Month: February 2022

The asymmetry of relations between schools and the providers of solutions they use.

During last year a third-party software solution vendor decided to change its pricing model, which in turn resulted in a significant cost increase to the school.   It is only now however that I have had time to write and share my thoughts on this.   Now, I can understand their reasoning for the increase, given their model made them significantly cheaper than the competition when we originally looked to source a solution, and therefore despite providing a similar service, they would have had lower income.   That said, it still felt unfair.

So, what are the factors here?

Communication

In this case the communication wasn’t great, as it wasn’t until our renewal that they communicated the cost increase with us, where clearly, they must have planned the change including modelling its impact on both the company and its users.    I would have hoped that they would have clearly communicated their plan for a price increase in advance, outlining to customers the reasoning for the change and how the new funds would be invested and used to the betterment of the product and therefore its loyal customers.   A little bit better communication, and more information may have made me at least a little more understanding as to the change.   Sadly, in this case all we got was a quote with a price significantly higher than the cost from the previous year.

Training and sunk costs

Following this unfair treatment, it might seem logical to simply change vendors, especially now where this vendor is now comparable in terms of price with other solutions.   The challenge here is that we can’t purely look at the bit of software and its cost, we need to consider the number of users, type of users, training and support, the complexity of the system, etc, if we are truly to identify its impact or the impact of trying to change systems.   This is where it gets difficult as it will always be easier to stay with the solution you have, than to change to a new solution, especially where the solution you have has been in use for several years.    You have already paid the cost of setting the solution up, adjusting processes and training users.   With any change in solution these costs will still need to be paid.   At this point you need a robust motivation to change, where in my case, the minor feeling of unfairness is unlikely to be enough.

So, what to do?

I decided that as the total cost of moving to a new solution was higher and represented more uncertainty, despite the feeling being unfairly treated, I decided to stay with the vendor in question.   I did however make sure our unhappiness as to this incident was made clear.   Maybe there will be some potential for negotiation on cost following this however at the time of writing this is unknown.   I know this decision seems imperfect, but we live in an imperfect world.

Wider implications

The above incident however highlights the wider implication where we invest in solutions for use in our schools whether they be learning platforms, productivity suites, management information systems or other solutions.   As we invest, and use and eventually embed each system, we need to consider what our exit strategy might be.    Although we hope each third party may have us, the customer, in mind it is likely their key focus is on their continued commercial operation and on growth where possible.   As such the customer isnt us as an individual school or MAT, but schools, the collective group of schools they currently or in future may wish to sell to.

We are investing in their platform to provide something to our schools which we can’t provide for ourselves.    They however are less invested in us as we are but one school in a sea of schools to which they sell their product.   The relationship is decidedly asymmetric.

Conclusion

I wish I had a solution for this issue but sadly I do not.   The relationship between a school and the third-party solutions it uses isnt balanced and as such even if the vendors direction is currently aligned with yours, it is unlikely to remain so.

The only recommendation I can therefore offer is to be aware of the asymmetry of the relationship and have an eye on possible alternatives should the push become significant enough to offset any training or other costs.    Also, where unhappy, be sure to make vendors aware as it is likely you won’t be the only person, and if a vendors collective user base all complain the vendor may be forced to reconsider any proposed changes.

The big vendors we are all using, such as Google and Microsoft, may represent the above issue taken to an even large scale.  If their solutions ceased to align with school needs, how easy would it be to move solution, where all your data, your training, etc is so heavily invested in these solutions continuing to remain in alignment with individual school needs.   This may be an even more significant risk, however hopefully one which we will never need to realise.   As such it may therefore be ok to have at least considered the risk.

9 Years of blogging

Feb 12th 2012 and I was sat on the bed at night, creating my new blog.   My first post was a short one, but little did I know that I would still be blogging some 9 years later.   374 posts have passed under the bridge since that evening at home in our villa in the UAE.   Now I sit at home writing this, some 1000’s of kilometres away from where my blog began, now living in Somerset rather than Al Ain.

