Nine VARs picked for £25m audiovisual framework

University consortium selects suppliers for three-year agreement

Nine resellers are celebrating getting a multimillion-pound audiovisual equipment framework issued by the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium.

The nonet of channel players comprises Softcat, AVM, Impact, Millenium Business Systems, Quadrant Visual Solutions, Racetech AV, Roche AV, Savile Audio Visual and Universal AV.

The framework agreement is split into three lots, with the first covering the supply of AV kit to six universities in the north-east. The tender description estimates that this lot will be worth a total of between £5m and £7m.

Lot two features 11 universities in Yorkshire, as well as the University of Lincoln. Its estimated worth is £8m to £10m. The final lot covers the supply of tech to a septet of Midlands-based universities, which have a cumulative pot of between £6m and £8m.

The framework is scheduled to run for three years from today. Softcat made the cut on all three lots, and Andy Bruen, public sector framework manager at the Marlow-based VAR, claimed the further education framework was a good fit for his firm's graduate-centric workforce.

"We are excited to be forging even closer links with our university customers. We have recruited 80 per cent of our employees directly from a graduate background, so there is a strong adjacency and empathy between Softcat and our university customer base," he explained.

"This year we are looking to recruit more than 100 new account managers, and it is extremely valuable to canvas the opinions of recent graduates to understand how the higher education sector is making use of technology."