And here lay the problem. The network manager and a couple of skilled technicians were doing a sterling job keeping the system afloat. Probing deeper revealed that the decision to use so much open source software was down to underinvestment in ICT and not its quality or fitness for purpose. In an institution where the purse holders had not engaged in ICT, the technical team had compensated for the lack of cash by using free software and a lot of their own time in learning how to configure it. The true costs of maintaining and developing the ICT infrastructure remained hidden from managers and further risks introduced for future strategic decisions.

I should state that I am a big fan of open source software and use it daily on my own desktop and servers. I have seen it used effectively in many schools and colleges- schools and colleges that have made a positive and informed choice to employ open source software.

When senior leaders do not have a sound vision for ICT and where there has been prior underinvestment it is easy to see people chose to go open source:

• You do not have to repeatedly ask for money from someone who may be unsympathetic or unconvinced.
• There may be a community on the net that gives you a sense of belonging.
• You get to choose areas in which you can develop your own skills and knowledge.
• You get to a sense of personal pride from problem solving in a situation where you can cast yourself as the hero.

However, from an organisational perspective this can exacerbate some risks:

• The total cost of ownership remains unclear for senior managers and can become even more complex to calculate.
• Knowledge of how the system works can be held by one person and therefore dependent on their health, disposition and reliability.
• Senior managers may later take a strategic decision without knowledge of the system and its capabilities and costs. I have seen this cause a real and expensive organisational crisis many times.

Of course none of those risks are intrinsic to open source software; they arise from a lack of overall vision, poor strategic planning for ICT, and a lack of managerial and financial investment.

I think you need to be good to use open source software well in schools and colleges. Good in the sense that you need to know what you want to achieve from your ICT infrastructure, the impact you want it to have on improving outcomes, and have the confidence to invest fully in ICT. You also need to have good technical staff and a healthy, open relationship between senior managers and technicians.

Then the choice to deploy open source can then be made on the basis of its quality, suitability and support, just as would any other approach be it proprietary or managed services.

Commercial reasons for outsourcing are well known: improve efficiencies to increase revenue and market share; bring in external expertise; and allow managers to focus on core competencies. The same reasons apply to schools and colleges. Of particular importance to education is the freeing up of management time to focus on learning instead of managing ICT support services. This usually becomes painfully evident when there is a problem with those ICT support services. In my experience the problem is only acted upon when it hits crisis point—a mess.

Understand what’s going wrong

By the time things become a mess it is usually clear that the ICT has been dysfunctional for some time. Before looking into any solutions, such as outsourcing, understanding the reasons for the dysfunction is key. Furthermore, having a clear notion of what a well run ICT service looks like is also an important first stage regardless of potential methods for resolution.

Take steps to understand your current provision, how you got there and what effect it is having:

1. Audit current provision as an enabler of your wider strategic priorities for learning, teaching, welfare and inclusion.
2. Understand the impact the provision is currently having on learning, teaching, morale and innovation within your school or college. Talk to staff and students, formal lessons and informal learning and scrutinise work (staff and learners).
3. Understand how much your ICT costs: equipment, refresh, staffing and on-costs, licenses, subscriptions, insurances, power, security.

There are lots of sources of advice. A good place to start is Becta’s Self Review Framework.

Fix it by knowing what’s of value to you

Now start to think what you would expect if you were buying this service from a commercial provider. Look to other intuitions, case study examples and frameworks such as FITS to understand what is valued across the sector. Combining this research with the audit will give a more complete understanding of your starting point.

Align your starting point to wider goals

Check your self evaluations, talk to your SIP, LA or LSC and ensure that your priorities are aligned. Find out what strategic priorities are coming down the line from central and local government and hence what constraints (financial or technical) need to be considered.

You should now have a strong starting point that tells you what you value and establishes your ‘business case’. You should be able to articulate your vision for ICT at this stage which can be encapsulated in the form of an Output Specification—see examples from Partnerships for Schools.

Get rid of the mess

Now get rid of the mess. Your Output Specification should be good enough to go to tender. It should also be good enough to sit down with your in-house ICT managers and discuss what the needs of the school or college are over the next few years. And, crucially, what is expected with regard to service levels, metrics and accountabilities over that period.

Whether you outsource or not, you will be in a much stronger position to lead ICT from the front and will have defined ICT in educational rather than technical terms.