Stategies to reduce the TCO of ICT in schools

Transcription

1 Stategies to reduce the TCO of ICT in schools Gerhard Schwed, MAS Department for Interactive Media and Education Technologies (Austria)

2 What I want to speak about 1. Who I am and where I come from 2. The situation and the problems of ICT in schools: 3. What is TCO (Total Costs of Ownership)? How to calculate it; who pays it; different models 4. Significant ratios and benchmarks to compare schools 5. Ways to improve the efficiency. 6. Best practise examples 7. Summary

3 1. Who? - Gerhard Schwed Study at Universities in Vienna and Krems : teacher at an austrian gymnasium (highschool) since 2000: at, Department for Interactive Media and Education Technologies current fields of work: - school ICT (1st course ICT Management for schools ) - Linux and Open Source Software (projects for the ministry) - multimedia - e-learning - internet based communication - usability and: 1 wife, 4 daughters, 2 dogs, 1 horse, 2 cats, some rabbits,

4 1. From where? - is the first public university in Europe which specializes in advanced continuing education. Located in Lower Austria, 70km west of Vienna in the famous Danube valley Wachau. The youngest and smallest university of Austria specialised in postgraduate education about 200 employees 3107 students from 43 countries in 124 courses (Average age: 39,3 years)

5 2. The situation and the problem (in A and GER) A lot of basic investments in ICT for schools in the past years, mainly for computers and internet. ( Bildungsmilliarde ) Not enough money for new equipment (beamer, notebooks, interactive whiteboards, ) and for professional support. ICT is often grown up and mostly supported by teachers or even private persons (husband, friend, ) => different and heterogeneous hardware, no plans, insufficient documentation, => suboptimal performance! All schools have nearly the same problems but every school has its own solution. => What can we do to improve performance, periodically renew the equipment and decrease costs?

6 3. TCO (of school) ICT is like an iceberg Hardware = only 14% of ICT costs. + 15% for software More than 60% of the money for: repair, support, training, electricity, room, desks, LAN, system management, security, updates, internet, wlan-access-points, infrastructure, paper, toner, ink, CDs, 1/3 for infrastructure + 1/3 for support => often not seen, underestimated, not planned

7 3. Total Costs of Ownership 500,- to 1.000,- for a complete standard PC with software But TCO for 1 business computer: 6.400,- up to for the whole live time (3-5 years) (estimated by Economist and Gartner Group) For schools typically smaller TCO but still more than 2.000,- Aim of some projects: to reduce TCO for schools below 1.000,- Problem in schools: costs are often paid by very different organisations: - school itself, parents, community government, federal ministry, sponsoring by companies, private people, parents, => It is nearly impossible to calculate the real TCO for a school. An evaluation in Germany and Austria shows, that nearly no school knows their own TCO. (ifib Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen GmbH)

8 4. Benchmarks and ratios Benchmarks and ratios to compare different schools or to evaluate the result of efforts or to compare the offers of different computer companies before bying. TCO/Computer or TCO/employee = typically for industry Problem: The use of only very old and cheap technology without maintenance will result in a better ratio! That s stupid! A real significant ratio must compare the TCO with the success in learning (like the PISA ranking). A new ratio: TCO / PISA - point??

9 5. Ways to improve the TCO - ratios 2 basic ways: a) to improve the use of ICT in school for more efficiency b) to decrease the TCO ad a) Improve the usage of ICT - high availability of ICT, well supported net as a precondition - good content and good software - good usability, easy to use - training for teachers (not only technological but didactical training!) - didactical material and hints

10 5. Ways to improve the TCO - ratios ad b) Decrease the TCO First and most important step: Make a plan and a detailed calculation for the next years! (In parts of Germany: A detailed Medienentwicklungsplan is necessary to get money) - joint centralized purchasing to get better conditions - database of certified hard- and software - longer usage of old hardware: computer virtualisation, servercluster, terminal server solutions, - free software (Linux, OpenOffice, ) instead of proprietary software - centralized management / remote management: therefore standards for school-ict and similar ICT are necessary - Standards for school ICT to improve the performance of help desks and reduce time and costs for support and administration Problem: It is sometimes not possible to reduce much in one domain if this will result in higher costs in an other because of different payers.

11 5. Ways to improve the TCO - ratios and perhaps c) Find new sources for money - traditional: classic investment by school or school authority: But there is not enough money - public-private-partnership, sponsoring: sometimes ok, sometims more problems than advantages - Leasing: new way; seems to be a practicable way - parents: In Austria more than pupils in higher schools use own laptops financed by their parents. (Nevertheless the school has to invest in infrastructure, server, ) - leasing for parents: for example 24,- /month for 4 years for a laptop => Problem: social gap

12 6. Best practise examples Linux and other OpenSourceSoftware in Austria - An evaluation for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education made by the Danube University in 2004/2005 shows a high potential for Free Software: better performance, less administration time, less security problems, no software costs, all in all lower TCO - The government of Vienna is going to migrate from Microsoft to free software; => schools in Vienna and some private training companies are following. (For example: 800 new clients => cost reduction of ,-) - Project in a part of Austria for central managed school servers for 400 schools based on the OpenSchoolServer = one solution for all schools, central management, central updates

13 6. Best practise examples Musterlösung Badem-Württemberg in Germany 3 example solutions based on Windows, Linux and Novell containing - list of certified hard- and software - CDs with customized software - handbooks, training material and trainings for adminstrators and teachers - list of certified local IT-companies for installation and support - central hotline - consulting for schools

14 7. Summary Mostly only the direct investment is seen but not the total costs of ownership in a long time view. It s quite difficult to calculate the TCO of ICT in schools but it is necessary to see the real costs and to plan improvements. There is a great potential to improve ICT and decrease the TCO. But ICT is expensive and there is a need for new ways of financing like leasing, private-public-partnership or payment by the parents. Schools must work together: standards for school-nets, joint purchasing, central support structures, central helpdesks, usage of proven solutions

15 Thanks for your attention!