St Martin’s School was founded by Lionel Woodroffe in 1922 and moved to its current location on Moor Park Road in 1924. It is an independent day school currently serving around 385 boys between 3 and 13 years of age.
The Background
Minerva was introduced to St Martin’s, Northwood via a mutual business contact in 2012. Having already reviewed their postage contract, Steve Gower, the bursar, requested that Minerva assist with the replacement of their telephone system and benchmarking of their call charges and line rentals.
Initial discussions with the school revealed that they were not particularly happy with the incumbent supplier as they were unreliable and not proactive in offering beneficial services or tariff reviews.
The original phone system was purchased in 2007 and the school were starting to have continuous problems. It was recognised that the entire telephony provision needed to be revised and updated as the calls and lines had not been negotiated for a couple of years either.
Minerva ran a detailed and comprehensive tender exercise on behalf of the school approaching 4 potential suppliers. The resultant audit report provided the bursar with all the relevant information he required to make an informed decision including new tariffs, customer references, comment on the financial standing of each potential supplier and more.
The Results
The school are now utilising a brand new telephone system with bespoke pence per minute costs and negotiated line rental fees all of which is with one supplier. The bespoke pence per minute rates resulted in the school saving 90.76% against their previous costs. A saving of 36.90% was found via the line rentals and the systems and systems maintenance review identified a saving of 24.52%. This equated to a total saving of £2,567.89 in the first year alone. The school now benefit from continuous year on year savings and equally important, they will receive a professional, friendly and reliable service from their new telecoms provider.
Customer Feedback
Minerva provided an excellent personal service explaining everything in detail and were quick to respond to our questions and in dealing with initial ‘teething’ problems we had with the new system. The cost savings were very pleasing and we calculated that the new phone system should pay for itself, including Minerva’s fee, within 4 years. However, the most beneficial aspect of the whole process was the time saved for me in not having to trawl around phone companies for quotes and follow that up with trying to compare like for like. Minerva’s comprehensive report was an excellent basis for my own presentation to Governors.
Minerva are a very professional outfit and I would use them again for similar procurement issues. I have no hesitation in recommending them to others.
Steve Gower, Bursar, St Martin’s School (Northwood)
