TSL Education, publishers of the TES and TES.co.uk, the world’s largest professional network for teachers, has acquired a 50% stake in Sandgate Systems Limited, the owners of PropertyPrefect. It will be part of the TES BuyWire offering that enables schools to save money and manage spend and risk in non academic areas more effectively.
TES BuyWire will be re-launched in January and is already saving money in schools and has recently worked with the West London Free School to secure more than £100,000 in savings in non education expenditure. This allows a greater proportion of the school budget to be spent on education.
PropertyPrefect is a web based software tool enabling schools to manage all areas of property maintenance and health and safety issues more effectively. This is the largest area of unplanned expenditure in schools. It is also an area in which the school leadership team have personal liability.
In just six months, PropertyPrefect has almost 1,000 school users managing their activities and issues and we plan to roll out the service across all of the schools in the UK. In addition to the web based tool we will be setting up a help desk in the January for members of the school leadership team to obtain advice in this key area.
Louise Rogers, CEO of TSL Education, said: “We are very excited about this acquisition, as it complements our BuyWire service and the investments we have already made in digital technology for schools. Ian Bond and Adam Watson have done an outstanding job in bringing this new service and technology to market. We are confident the TES brand and reach can help to deliver the service on a national basis across the UK”.
Ian Bond, Managing Director of Sandgate Systems said; “We have had a hugely positive reaction from the schools that are using our services to date. Joining forces with the TES, a hugely respected and trusted brand whose innovative technology reaches into every school in the UK is a major endorsement of our service and gives us access to huge opportunities for the company”.
Adam Watson, Director said; “We are very excited about this partnership. PropertyPrefect is all about helping the school leadership team better manage their premises and unlocking more time to concentrate on their primary function. The combination of BuyWire and PropertyPrefect will be a powerful and proven way for schools to save time and money.”
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Note to editors
About PropertyPrefect
Sandgate Systems Limited was founded by Ian Bond and Adam Watson in November 2010. After a 6 month pilot scheme PropertyPrefect went live in April 2011.
PropertyPrefect is already used by 70 schools to manage all areas of property maintenance and health and safety issues more effectively.
Property Prefect is focused on the following key areas –
• Alerting by email imminent inspections/important activities
• Providing relevant and timely information for activities and tasks
• Providing an issue management system, so that problems can be recorded and managed
• Auditing progress and history, including document management, providing reassurance that the statutory tasks are being done
• Alerting when tasks are not completed so larger problems can be avoided
• Replacing many spreadsheets and paper systems with one easy to use system
• Providing reports demonstrating evidence of compliance
Cost
• PropertyPrefect costs £1,000 for secondary schools and £500 for primary schools.
For more information please visit www.propertyprefect.com
About TES Buywire
TES BuyWire is a unique online platform that enables schools to work together to save huge amounts of money on purchasing supplies ranging from paper to laptops and from pens to minibuses. BuyWire is a secure and efficient way to get quotations from competing suppliers and is also a forum where school business managers can get help and advice from their peers. Endorsed by the Department for Education, the National Association of Head Teachers and National Association of School Business Managers, TES BuyWire is available free to schools. www.tesbuywire.com
For more information on TES BuyWire please contact Robert Yems: mailto:robert.yems@tes.co.uk