Are you one of the thousands of schools or MATs looking to renew your existing MIS provider, or find a new one in 2025? If so, it pays to start the procurement process early, leaving yourself enough time to make the right choice for your school or MAT, and to make sure the procurement is compliant.
We’ve seen lots of organisations leave it too late, causing themselves significant problems. It can mean being forced to renew with your existing provider even if you want to change. We’ve seen some that have cut corners in the process. Recent high-profile legal disputes between some MATs and MIS providers have led to lengthy court proceedings, financial losses, and reputational damage.
A big challenge is that MIS providers are already getting booked up for on-boarding schools next year, so procure yours and book early if you don’t want to be delayed or disappointed.
When it comes to procuring your MIS you have three main choices. You can either run the process yourself, pay a consultant to do it, or use can use a recognised procurement framework.
Running it yourself comes with some obvious challenges, including getting the process right from start to finish. That comes with significant time and resource cost implications, as well as reputational risk.
Paying a consultant obviously has monetary cost attached, but don’t underestimate the amount of your time they will need to do their job. Make sure you get references, and that the consultant has done this before.
Using a framework can give you free resources, capacity, and the reassurance that your procurement will be compliant. And while there are many different frameworks you could you, we’d obviously suggest you use one recommended by the DfE.
“A fantastic service from beginning to end, extremely helpful and knowledgeable. In short, we could not have procured a new MIS without them.”
Mark Crompton - Strategic Network Manager at John Taylor MAT
How DfE recommended procurement frameworks can help
DfE recommended frameworks provide a safe and reliable route for your MIS procurement, ensuring compliance throughout the process. There are several DfE frameworks you can use, but here's how the Everything ICT (EICT) procurement framework can help:
Expert Guidance: We’ll assign you one of our expert project managers to offer support and guidance throughout the entire procurement process. Their job is to ensure a robust and compliant process to ensure you get the best MIS for your school or MAT.
Tailored Solutions: We help you tailor the Invitation To Tender (ITT) specification to meet your unique needs, based on the criteria and weightings you decide are important.
Fair Evaluation: You and your stakeholders evaluate the responses and score the ITT using the criteria and weighting. This ensures the tender process is demonstrably fair in identifying the best MIS for your school or MAT.
Audit Trail: We document the entire process so that you can prove to stakeholders (including Trustees, Governor or Auditors) that compliant processes were followed. It also provides extra protection in the unlikely event of a legal challenge (we’ve not had a legal challenge in 10 years of operation).
“Simple effective service used to procure our trust's new MIS System, the team at Everything ICT were friendly and knowledgeable leading to a successful contract award.”
Daryl Unitt - Head of Shared Services at East Midlands Academy Trust
The Benefits of Compliance
Running a compliant MIS procurement process is not only the right thing to do, it provides transparency and accountability, and builds trust with your stakeholders and suppliers. The benefits include:
Savings and Efficiency: Frameworks give you access to pre-vetted, compliant suppliers with competitive pricing. You also safe time and money by getting free access to experienced and expert resources.
Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Following proper procurement regulations when spending public funds ensures fairness, transparency, and equal treatment of suppliers. This mitigates risks like legal challenges, contract cancellations, financial penalties, and reputational damage.
Improved Outcomes: A well-executed procurement gives you more than just cost savings. It helps identify the best solution to meet your specific needs while balancing price and quality. This can maximise benefits like improved service delivery, access to supplier expertise, support for school improvement plans, sustainability, safeguarding, and financial security.
Social Value: You can specify desired social value outcomes like local employment, training opportunities, environmental initiatives, and community benefits as part of the procurement process. Suppliers must then demonstrate how they will deliver this additional value beyond the core contract.
“Paul has been fantastic in supporting us to procure a new MIS solution when our current provider decided to pull out of the MIS business, leaving us with an urgent requirement to implement change. We will be coming back to Everything ICT for future procurement. Thank you.”
Chris Shotter - Director of Communications and Technology at PA Community Trust
Conclusion
Your MIS is arguably the most important ICT purchase you ever make. It’s therefore vital that you get it right. If you think you want to renew your MIS contract, or look at alternative providers, you should start the conversation early. That way, you give yourself plenty of time to get the procurement right and make the best possible choice.
Our team of experts has been involved in over 400 MIS procurements for schools and MATs since 2020. We’ve had no legal challenges because our suppliers know that we run a fair and compliant process.
The Everything ICT service is free for customers to use, the suppliers bear the cost of the framework. To ensure value for money, suppliers have to sign a contract with us that states customers cannot buy their products and services cheaper through any other route, including going direct to the supplier.
Your contract is with us, not the supplier. That means we’re there to support you if there were any challenges. That protection is just one of the reasons why Everything ICT is a DfE recommended procurement framework for schools and MATs.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you with your MIS procurement, contact us today.