The CESI mailing list is a great source of information. All this snow is keeping us inside so I’m getting loads of information. Today a contributor informed us of a potential way of supporting local business by working around the purchasing framework. I’ll paste a response he got from the ICT Policy Unit in the Department of Education.
“It is a condition of the grant scheme that schools use the ICT
Purchasing Frameworks where available for the purchase of equipment under this grant scheme. You can however, as a separate exercise, request a quote from your local supplier for the same products (do not use the Framework template for the other supplier as it is not part of the framework). It is important, however, that the quote requested is for identical equipment and servcies as to the one issued to those suppliers under the framework.Should you have any further queries please contact the ICT Policy Unit at 01-8896413”
To me that looks like if we find a product on the framework for an equal or lower price locally, we can buy it locally. This is good news. I’d love to hear of any successes on this.