My blog has never had a huge readership; to be honest it barely has a small readership; however, I have found the process of writing useful for myself, forcing me to order my thoughts before typing them out.  At a recent virtual event, someone commented about where I find the time to blog in addition to my normal workload as a Director of IT.   There is only a limited time in the day, and this will never change, so I try to avoid concerns about the lack of time.  Instead, I have always sought to prioritise, and that includes putting some time aside to write my blog.   Often this has involved stealing a small amount of time here and there.   As I type this, the Amazon TV series Reacher is on in the background, and I am half watching it as I type this.    Given I try to just get my thoughts down, rather than seeking to create a literary masterpiece, this works for me.   Most of my posts have been written in a single sitting rather than being reviewed and edited, which explains, and hopefully excuses, the number of typos, grammar errors and sentences which read poorly.

The other benefit I have found from blogging has been the fact it creates a record of my thinking.    As such, when I look back it provides a window into my thinking at a particular moment in time, in the past.  I have found this useful in charting how some of my views, opinions and beliefs have changed over the last 9 years.   We seldom admit or even appreciate how much our views and beliefs change, however having a written record, has helped me to realise how much and where I have changed, and where I have not.     I think in future, when I look back on the period 2020 – 2022 and the pandemic, I might find particular value in the records of my thoughts and from this there might be a number of learning points which I can take away.

I also hope that in blogging I am contributing to the wider world, to the education and technology discussion.   Ultimately is this not something we all wish for, to have achieved something and left something behind.   I hope that at least some of my thoughts have contributed something meaningful to the discussion, and I hope to continue to do so.

Blogging isnt for everyone, and to be honest I never really thought it was something I would get into.   That said, I would recommend that if you are thinking about it, just do it.  Don’t worry too much about who will read your posts, about what you will write about, etc, just be yourself and share your thoughts.   The more people sharing in my view the better, especially as we continue to work through the difficulties presented by a global pandemic.

So, with this, that’s 375 blog posts in 9 years.   Onwards to another year and I look forward to continuing to share my thoughts.

Thoughts on Safer Internet Day

This week included Safer Internet Day, the 8th of February, with a lot of additional posts on internet safety making their way onto social media.   I think safer internet day is great to sign post resources, focus thinking and share thought and ideas regarding online safety, however equally I worry that it becomes a single shot deal.  I worry that it signifies the 1 day a year when online safety receives a focus.

I have recently tended to focus on the cyber security aspect of online safety in particular, talking to students about securing their accounts, data breaches, etc.   This has largely been due to my interest in this particular area and a feeling that this area is sometimes neglected or is believed covered through a discussion of what makes a strong password.  I think that students have found our discussions useful however I wonder about the overall impact where these discussions happen infrequently.     Students may listen intently, engage and even contribute, but once they return to their daily lessons and the daily requirements of study, homework, etc, I feel that the discussion of cyber security and the concepts raised may largely become lost in the sea of other information and priorities.   When they next pick up their device, or sign up to a new online service do they give thought to the presentation they received, or do they simply repeat their previous behaviours and sign up with little consideration for online safety?

One of the big challenges is how we fit digital citizenship, online safety and cyber security into the available time such that it occurs regularly.   With ever increasing curriculum requirements the available time is only shrinking, and I note that seldom do we see net impact of curriculum changes resulting in less things to cover.    As we use more technology in our schools, as our students use more technology in their education, but also in their day to day lives, surely, we need to spend more time discussing the risks, as well as the benefits.   Surely, we need to spend more time looking at how we manage ourselves in a digital world, how we manage our online identity and our personal data.   But where is this time coming from?

And this is the crunch;  Safer Internet day, which I have already acknowledged I like, may highlight the limitation of our current approach to online safety.    It feels tacked on, an additional item, rather than something core, something truly important.    We might run presentations or get guest speakers in, but all this really does is tick a compliance box.   To truly cover online safety we need something more embedded, something which is ongoing throughout a students time in schools or colleges, we need to develop a culture of online safety.   We ideally need everyone modelling behaviours which represent good online safety, whether this is the teachers or the students.   We also need poor behaviours to be challenged and questioned.

Developing organisational culture is a long term and slow process, which in my experience is often the sum of lots of little actions taken across an organisation, which adds up to a statement of “how we do things around here”.   As we use greater use of technology, we need to be increasingly focussed on making sure our usage of technology is “safe”.   

But technology, unlike culture, moves quickly so we have no time to waste.   I think we all need to ask ourselves, what is the online safety culture like in our school and how can we develop it, how can we make sure it equips students with the knowledge and skills they need in this increasingly digital world.