Six VARs rock up on Northern Irish schools deal

Capita, Stone, Kelway, Academia, BT and XMA victorious on deal which could be worth up to £2.5m

Six resellers have won a place on a hardware contract to supply a newly created Northern Irish education body.

Capita Managed IT Solutions, Stone Computers, XMA, BT, Kelway and Academia were awarded a place on the Microcomputer Hardware framework, according to a recently published contract-award notice.

The framework will see the sextet supply Northern Ireland's Education Authority (EA) with a range of kit including touch-screen and non-touch PC monitors, laptops, docking stations and microcomputers.

The EA was established at the start of April and replaces the five former Education and Library Boards as well as the Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards. The newly formed authority is responsible for education, youth and library services across Northern Ireland.

According to the tender document associated with the framework, there was no specific value attached to the deal, but the authority estimated it could be in the region of £2.5m excluding VAT.

The framework was split into six lots: microcomputers, laptops with docking stations, laptops, touchscreen laptops, 21in non-touch monitors, 24in non-touch monitors and 24in touch monitors.

Capita was awarded a place on the first four lots and Stone Computers won a spot on the latter three. XMA got its hands on the 21in non-touch monitors and the 24in non-touch lots, while BT scored on the laptops and laptops with docking stations lots. Kelway and Academia popped up on the touchscreen laptops and Microcomputer lots, respectively.