RM threatens to axe 300 staff RM has told up to 300 staff that their necks are on the line following the completion of last month's strategic review. The cost-cutting programme is in response to plummeting education ICT budgets, which sources estimate are down in some cases by as much as 50 per cent. Specialist education supplier RM has already parted …
has been my experience in the past- their monopoly on schools IT supply has ripped off many an ICT department. I know support British and all that but not when it's at the cost of our children's education. Amazed they are still going - hope they have got MUCH better than they used to be
I slightly disagree with Alastair, the RM stuff I have experienced is *well marketed* rubbish.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, it was reasonable that teachers didn't have a clue about IT and so needed a bit of hand holding and PCs used to be so absurdly expensive that toughened ones made sense for a school environment.
That stopped being true at least ten years ago.
There is a need for specific UK school *software* but PCs should be bought as some function of cost and reliability.
The fact that RM still manages to sell expensive PCs tells us more about the daft way schools buy anything than about tech.
"The number of jobs at risk is in line with the figure given when the strategic review was announced – between 250 and 300."
One of *those* reviews, that no doubt started with this conversation:
RM Director: Mr Consultant, we need to shed 300 jobs.
Mr Consultant: No problem, my daily rate's £2000, and I'll get my PA to fill in the blanks on our pro forma "sack the minions" review.
I feel I have to defend RMs PCs as someone who has used them extensively. Its not cheap compared to what is available from the big players but then again its designed for quite a hostile environment. Try filling a classroom full of RMs PCs and another full of kit aimed at office or consumer use and see which one lasts the longest when kids are using them.
Pen resistent paint, non-scratch hard glass screens, built in cable lockdowns to stop kids pulling them out etc. Also they are designed so that someone can stand at the front of a room and talk while thirty of them are running during a lesson so are very quiet. Nothing here thats individually going to be a killer feature but add them all together and it makes alot of sense.
I cant comment on the RM software side of things as i have never used it. But if i had to spend money on hundreds of computers that are going to be used by kids i would rather pay a bit extra and know that its going to last in their little hands. I would expect the money spent on repairs to more mainstream PCs over their lifetime would far outweight the extra cost of the initial purchase of the RM stuff.
Also just to make it clear I do not work for RM.
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