Press Release | 23 September 2020
South Lanarkshire Council extends contract with RM Education to continue implementing its digital strategy
LONDON, 23 September – RM Education, a leading supplier of technology to the education sector, today announced an extension to its long-standing contract with South Lanarkshire Council. This relationship – which in its current form dates back to 2013 – has been extended for a further five years – to September 2025.
The next phase will see RM Education work with the Council to implement their digital strategy for the next generation of children – ensuring that they receive the education that they deserve. In light of the Coronavirus, this will no doubt include a continuation of the Council’s journey to the cloud, and supporting the children of South Lanarkshire with Remote Learning in case of further lockdowns or similar unplanned events that prevent students from accessing their classrooms, such as poor weather.
South Lanarkshire Council is one of the largest and most diverse council areas of Scotland. The area is made up of a mix of urban and rural regions stretching from close to the centre of Glasgow in the north to almost the Scottish borders in the South. The council supports a population of over 320,000 people, which includes 68,000 children and young people under the age of 18.
Following a competitive procurement process in 2013, South Lanarkshire Council selected RM Education for a seven-year, £35m contract, to fully manage its technology estate across over 250 establishments – from schools to nurseries, youth services to public libraries, children’s home to care homes – and to support the Council in its school modernisation programme. After seven successful years, the Council has decided to extend the contract for five more years – until 2025 – the legal maximum under EU procurement legislation – to enable them to continue the implementation of their digital strategy.
In line with the ever demanding needs of young people across South Lanarkshire, during the first phase of the contract, RM Education improved the network to ensure that it operated to the highest levels of quality and security. Behind the scenes, the core hardware has been refreshed twice (under a four-year rolling programme), all of the older on-site servers have been replaced, and the connectivity rationalised and centralised into a single contract with very high levels of reliability with the very latest Local Area Networks and wireless services.
As part of the contract, RM Education employs twenty people in the local community, and whilst a company of this size relies on staff across the globe to support a customer of this size, the majority of dedicated employees will continue to remain in Scotland for the duration of this contract.
“We have worked with South Lanarkshire for many years, helping to enable teachers to improve educational outcomes for their pupils. We are delighted that the Council have extended that contract for another five years. The job of technology is never done, but we are proud of the progress that we have made together over this time. One reason that we believe the Council selected RM is because we are Education specialists – we understand the needs of schools better than most – and are able to apply our expertise with existing and emerging technologies to what is needed in and – increasingly – outside the classroom. As we have seen over the last four months sometimes it is that deeper knowledge that can make the difference.”
John Baskerville, Managing Director of RM Education
“Digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the systemic delivery of education, as well as being central to the development of digital literacy skills and the technologies curriculum. This contract ensures that our pupils and teachers will have access to a high quality, modern digital infrastructure for the next 5 years to support our efforts to inspire learners, to transform the learning environment and to strengthen our communities through effective partnership working. Our schools will continue to benefit, too, from the high-quality support and service delivered by the team at RM.”
Stewart Nicolson, Head of Education (Senior Phase) at South Lanarkshire Council
RM is a leading supplier of technology and resources to the education sector, supporting schools, teachers and pupils across the globe –from pre-school to higher education – including examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions.
For more information on how RM could support your school or trust, visit rm.com/education
About RM Education
RM Education helps schools save time, save money and improve the impact of technology on teaching and learning. It is a market-leading supplier of software and services working in partnership with thousands of schools to improve outcomes for all learners rm.com/education
About RM plc
RM Education is part of the listed company RM plc – the £224m turnover British business, with over 2,000 employees globally, established in 1973, specialising in providing information technology products and services to educational organisations and establishments. Its key market is UK education including schools, colleges, universities, government education departments and educational agencies rm.com
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