Brexit leads to Schools ICT cost increases. Here's our solution

Schools and Colleges are facing price hikes of over 10% after tech-Giants blame post-Brexit exchange rates.

2016, the year that just keeps giving.

Not only the year in which we've sadly witnessed the death of many a great name in entertainment, we've also sat back and watched the demise of Great Britain's future place within the EU. Whatever your political stance, it was inevitable that via genuine (or other spurious)  reasons that someone stood to capitalise.

Now many industries are bracing themselves for the knock-on effect of a weaker pound, not least those involved in Education and ICT. With Microsoft, Apple, Lenovo, HP and Dell all announcing recent price increases, Microsoft headlining them with a staggering 22% increase on some of its cloud services.

Research conducted in this article highlights that this could amount to £20,000 increase annually for a secondary school!

Mark Orchison, managing director of 9ine Consulting, said: “From the day after Brexit there were noises from suppliers about the expected increase in cost for ICT equipment and software.

“What is now transpiring is a general move by manufacturers and suppliers to enforce price increases.

“Without a change in currency values, I believe schools are likely to see upwards of a 10 per cent increase in their ICT overall budget in the next 12 months, and in many cases, the cost increases are must-haves – such as Microsoft licensing, replacing PCs and servers. These will be unfunded costs that schools need to cover.”

In light of the above (and to avoid the typical 'doom and gloom' scenario favoured most by the press) we at Haptic have been working on turning this news into a positive action.

Our solution? Consider Chrome devices and G Suite (Formerly Google Apps for Education). With Chromebooks and Chrome Devices offering an already hefty 75% discount in terms of ROI, any price increases from big vendors will certainly make Chromebooks are more palatable option.

Likewise, with Microsoft set to massively increase the cost of licensing to education - we are currently working with hundreds of schools to highlight how using G Suite will significantly reduce spend as it is completely  free to Education.

Add to that our 1:1 parental contribution schemes and leasing options and you have before you a veritable armada of options to help deliver the ICT solutions your school needs, even in a post-brexit environment.

What next?       We await the impact of Trump's presidency (will it be dubbed 'Trump-In'?)