Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport which sought approval to refresh and rationalise the ICT server estate of the Council’s educational establishments by means of the development and implementation of a virtualised server infrastructure.

The report recommended –

that the Committee note the following proposals:

(a)       to progress the refresh and rationalisation of the server estate of Council education establishments by means of the development and implementation by the Council of a virtualised server infrastructure;

(b)       the Council’s entry into a framework agreement pursuant to the above recommendation, the particular framework agreement to be selected by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport following consultation with the Council’s ICT, Procurement and Legal teams, with exemption being granted from any of the Council’s Standing Orders relating to Contracts and Procurement in respect of which exemption is required in order to allow the foregoing;

(c)       the estimated expenditure of (1) an initial planned capital investment in the current financial year of £180K (noting that no additional capital is requested), and (2) £500K per annum over 3 years from the existing ICT investment budget in respect of such framework agreement;

(d)       the referral of this report to Finance, Policy and Resources Committee for approval to spend capital and revenue from existing budgets as described in the report.

The Convener noted at this juncture that the above recommendations should be agreed by the Committee, rather than noted as suggested above.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to progress the refresh and rationalisation of the server estate of Council education establishments by means of the development and implementation by the Council of a virtualised server infrastructure;

(ii)        to approve the Council’s entry into a framework agreement pursuant to the above recommendation, the particular framework agreement to be selected by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport following consultation with the Council’s ICT, Procurement and Legal teams, with exemption being granted from any of the Council’s Standing Orders relating to Contracts and Procurement in respect of which exemption is required in order to allow the foregoing;

(iii)       to approve the estimated expenditure of:

(1)       an initial planned capital investment in the current financial year of £180,000 (noting that no additional capital is requested).

(2)       £500,000 per annum over three years from the existing ICT Investment budget in respect of such framework agreement;

(iv)       to refer this report to the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee for approval to spend capital and revenue from existing budgets as described in the report; and

(v)        in relation to paragraph 4.4 of the report (page 283 ie “Improved management of the schools’ ICT estate will be possible through a single point of management, allowing the secondary schools’ ICT technicians to complement this service by managing local school requirements.  A review of the role of all the technical support staff will be carried out to determine potential changes to job descriptions”), to instruct officers to enter into urgent discussions with affected staff and trades unions.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendations.