Timico have been regular attendees at The IT Directors’ Forum over the last 6 years. Timico first met the GDST on board the Aurora at the IT Directors’ Forum in May 2012. A short time afterwards the Trust was facing some challenges with the provisioning of a particular circuit via its incumbent provider and asked Timico for help. Later that year, the GDST put out a tender for an overhaul of its infrastructure and Timico were invited to respond along with a number of other potential suppliers.

CASE STUDY

The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) is the leading network of independent girls’ schools in the UK, educating approximately 8% of all girls in independent education across 24 GDST schools and two academies throughout England and Wales.

Mission possible : Connectivity as the enabler for change
The GDST achieves exceptional levels of academic achievement over a large cohort of students and is publicly committed to investing in areas such as ICT, facilities and forward-thinking educational initiatives. In support of this, and as part of the Trust’s mission to become a forward thinking and technically astute organisation, it embarked on an ambitious IT project to significantly enhance the connectivity infrastructure across the entirety of its schools and academies.

The IT Directors’ Forum has always been about interaction and the sharing of ideas. Through informal networking with peers, meetings with vendors, thought-leader presentations, and especially our discussion groups, we attempt to facilitate the sharing of the vast amount of experience and knowledge held by our attendees on board .

The discussion groups have never been as popular as they have been recently. In 2014, we have created more space to run the sessions and invited a larger number of moderators to increase the number and frequency of our discussion groups. This will ensure that , as an IT Director, if you are interested in being part of a conversation, we will have a place for you.

Delegates are now completing their most pressing business and technical issues. The same business issues continue to be important, integration, strategic alignment, social media strategy and cost efficiency.
Early indications show the top spending areas delegates are considering or implementing over the next 18 months are:

Headline findings include:

• Only 3% of the panel expect the economy to grow significantly over the next 12 months. However, just over half expect it to have shown some signs of growth (marginally).   
• The figures for 3 years’ time are much more optimistic.  18% of the panel expect the economy to have grown significantly whilst a further 64% expect it to have grown marginally. Only 2% expect it to shrink a little.  
• The highest proportion of the panel have either remained at the same level or will increase headcount this year.  A further ¼ have reduced headcount and may do so again whilst 11% have reduced headcount and don’t expect to do so again. 
• 51% of the panel feel their revenues will increase over the next 12 months, whereas 45% feel their profits will do likewise.  For this to be correct then it would suggest that organizations are going to have to find those profits from elsewhere; reduced headcount, tighter cash flow and general cost cutting are all likely to figure prominently. 
• 20% expect to see their budget increase compared to 30% who expect it to see it go the other way.  The rest, 50%, don’t see it changing.
• 10% of organizations expect to move some part of their business outside the US over the next 2 years.  The most popular destinations are Canada and South / Central America.
• There is no overwhelming satisfaction with the Administration’s handling of the economy.  However the number thinking it’s been very good has improved from last year, from 3% to 11%.  Those thinking it’s been acceptable has fallen slightly to 29%.

View full report http://revents.info/l/6qF

The Finance Directors' Forums 2014 March Update is now available to download.