Famous five rock up on schools mega-framework

RM, Capita IT Services and Redcentric among handful of services firms awarded place on multimillion-pound internet deal

A handful of resellers have won a place on a lucrative framework to supply internet to schools across the South East of England.

RM Education, Capita IT Services, integrator MDNX, Easynet and Redcentric – a newly formed spin-off of VAR Redstone – all found themselves on the framework, which will be worth between £28m and £48m excluding VAT.

Bracknell Forest Borough Council led the contract, but the suppliers will provide their wares to schools across the South East as part of the South East Grid for learning (SEGfL) initiative.

More than 3,000 schools are part of the SEGfL project, which aims to provide the region's schools with fit-for-purpose and sustainable broadband services. A million pupils and 57,000 teachers use the SEGfL's services.

The five suppliers will provide the schools with a range of broadband-related services including internet gateway and filtering, identity management services, VoIP and digital media services as well as videoconferencing tools.

The current SEGfL catchment area spans 17 local authorities across South East England, but in a recently published contract award notice, it said extensions to other authorities might be considered if economically advantageous.

The newly awarded SEGfL framework is the fourth iteration of the project.

MDNX was one of the firms praised by SEGfL director Greg Hill who said its business model will be beneficial for member schools.

"The MDNX independent integrator model means that we utilise the best possible service from all the UK's telecoms providers to ensure that the SEGfL schools will enjoy the best network performance at the best price point at each location," he said.

For Redcentric, the SEGfL win marks one of many recent contracts it has signed. It claims it recently won new contracts and renewals to the tune of £1.6m.