RM plc
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| Type | Public (LSE: RM.) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1973 |
| Founder(s) | Mike Fischer and Mike O'Regan |
| Headquarters | Milton Park, UK |
| Industry | Computer software and services |
| Products | Educational software |
| Revenue | £289.5m pound sterling (2008) |
| Employees | 2,373 (2008) |
| Subsidiaries | RM Education PLC, Caz Software Pty Ltd, Lightbox Education (3T Productions LTD and Softease LTD), DACTA LTD, Forvus LTD, School Management Solutions, SpaceKraft LTD, TTS Group LTD, RM Educational Software Inc (USA), Sentinel Products Ltd, RM ASIA PACIFIC Pty Ltd, RM Education Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Easytrace, |
| Website | http://www.rm.com/ |
RM plc is a British company specialising in providing products and services to schools, colleges, universities and government education departments & agencies. While RM is primarily involved in supplying information communications and technology (ICT) services to UK education, the group also includes companies providing educational software in the US and school management software in the Asia Pacific region.
RM employs more than 2,000 people, with the majority based in the company's headquarters located on Milton Park, near Didcot, Oxfordshire. RM also has offices across the UK, in North America, Australia and a software development facility in India.
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[edit] Strategy
RM classifies its business in to four broad areas:
- systems and infrastructure
- assessment and data services
- education management systems
- education resources and software
The Group's own description of its strategy is set out on page 16 of its Annual Report. This includes a description of its competitive advantage from differentiation focus that draws on the Michael Porter model of generic competitive strategies
"Annual Report 2008" (PDF). http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Downloads/RM_Annual_Report_2008_indexed_pdf.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
[edit] Other Group companies
The RM Group comprises:
- RM Education - the original company, active in supplying ICT software, systems and services to educational customers
- 3T - specialist interactive design services for education sector clients, now part of Lightbox Education.
- Forvus - specialist provider of statistical and data analysis services to public sector organisations
- Lightbox Education - Softease, 3T and part of RM Education combined to form one of the largest educational software businesses in the UK [1].
- RM Asia-Pacific - supplier of school information systems
- RM Educational Software - educational software for schools in North America [2]
- RM Educational Solutions India - software design and development
- RM Internet For Learning - Internet Service provider to UK education establishments [3]
- Sentinel - developer and supplier of networking software and tools
- Softease - educational software publisher, now part of Lightbox Education.
- TTS Group - supplier of special-purpose educational and classroom resources
[edit] History
RM was founded in 1973 in Oxford, England by Mike Fischer and Mike O'Regan, respectively graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Initially it traded under the name Sintel which was a mail-order supplier of electronic components, mainly dealing with the hobbyist market. Fischer and O'Regan's ambition was to grow their business into a manufacturer of scientific equipment, with the educational and scientific market chosen because they judged that their business would not be able to grow fast enough to be successful in the general computer market that they expected to be dominated by existing big players.
With the arrival of microcomputer chips in the mid-1970s, the company expanded into the design and manufacturing of microcomputers. The company shipped its first computer in 1977[2] to a customer in a Local Education Authority and has been involved with educational computing ever since.
The company's early presence in educational computing came at a time when the United Kingdom government was encouraging the use of computers in schools, for instance through the Microelectronics Education Programme. Throughout the 1980s RM and Cambridge-based rival Acorn Computers provided computers to the majority of schools in the UK. The company was offered, and refused, the chance to design and manufacture a BBC microcomputer subsequently designed and made by Acorn, on the basis that to do so would bankrupt the company eventually.
The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in November 1994 under the name RM plc.
Mike Fischer was Chief Executive of the Group until 1997, when Richard Girling took over. Girling retired in 2002 after RM had some involvement in the dot com boom and bust and was replaced by Tim Pearson who left in 2008. Both Girling and Pearson had long careers with RM before being appointed Chief Executive. Long careers are a feature of RM - Pearson having joined the company as a technical support engineer straight from university in 1981. His PA served in that role for both Fischer and Girling. In October 2008 Terry Sweeney took over the role of CEO having joined RM in 1998 [3].
RM PLC also won the contract for KS3 ICT tests. These were innovative on-line tests which provided a virtual PC office environment for students. Very late in the day, the government scrapped the tests. Possibly because they were worried that the results would show real grade inflation had occurred with teacher assessments under previous reporting arrangements.
[edit] Products
RM was the first significant supplier of LAN computer networks in the UK and, working with Zilog, developed Z-Net, a low-cost network technology that was widely used in UK schools particularly the RM Nimbus model. Z-Net was subsequently replaced by what later become the industry standard, Ethernet. RM cooperated with Microsoft in the production of early networking software. Various generations of RM’s networking products – all of which have been built on standard Microsoft networking software – are currently in use, the most recent version is called Community Connect 4, released in June 2008 following numerous delays[4].
