Scottish Borders Council Award £4.7m Contract

RM PLC
23 March 2000



      RM AWARDED £4.7m CONTRACT BY SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL

RM plc, the leading supplier of information and communications
technology (ICT), software and services to UK education, has won
the first authority-wide contract within the NGfL (National Grid
for Learning) Certified Managed Services Framework. The contract
which is worth over £4.7m, is to provide ICT, including internet
access and email, to all pupils and learners in the Scottish
Borders Council area.

RM was accredited by government agency BECTa as one of 11
education specialists to provide NGfL Managed Services to
education in July 1999. The accreditation scheme aims to help
schools judge suppliers not just on their ability to deliver
educational technology, but also to help schools achieve their
educational goals. The contract with Borders is the first to an
approved Managed Service provider under the accreditation system.
Scottish Borders Council has 72 primary schools, 9 secondary
schools and plans to have a pupil computer ratio of 7.5:1 and 5:1
in primary schools and secondary schools respectively.

Under the terms of the contract RM will provide each secondary
school with a 2 or 3-server RM Connect network, a dedicated
multimedia server to deliver multimedia content across the
network, and an RM Internet Communications Server. Every primary
school will use RM Window Box systems, networked in larger
schools, to provide access to multimedia resources and the
internet around the school. RM will maintain all the equipment for
3 years.

Every school will be connected to the Internet via RM's Internet
for Learning (IfL) service, providing 15,000 pupils with their own
RM EasyMail email address and access to the rich variety of
internet resources offered by RM through via EduWeb, Living
Library and Window Box OnLine.

Richard Girling, Chief Executive of RM plc said:
'We are very pleased to have won this substantial contract to
provide a managed ICT service for the Scottish Borders Council.
RM's success in this area is further confirmation of our leading
position as the partner of choice for schools and LEA's and we
believe that managed services will be a key area of future
growth.'

Enquiries:
Richard Girling         RM plc         01235 826000
Mike Greig

Andrew Fenwick          Brunswick      020 7404 5959
Gill Ackers


Notes to Editors:

1. RM is the leading supplier of ICT resources to UK education,
   providing educational software, services and systems to primary schools,
   secondary schools, colleges and universities.

2. Over 10,000 schools have now connected to the Internet via RM,
   some two thirds of these via networked connections. Some 480,000 pupils
   currently have RM EasyMail accounts.