BECTA commissioned us to to design and develop an online secure website which every teacher in the UK was required to complete to ascertain the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of ICT in their schools. TCO is a method of identifying and understanding all of the costs associated with the acquisition, use and support of ICT, with the aim of improving decision-making about future ICT investment and deployment.

TCO was first devised and used in commerce and the IT industry. Becta commissioned the development of a TCO model specifically aimed at education. It is both an analysis and a support tool to help schools & colleges make informed decisions about their present and their future ICT provision.

• The Becta TCO model is an online system which guides each college through a process of identifying and inputting all relevant costs. When all data is finalised and verified, the system calculates the Total Cost of Ownership for the college.
• The Becta TCO model provides a detailed breakdown of the different categories of cost (e.g.
  hardware, software, support, networks etc.)
• The Becta TCO model consists of two parts for gathering information; a data collection process and a staff survey.
• The Becta TCO model also allows you to make comparisons with other colleges.