on the initial procurement would soon disappear in the maintenance. Fast forward to today and even with a new building due to open at the end of the year I’m thinking what deal I could get from ICT Direct. Their service is exceptional, always friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. The equipment is fantastic, the support is fantastic and the whole company is fantastic – I would recommend them to any school looking to purchase ICT equipment and have already done so!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Zebra Colour .