IT Vision and Digital Strategy
Let’s talk strategy! A robust digital strategy for MATs and Schools is crucial for creating an effective learning environment and to give students the right digital tools which can help them thrive in an ever digitally evolving world.
And a strategy is only useful if it stays alive. As a UK-wide education IT partner, we don’t hand you a PDF and drive away — we build your three-year roadmap with you, cost it over five years, and track every workstream live in AIT Horizon, the leadership platform included with our service. Not sold on top.
Trusted across the UK
A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
A strategy drive by shared core principles
At AIT we believe in empowering schools and educators to leverage the power of digital technology to enhance the way in which the curriculum is delivered and improve learning outcomes. With our support, our specialist team will help your School or MAT develop an IT Vision that meets your values to build a clear directional IT Strategy which optimises current technology onsite combined with a long-term roadmap. We understand the core challenges the education faces, and planning is crucial to ensure that technology can be enhanced and true value achieved. Our team prides itself on taking a personal approach, getting to understand the DNA that flows through your school or wider Trust. It’s our understanding of people, places and technology combined that makes AIT the right partner to help you achieve your goals.
Most schools we meet already have a strategy document somewhere — usually written by a consultant, presented once, and quietly forgotten in a shared drive. The problem was never the thinking; it was the format. A strategy on paper can’t tell you which workstream has slipped, what next year’s device refresh will cost, or whether your policies are still current. Ours can, because it lives in software our team looks at every day — the same team that provides your school IT support, builds your network infrastructure, and runs your broadband.
Our core principles
People First
Technology change succeeds or fails with staff. We plan training and adoption into every workstream, not as an afterthought.
Quick Installation
Roadmap actions turn into scheduled, delivered projects within the term they’re planned for, handled by our own engineers.
Results Orientated
Every workstream on your roadmap has an owner, a deadline and a measurable outcome, tracked to completion.
Innovation & EdTech
We keep your strategy aligned with where education technology is actually going, from cloud platforms to classroom devices.
Holistic Approach
Curriculum, operations, safeguarding, budget and infrastructure are planned together, because in a school they never happen apart.
AIT offer expert consultancy services to schools and MATs, assisting them in developing a clear vision and roadmap for their digital strategy. We work closely with school leaders to understand unique needs and challenges, providing tailored guidance and advice. We take a holistic approach to IT Strategy looking at all aspects from the current approach to IT, Culture and how technology is viewed within the school.
Your strategy lives in AIT Horizon — not in a PDF
This is the difference you’re actually buying. Every AIT strategy engagement is delivered through the Strategy Roadmap module in AIT Horizon, our leadership platform — included with our service, not sold on top.
Your three-year roadmap sits in Horizon as a living plan. Each workstream — device refresh, cloud migration, wireless upgrade, safeguarding systems, staff training — carries a RAG status that updates as work progresses, so a governor can see at a glance what’s green, what’s amber, and what needs a conversation. Horizon’s RAG compliance tracker and policies area sit alongside the roadmap, so the strategy, the policies it depends on, and your compliance position are all in one place.
Horizon gives different people the view they need:
- Executive view — for trustees, governors and heads: the whole roadmap at a glance, RAG status by workstream, and the five-year financial picture behind it.
- Schools view — for heads of school and business managers in a trust: your own school’s roadmap, refresh dates and policy status, without the noise of the wider estate.
- Support view — the same roadmap our engineers work from, so what leadership agreed and what actually gets scheduled are never two different documents.
And when you do need a document — for a governors’ meeting, a trust board pack or an auditor — the roadmap and its budget projections export to Excel or PDF in one click. The PDF is a snapshot of the plan; the plan itself stays live.
You’ll find Horizon, alongside our other platforms, through the Customer Portal — one login hub for everything we run for you.
Illustrative demo data
See five years of IT spend before you commit to year one
The hardest part of a school IT strategy isn’t the vision — it’s the finance. Horizon’s IT Finance module turns your roadmap into five-year budget projections, covering the two lines that catch schools out most often:
- Hardware refresh — every device, server, switch and screen in your estate has an expected end-of-life date. IT Finance rolls those dates forward so you can see refresh costs landing by year, and smooth the spikes across budget cycles instead of discovering them in April.
- Software licensing — subscriptions and renewals mapped over the same five years, so a licensing step-up in year three is a planned line, not a surprise invoice.
Illustrative example (static figures for illustration only — your projections are built from your actual estate): a two-form-entry primary might see a projected £6,000 wireless refresh in year 2 and a £24,000 classroom device refresh in year 4 — visible today, so both can be phased or grant-funded rather than absorbed in a single painful budget round.
