Midshire Announces Partnership With The Consortium

Midshire Business Systems has announced a new partnership with The Consortium that brings additional benefits to schools and nurseries, sourcing anything from stationery and play equipment to office hardware, maintenance and IT technical support. The partnership will bring a full range of supplies and services into the Welsh market alongside newly launched Cardiff-based Midshire Cymru.

The Consortium has been serving organisations and businesses delivering public services for over 40 years. It brings together a wide range of easily accessible products, backed with a first class service promise.

Midshire supplies around 1,300 machines through The Consortium, which works with more than 25,000 customers from the education, early years and care sectors.

The group also supplies local government, the emergency services, churches, voluntary groups and charities.

Now The Consortium’s one-stop shop offer includes Midshire’s range of products, everything from multifunctional printer, copier and scanning machines through to full ICT equipment and support.

Midshire, known for its customer service, keen prices and high quality products has a rapidly expanding schools’ client base. The new partnership offers all the supplies and services needed for high performance administration and to deliver an engaging curriculum.
Working with the best manufacturers, such as Lexmark, Ricoh and Sharp, and some of the most advanced machines, Midshire has a detailed understanding of the unique challenges faced by schools.

Schools’ ICT resources, for example, have often grown organically, which can result in a system that is less than user-friendly. This means teachers working with classes whose screens are not synchronised on a system that isn’t fully integrated. And if something goes wrong, Midshire also guarantees attention to faults within four hours, but usually the response is much more immediate. Many schools deal with support technicians that ask for faults to be logged for weekly attention. Because schools are tough on hardware, such as iPads, Midshire supplies only the most durable, and has a replace-while-we-fix-it policy that ensures lessons are not interrupted.

Together with The Consortium’s range of more than 40,000 products the partnership brings schools everything they need for everyone involved in education. From curriculum resources to cleaning products, The Consortium stocks all the well-known brands as well as extensive quality-assured Own Brand and Value ranges that deliver exceptional value and help budgets stretch further.

The Consortium also has a range of services to help schools and academies manage their additional responsibilities cost effectively, such as facilities management solutions and food services. The service includes free delivery, next day on stock items, bulk buy discounts and an account management service for advice on getting the best value. The company was recognised in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when it was awarded Supplier of the Year at the Education Resource Awards supported by trade association, The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA).
Midshire Business Systems’ schools’ services support both high profile local government and education customers throughout the Midlands.

The group comprises the parent company Midshire Business Systems and sister company Midshire Business Systems (Northern), Midshire DB Comms and Legal TX providing telecommunications products to customers in the legal market sector. Through West Mercia Supplies the company supplies more than 1300 machines for education and local government.