Welcome to the Novatech Business Site

Make a detailed plan and calendar of what equipment you will need and when. Most schools refresh a lot of equipment every three years, but this is not always the most cost-effective use of budgets - savings can be negotiated with suppliers if you can show them a long-term purchasing plan.

The price of the actual hardware is only part of the cost. What does each machine cost in power use, extended warranties, support, external and internal maintenance, staff wages and upgrades? Cheap products can be more expensive when factoring all the other areas.

Go direct to a UK manufacturer who will always be able to offer bigger discounts and better warranties and support than any middle men or purchasing contractor. Most are members of approved purchasing frameworks and their components are identical to big brand name suppliers'. You're far more important to a local company than a foreign giant so they will go to greater lengths to look after you. We would say this wouldn't we, but it's true.

What do you really get from a specialist purchasing company and do the perceived discounts really add up as a long-term advantage? Middle men work on small margins and are unlikely to be able to offer the comprehensive and reliable support of a UK manufacturer.

The expert consensus is that Wi-Fi is the future and your networks will need to be strong to cope with so many mobile devices. A robust system that can handle multiple logons and heavy video-streaming loads is a must. This does open opportunities to reduce cabling and other hardware costs with parental contributions and grants for 'a device for every child' projects.

Why buy machines outright? Schools have perfect credit rating and huge savings can be made by leasing or even renting hardware. Manufacturers like Novatech now offer machines on a monthly payment plan that includes comprehensive warranties and support - Hardware can be factored as a monthly cost rather than a capital cost.

Buying in bulk increases discounts and by teaming up with other schools in clusters, as a group of secondary feeder schools or as informal federations gives radically increased purchasing power. If you're not sure who you could team with, Novatech can help - they don't have to be local - other faith schools or members of education trusts can benefit from collaborative purchasing.

You don't buy a new car if all it needs is an oil change and new brake pads. Think the same with PCs. Would a new graphics card or motherboard extend the useful life of your hardware?

Think what the machines will be used for - do all your machines need huge memory space, high-def screens and high-powered graphics cards? Manufacturers like Novatech can build bespoke machines that cut out unnecessary components to reduce unit cost.

The new generation of hardware has energy reduction technologies that can reduce power consumption by up to a third. Utilise energy saving software to ensure idle machines are powered down automatically and laptop charging trolleys don't run unnecessarily.