When contracts come to an end it's good practice to re-procure, to make sure the product or service still meets your needs and gives you the best value for money.
Understand what you need
This document sets out the key features and functions you should be looking for in an MIS and in the provider.
When buying any product or service, you should involve the staff who'll be using it so you can make sure it meets their needs.
Give this list to relevant staff and ask them to feed back if there's anything missing that they feel they need - there's space at the bottom for them to comment.
The list, and the feedback from staff, will help you develop the specification you'll send to suppliers.
Remember hidden and ongoing costs
When you come to write your specification, it’ll be helpful for your planning and budgeting to have a good idea of the whole-life cost of the purchase. This also affects which procurement process you can use.
Remember there may be ‘hidden’ costs in addition to the initial purchase. Think about:
- Initial licence
- Annual maintenance fee
- Costs for any additional modules
- Support fee
- Consultancy fee
- Transfer costs, to move data to a new database
- Costs for additional licences
- Academisation costs
The DfE provides a range of guidance and resources to help you buy goods and services for your school.
Thinking of switching?
ScholarPack and Arbor are The Key Group's MISs.
Find out more about ScholarPack, or book a demo.
Learn more about Arbor, or book a demo.
