The financial year is quickly coming to an end. A school full of reenergised pupils and a pile of post on your desk, pulling out your renewals can sometimes seem like a huge task. In a world full of articles on procurement, it’s difficult to find the best way to do it.
Here are some top tips to making it easier:
1. Renewals folder Having a folder helps. It might sound simple but even if it’s in your email as a sub folder having a go-to place where you can find everything you need makes the process a lot easier. This way all your SLA’s will be in one place.
2. Check T&C’s Terms and conditions are different for every company so make sure you understand them. Knowing your renewal dates can make the difference between getting a great service from a new company or accidentally auto-renewing (we’ve all made this mistake). One option could be to set up a simple spreadsheet that has all your SLA contract dates on so you can easily see when your renewal is due.
3. Review last year By doing this you can see if you have purchased any additional days support at a higher cost across all services, and if you have, it could be beneficial to increase your current service agreement to potentially gain a saving. At One Education, our Account Managers can help you do this.
4. Forward plan Look at next year’s potential spend and assess what purchasing you might have to do. This can feel like guess work but by having hardware reports in place and computer/server replacement dates really help you add big value spends into your planning.
5. Shop around As school budgets are becoming increasingly tight, each school is looking for best value. Shopping around can help cut costs in some areas but remember saving money doesn’t always mean great quality. It’s important to strike the balance between high quality and cost effective services.
How we can help you… At One Education we have specialists here to help you with this process. We can create quotes to compare to your existing service agreements free of charge. We can present to governors and write a summary of service to show why we really are fantastic value for money. We can be the friendly face you want to double check that you’ve got everything in place for the new financial year.
If you would like some guidance, a quote or have any questions please contact our School Account Managers at info@oneeducation.co.uk
Please get in touch or visit our school finance page for more information.