RM not only provides networking solutions but provides a range of hardware. Most computers and servers are built in their factory, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, whilst other hardware, such as laptops, interactive whiteboards and peripherals are either dispatched as is, or re-branded by RM.
Early products such as the RM 280Z, RM 380Z and Link 480Z were based on the Zilog Z80A processor.
The Group switched to Intel processors with the launch of the 80186 based Nimbus PC-186 in 1984. While not 100% IBM PC compatible, the Nimbus PC-186 ran MS-DOS and was a very early example of a computer designed to support Microsoft Windows, in fact Windows 1. Since 1986, with the introduction of the Nimbus AX and VX models, all RM computers have been fully IBM compatible.
RM also offers a range of software solutions, such the Kaleidos VLE, MathsAlive, DiscoverAlive, Living Library and SuccessMaker. They also bundle popular software titles from other software companies to allow teachers and network administrators to install the titles more easily[5]. In 2005 RM was awarded the contract for Glow. (formally known as Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) National Intranet project). Under the five year, £37.5 million project, all 32 Local Authorities, over 3000 schools and over 800,000 education users plus parents will have access to Glow.
[edit] RM Asus Netbook
In October 2007 RM started selling the RM Asus Minibook in the UK. As indicated by the name it is a re-branded Asus computer.[6]
In recent times RM has really started to innovate and differentiate itsself from the usual high street box shifters. Recent incarnations of RM's All-In-One LCD PC (RM One) were designed with input from teachers and pupils to find out the features that they want. This philosophy is finding its way into their whole product range these days with products such as the RM Mobile One - a ruggedised and easily servicable notebook costing a lot less than its competitors offerings. RMs green policy is a refreshing change as well, the EcoQuiet range of PCs offer low power units that still deliver on performance and cost effectivness. These units utilise Intel Mobile processors on desktop boards, and AMDs low power Processors, these benefit from being able to use passive cooling in certain circumstances, making a classroom full of computers a bearable place to be ! They also offer a PC and Monitor combination that is under 50 watts. RM has also recently released a small form factor MiniITX PC, and although it does offer this with Eco Technology mentioned above, its also available with Intels Q45 Chipset & Core2Duo Processors giving it full sized desktop equalling performance. The MiniITX chassis can be mounted under desks, on walls, and is even available with a stand that allows you to attach an LCD monitor giving you a versatile All-In-One solution.
[edit] Software Security
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The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (October 2009) |
RM's local area network products such as Community Connect are primarily used in schools, an environment that can have some users who are intent on compromising network security. In some cases the vulnerabilities found relate to elements within the client operating system, but RM bugs and mistakes made by the administrators are often contributing factors. Security has improved greatly in the last decade, due to significant advances in the Microsoft client and server operating systems, such as NTFS access control on client hard disks and increasing sophistication of Group Policy for restricting available actions.
[edit] Criticisms
Some System Administrators believe that RM network management tools offer little functionality at great expense, when Microsoft supply tools for the server operating system. RM tools are intended to simplify the administration of CC3/CC4 networks with large numbers of users, and where there may be no official network admin at that site, this is more common these days when a school appoints a teacher who is IT savvy to admin the network rather than employ a full time Admin. Products such as the safety net proxy filter can be unreliable and often fail leading to days of downtime. Due to the security applied to the system to prevent users running their own software, there has been criticism that some applications, including development environments such as VB.Net are required to be executed in a virtual machine. RM state that this is for security, to allow the user the opportunity to use a Windows XP workstation for their development activities, but without placing the host machine at risk of being compromised. Many believe that the connection status indicator on the cc4 login page is set to random, as computers often logon when disconnected and vice versa.
CC4 has been plagued with issues, including many schools whose entire school networks have been rendered inoperable after RM having installed CC4. A number of schools have successfully sued RM for compensation[7] or settled on condition of a gagging order.
It is known that RM also regularly edit their Wikipedia page, often censoring some of the true reality in regard to the quality of their products and services.
[edit] See also
- John Leighfield, Non-executive Chairman
- Mike Tomlinson, Non-executive Director
[edit] References
- ^ Lightbox Education, "Information", Lightbox-ed.com, Accessed: March 10, 2009
- ^ Research Machines, "Company Profile", RM.com, Accessed: March 10, 2009
- ^ Research Machines. "New CEO in 2008", rm.com, Accessed: March 10, 2009
- ^ Hemscott, [1], Hemscott.com, Accessed: June 24, 2008
- ^ Research Machines, "Application Software", RM.com, Accessed: February 22, 2008
- ^ "RM ASUS Launch", PCPro.co.uk, Accessed: March 10, 2009
- ^ http://www.edugeek.net/forums/network-classroom-management/29931-rm-cc4-compensation.html
