VARs get slice of £400m Becta pie
Three year framework set to provide lucrative opportunities for the chosen few
Good times: VARs celebrate their place on the lucrative lists
A host of channel players are celebrating making the cut on a major education IT framework, which could be worth £400m.
The chosen suppliers for the Becta ICT Services Framework One were finalised last month and the 10-day cooling off period ended on Friday. The 22 firms in Lot One have been selected to provide IT to individual schools and academies.
The 18 firms in Lot Two, many of which overlap with the first Lot, will deliver learning platforms and higher-end services across more far-reaching projects.
Familiar channel names to have obtained a place in Lot One include Capita, Civica, Centerprise, Dell, Ergo Computing, European Electronique, Northgate, Redstone, RM, Misco, Viglen and XMA.
The framework covers three years, with an option for a fourth. The outgoing framework, which was worth about £100m a year and contained only one Lot, consisted of 16 selected suppliers, only about half of which were particularly active.
With more than 2,000 schools on the road to becoming academies, this burgeoning market is expected to provide lucrative business through the new framework.
After coming to power, the coalition government acted swiftly to axe Becta, and some had feared the framework would also face the chop. This would have meant all tenders of more than about €155,000 (£135,000) having to go through the Official Journal of the European Union. This process could take up to four to six months.
But finalising the framework will effectively be Becta’s last act, before all contracts are novated to the Department for Education.
Bangor-based Gaia Technologies made the cut in both Lots, and managing director Anas Mawla said: “This is an exciting opportunity, not just for education suppliers, but for schools, as it will remove the need for them to go to a full European tender.”