Out-sourcing VS in-sourcing of IT services in a K-12 Educational Environment Nathan Hutchings (Director of Information and eLearning Technologies)Mark Glover (Business Manager)

Genazzano Profile

• Independent K- 12 Catholic Day & Boarding Girls School

in Melbourne with approximately 1150 students• 40 Boarders who live off campus • A separate year 9 campus connected by

microwave link• Co-educational Early Learning Centre• SES 122• Celebrating 125 Years in 2014• Strong academic reputation• Experienced significant enrolment and capital development growth post 2000

IT@Genazzano 2016

• IT services are provided by an external contractors• Services include helpdesk, network management,

database administration, engineering, analytics & reporting, development, etc.• Pre 2009 – laboratories and small number of laptop

trolleys• 2010 – 1:2 laptop trolleys then in 2011 – 1:1

program/DER• In 2016:

• P-4 iPads (1:1 at school)• 5-6 MacAir(1:1 take home)• 7 – 12 BYOD, mixture of Mac and Windows (min.

specs, no iPads)• Multi-Media Mac Laboratory

Reasons change

• Current arrangement dysfunctional• Chance to change given departure of key

internal IT personnel• Trial a mix of in-sourced services and out-

sourcedservices

• Return to insource model due to dissatisfaction of outsourced model/partner

• Flexibility and access to greater engineering anddeveloper/programmer resources with out-sourcing

• Moving to cloud services and BYOD

Benefits of outsourcing

• Access to wider range of skills and specialist services

• Can be more flexible, less change averse • IT Personnel issues managed externally• Draw upon experiences from other schools

or industries• Human capital cost can be more easily

managed

Possible risks of outsourcing?• Your school is not the only school

serviced by the vendor• Development of systems paid for by your

school otherschools may benefit from

• Frequent personnel changes as they move fromschool to school

• IT staff are not matched for cultural fit within your school

• IT Staff maybe great at technical solutions but donot understand IT as it is experienced by teachersand students

Possible risks of insourcing?• Lack of access to other services such as engineering

and programming services• Cost of ongoing and relevant training for IT staff• Difficulty of employing the right people for IT jobs

within a school• The school serving IT rather than IT being driven by

teaching and learning • Change averse, lack of flexibility

Our experience at Genazzano• Moved to outsourced arrangement as

internal approach was dysfunctional, this occurred over 8 years ago

• Appointment of Director of IT and eLearning 2013

• Review existing provider in 2014 • Engaged external consultants Deloitte

(Paul Engelman) to manage tender processes and communications Paul

• Process was a closed tender, 12 companiesapproached, shortlisted to a final 4

• Process completed late 2014

Prior to tender process

• Documentation, documentation and more documentation

• Map your network • List your processes and procedures, backup,

disaster recovery, on-boarding off-boarding, change management

• Do a physical audit of your IT equipment• Do an audit of all server and

end user software• Describe and map out existing roles and

responsibilities within the IT service,include reporting lines to executive

Prior to tender process, cont.• Existing operating hours and locations• Service catalogue, if you don’t have one build

a list • Quantify number/type of jobs/tickets during

peek and non peek times• Service level expectations • Co-ordination with external suppliers • Bring this all together to define what is in or

out of scope.• Even if you do not proceed to tender from this

point you would have created a valuable snapshot of your existing IT systems

Tender process • Market Scan then short list• Prospective vendors (n=12) contacted by

consultant, expression of interest (EOI) called for

• Shortlist created after review (n=6) of EOI then request for proposal (RFP) called for

• Shortlist from RFP then vendors given opportunity to present their proposal

• Final four selected after call for best and final offer (BAFO)

• BAFO applied to a weighted matrix/score card to determine final two vendors

• Draft contract offered to successful vendor

How to make the process a success• Choose your consultant wisely • Allocate a lot of time to reviewing your

existing IT systems• Will only work if your Principal is highly

supportive of the process, keep then up to date with key information, don’t drown them in documentation

• Your weighted matrix/score card is a model use it to hone in on key discussion points

• Have someone who is a teacher involved in the process, remember it is learning and teaching that drives IT in a school not the other way round

• Not enough time and money will kill the process give yourself 6 months for the whole process and your IT Director will have to spend half of their week working on it

What we learned at Genazzano• Having a Business Manager and IT &

eLearning Director drive the process was key to success

• Using an external consultant greatly improved the arms length nature of the decision given existing outsourced arrangements

• Continued management of relationship with vendor via Business Manager and IT & eLearning Director working well

• Every school is different so our approach may not work with your school

• Continually revisiting the documentation that came from the tender process helps to keep vendor focussed on your teaching and learning needs

Thank you for listening

• Questions?• Please see me after the presentation if you

would like to know more