Procurement - Considerations when purchasing ICT equipment

When purchasing ICT equipment, schools should consider more than just the price. Issues such as health and safety, sustainability, compatibility and problem handling are often more important.

Health and Safety

Local Authorities (including Sandwell MBC) have procurement systems in place that ensure that suppliers of equipment for use in the workplace comply with health and safety regulations. This includes:

• is the equipment fit for use in the workplace, e.g.

• does it have sharp edges that might cause accidents,

• is it earthed so that it will not give electrical shocks

• has the supplier obtained sufficient public liability insurance, if the equipment causes a fire that burns the building down, is the supplier covered?

Sustainability

• At the end of life, how will the supplier ensure that the equipment can be recycled according to regulations (WEEE)

Compatibility

• Will the equipment work properly with other systems in the organisation

• if replacement parts are needed, will they be available and will they work with other systems in the organisation

• will software (e.g. device drivers) be the same across the organisation's equipment, or will individual device drivers be required for particular systems?

Dealing with problems

• Will your voice be heard if you encounter a problem with the equipment that was not mentioned by the salesman?

Sandwell MBC has procurement arrangements which Broadband Sandwell make use of that address all of these issues.

Our suppliers:

• supply equipment that is of a "workplace" grade, this is by default more robust than the usual consumer grade

• employ sufficient quality control to ensure that equipment casings are constructed that will not cause accidents, and have insurance to cover themselves in the event that an accident were to occur resulting from poor quality control. Our suppliers are required to have £5 million Public Liability Insurance.

• ensure that equipment supplied is covered by the EU "CE" label and its associated certification.

• are required to ensure that the WEEE directive, which covers the recycling of equipment at end of life, is adhered to

• supply industry standard specification equipment, and ensure that larger purchases all contain the same hardware so that unattended software builds do not fail because hardware differs between systems.

• are with us for the long term, and understand that issues must be resolved or will result in loss of future business for them.

You will appreciate that these requirements may mean that other suppliers may be able to supply equipment at lower cost, but schools are advised to consider these extra benefits before entering into purchase agreements with other companies.

For more information about the EU CE Labelling directive, please see

http://www.berr.gov.uk/innovation/regulations/ecdirect/page12441.html

For more information about WEEE and other directives, please see

http://www.conformance.co.uk/directives/ce_list.php

For recycling advice see

http://www.green-computer-services.co.uk/