OSS blueSchool wins Excellence in Public Procurement Award 2007
Blue Fountain Systems, who won the British Computing Society's Best Supply Chain Management Award 2006 for their open source application blueSequence, have been awarded the highly coveted winner’s trophy in the Best Small Supplier Innovation category, in recognition of its work as the provider of the blueSchool application to Stockport Borough Council.
blueSchool™,which is used by schools throughout Stockport, has been developed using open source software technologies to deliver a web based virtual learning interface for teacher and student communication. The application is made up of e-mail, a content management system, website and calendar which are all accessed via a single log-in. The next release of the application will also include Moodle, the very successful course management system and will fully support the “Building Schools of the Future” program currently being implemented by central government. Further information on the blueSchool application cabn be found at http://www.bluefountain.com/solutions/bluelearning/.
The
prestigious ceremony, held on Wednesday 6 June 2007 at the
Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George Street, London, also
featured high-profile speakers Sir Michael Lyons, author of the
highly influential Lyons Inquiry into Local Government and
Chair of the BBC Trust; Dr
Neil Bentley,Director of Public Services Policy for the CBI; and; and Dr Vincent Cable, Shadow Chancellor for the Liberal Democrats.
Bringing together representatives from local authorities, public services, utilities and community initiatives, N3PD and the GO Awards is a unique date in the public procurement calendar, when the public procurement community recognises and celebrates the achievements of those who have striven to make a difference in their work, and who in doing so have contributed to smarter, more efficient procurement – so benefiting the end user and taxpayer.
Grahame Steed, Managing Editor of GO magazine, congratulated Blue Fountain Systems on its award and celebrated the success of the day:
"In the rush to achieve increasingly difficult goals, with the associated challenges and ever-changing requirements, it can be easy to overlook the good news stories. Congratulations must go to Blue Fountain Systems and all those who were recognised for their achievements - on this evidence, the future of public procurement is in safe hands."
Aidan McGuire, Sales Director of Blue Fountain Systems Ltd., said:
"We are really pleased to have won this award and are delighted that the blueSchool application has been recognized as being at the leading edge of web based IT systems for schools."
Aidan explained:
"The fact that the blueSchool application is an open source solution sends a clear message to everyone working within procurement that open source applications are robust and secure enough to meet the needs of the public sector."
Mike Partridge, Head of Education (E-services) for Stockport Local Education Authority said:
"Stockport Schools E- Learning Network working in partnership with BT/LDL chose Blue Fountain and open source technologies to provide a cost-effective and efficient solution for schools email, web hosting and web site content management."
Mike added
"Blue Fountain provided a logical and knowledgeable approach to the development of services that can continue to develop to meet future needs."
