Always look to trends, not fads. Learn history because as one person put it, it doesn’t repeat but is sure does rhyme. Get good at working on the basics and stay agile to grab the opportunities as they pop up.
I met one of our largest school customers in London yesterday. They are planning major changes to some of the campuses in their Multi-Academy Trust. Their eyes widened and they listened in rapt attention when I told them how their outsourced IT support provider – which is us, under our Colwyn brand name – is also the UK’s largest, most prolific and trusted ICT consulting company – us under our Nexus brand name – which works with Department for Education new builds via the School Replacement Program (SRP).
They didn’t know that our Nexus consultants can help them navigate the build program, while their current outsourced IT support company can work right alongside it.
This means they will be able to make sure their voice is heard during the process – a process that some schools find stressful when not engaged by the Nexus team. The good news is that they will be well looked after from both sides of the ICT services for their schools.
They also asked me a really good question. How are we training people for the years ahead?
Many schools want to know how their staff are continually being trained, so that they keep up to date with all the changes. Even more important is the IT industry, which moves so fast.
They were happily amazed to find out that we work with our secondary school customers to place their best and brightest kids into paid work as apprentices. Those “Future Geeks of Greatness” get a first start and a decent income by working in a real company, straight out of school. We have many examples of bright kids who do their training with us and either stay or go on to other jobs after going through the “Flywheel method”.
That’s part of being an outsourced IT support company with a 100 year plan. Yes, I have always said I’m creating a 100 year company.
How is that possible, one may scoff, to look ahead 100 years when much of the worlds major tech wasn’t even invented 10 years ago?
Always look to trends, not fads. Learn history because as one person put it, it doesn’t repeat but is sure does rhyme. Get good at working on the basics and stay agile to grab the opportunities as they pop up.
And what is one of these trends?
Space.
Yes, space.
Pretty soon, you will need outsourced IT services for space based applications.
How soon? How about 5 years ago? Elon Musk and Space X have changed the landscape of space commerce. You can hitch a ride on one of their rockets for a fraction of the cost 20 years ago. Not only that, your business can hitch a ride of a ride-sharing hitchhiker, meaning you can send a small shoebox sized Cubesat for less than the cost of a luxury sports car. Plus, his Starlink internet service is now active and cheaper and better for rural customers than anything they can buy from their national carriers.
Satellites are just one trend. Advanced materials; 3D printing; Crispr and genetic reprogramming; nano-technology; AI and cloud… These will be as normal and unspectacular as a hand held computer that uses satellites to pinpoint you anywhere on the planet.
If your outsourced IT support provider is just a boring Captain Obvious flogging you boxes of stuff, you need to switch to a company that is keeping up with the new, the inspiring and the amazing. What if one of those ideas helped you cut costs, improve sales or improve teaching and learning?
Speak with one of our consultants to see how your school can benefit today from these changes coming from the future.