For multi-academy trusts, the Executive view aggregates these projections across every school, giving central teams one financial picture for the whole estate — and for bursars at independent schools, the same projections support fee-planning and capital committee papers, exported straight to Excel.
When a refresh year arrives, procurement doesn’t fall off a cliff either: quotes, purchase orders and delivery tracking run through AIT Ordering, so the plan in Horizon becomes kit in classrooms with a paper trail your finance team can follow.
People, places and technology
People and Places
When creating an effective digital strategy it’s all about the right people in the right places to achieve the best end goal for your school or trust. Our team will help you identify the best tools and resources tailored to your specific needs to implement those most appropriate. We’ll work with you to create your IT Vision, Strategic Plan, Polices and Compliance, Digital Replacement Strategies and cement new processes via engaging and interactive staff training and coaching.
Technology Driven by Principles
Simply getting devices in users hands is not enough to create an effective use of technology in your schools or MAT. When used right, technology can have the power to completely transform school operations, reduce workload and create engaging learning experiences for students. Once we establish the core vision principles, our team will create the major workstreams to help transform the way in which you use IT.
Those policies and compliance commitments don’t sit in a folder, either — they’re held in Horizon’s policies area and tracked through its RAG compliance tracker, reviewed with you each term alongside the roadmap itself.
How a strategy engagement works
Discovery and audit
We map your current estate — devices, infrastructure, cloud, safeguarding systems, contracts — and listen to how technology is really used in your classrooms and offices. No assumptions, no copy-paste findings.
Vision workshop
With your leadership team (and central trust team where relevant), we agree the principles and priorities: what technology must do for your pupils, staff and budget over the next three years.
Roadmap build
We turn the vision into a three-year roadmap of costed workstreams, each with owners and timelines, and model the five-year financial projection behind it in Horizon’s IT Finance module.
Live tracking and termly review
The roadmap goes live in AIT Horizon. RAG statuses update as work is delivered, and we review the plan with you every term — adjusting for new funding, new DfE guidance and the things every school year throws at a plan.
Strategy written by the people who’ll deliver it
A strategy is only as credible as the team behind it. Ours is delivered by the same 75-strong, UK-wide team that supports 249 schools and 20 trusts day to day — the engineers on your IT support desk, the teams installing your cabling and networks, the specialists behind your cloud, broadband, and safeguarding and filtering. When your roadmap says “wireless upgrade, summer, year two,” the people who wrote that line are the people who’ll be on site delivering it — including work funded through programmes like DfE Connect the Classroom.
That’s the MSP difference: support, installations and connectivity first — with Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering as the proof of how we run it, included with our service, not sold on top.
Frequently asked questions
A full estate and practice audit, a vision workshop with your leadership team, a three-year roadmap of costed and owned workstreams, five-year budget projections covering hardware refresh and software licensing, and your policies and compliance position tracked alongside it. The whole plan is delivered and maintained in AIT Horizon’s Strategy Roadmap module, reviewed with you every term, and exportable to Excel or PDF whenever you need a board-ready document.
Format and follow-through. A consultant hands you a document and leaves; we hand you a live plan inside AIT Horizon and stay to deliver it. Workstreams carry RAG statuses that change as work happens, budget projections update as your estate changes, and the same roadmap is visible to your governors (Executive view), your school leaders (Schools view) and our engineers (Support view) — so the plan and the delivery never drift apart.
Yes. Horizon’s Executive view is designed for exactly that audience — the roadmap, RAG statuses and five-year financial picture at a glance, with no technical detail to wade through. For meetings, the roadmap and projections export to PDF or Excel in one click, so a clerk can drop the current position straight into a board pack.
They’re planning projections, built from your actual estate: real device ages, real renewal dates, realistic refresh cycles. They exist so that a big refresh year is visible three budgets in advance and can be phased, funded or tendered calmly. Any figures you see on this page are illustrative examples, not live data — your projections are built from your own audit.
Our strategy work is designed as part of a managed partnership — the roadmap is delivered through AIT Horizon and reviewed termly by the team that supports your schools, which is what keeps it alive. If you’re considering a change of IT partner, a strategy conversation is an excellent place to start: call 0115 9170 197 or speak to our team.
LETS TALK
Get in touch
We understand the unique needs and challenges that are faced by schools, and we are all about finding a solution that works for you. Get in touch with our friendly team to have a chat about how we can support you on your digital journey.