The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) has just released it’s final report with recommendations on the adoption, deployment and interoperability of Windows Vista and office 2007 for British schools. The agency appointed Oakleigh Consulting Ltd (Oakleigh) to conduct a final comprehensive review of these products following the publication of two interim reports at BETT in January 2007. The first report was concerning Microsoft’s Academic Licensing Programmes and was interim as it was subject to ongoing negotiations with Microsoft. The second report concerned Vista and Office 2007 and was interim as it was based on beta products.

Oakleigh advised “. none of the second-phase findings alter our original recommendation that an upgrade to Windows Vista is not recommended at present in the UK educational environment.” The report continued “The new features of Vista add some value but, taking account of the deployment costs and potential benefits, widespread upgrade of the ICT estate in schools and colleges is not recommended”

BECTA said that the only reason for schools to consider moving over to Vista is if, at the same time, new infrastructure was being deployed. It also advised “We do not recommend the use of PCs in a mixed operating-system environment (for example Windows Vista and Windows XP). Although there are no technical reasons why this is not possible, running multiple operating systems in a single network greatly increases maintenance and support overheads” they continued “Where applications are only supported on one or other of the operating systems, this can lead to problems with machine availability or duplicated licensing costs. For these reasons we recommend that new machines that come with Windows Vista pre-installed be downgraded to Windows XP until such time as the entire network can be upgraded.”

Oakleigh also advised against the use of Microsoft Office 2007 saying “There is still no real benefit to be obtained by upgrading to Office 2007. Additional configuration and installation of software components is required to achieve interoperability between versions of Microsoft Office and / or alternative office applications. … There are some usability improvements in Office 2007. However, there is a low level of support for interoperability in the context of home and school use”

Dr Stephan Lucey, BECTA’s Executive Director of Strategic Technologies said: “Our objective is to make sure schools and colleges get the best possible value for money. Our advice is to be sure there is a strong business case before upgrading to these products as the costs are significant and the benefits remain unclear… We also want to see easier access to competitor products enhancing innovation and choice.”

Becta recommends that schools and colleges review the findings of the report before considering any large-scale investment or deployment, to read the BECTA full report click here

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