About ITspire Consulting.
ITspire Consulting was created by Drew Keavey.
The person behind the work
ITspire is Drew Keavey. Work with ITspire and you work with Drew directly. A senior ICT leader with more than 25 years behind him, not a name on a proposal who passes the job to someone else.
Drew started out writing software for children with special educational needs, and went on to spend most of his career leading ICT in further education: running teams, carrying the budgets, sitting on senior management teams and taking responsibility for IT, MIS, library and learning-technology services alike. In short, he has done the jobs he now helps others to do, which is why his advice tends to be practical rather than theoretical.
He specialises in ICT for further education colleges and multi-academy trusts, and is equally at home supporting other public sector and commercial organisations facing the same questions. Across all seven of our services the thread is the same: a track record of delivering, and of leaving an organisation in better shape than he found it.
A few things that sum it up:
- new-build ICT programmes delivered on time and on budget, including through the pandemic
- the first-ever three-way merger between FE colleges, with the ICT brought together as one
- procurements ranging from a few thousand pounds to fully managed services worth more than half a million
- ICT project budgets of up to £2.2 million, managed from start to finish
- clients well beyond education, from the NHS to Boots UK.
Delivery you can rely on
Drew has managed projects of every size, from an annual device refresh to ground-up new builds. At Derby College he designed, procured and delivered the ICT for two new campuses, including the £1.7 million ICT element of the £50 million Roundhouse. More recently he led the £2.2 million ICT programme for Nottingham College’s flagship City Hub, built around new ways of working and delivered on time and on budget, despite running straight through the Covid-19 period.
The pattern repeats because the approach is consistent: find out what stakeholders actually need, turn it into a clear ICT strategy for the project, work hand in glove with contractors and the wider team, and keep a firm hold on time, cost and risk from the first design through to the day the service goes live.
Procurement that stands up to scrutiny
Procurement runs through much of Drew’s work, and he has handled the full range, from competitive quotes and framework mini-competitions to full regulated tenders, now governed by the Procurement Act 2023. Recent examples include a fully managed ICT service for a multi-academy trust worth over £500,000 and a multi-campus network upgrade worth more than £300,000, alongside managed-service and MFD fleet contracts.
It isn’t only about running the process. Managing the money matters just as much: Drew has overseen project budgets of up to £2.2 million as well as annual capital and revenue budgets, regularly reviewing spend to secure better value and find savings where the wider organisation needed them. That experience reaches beyond education too, including corporate procurement support for Boots UK, so the same disciplined approach applies wherever value and fairness are at stake.
A steady hand through change
Few things test an ICT service like a merger. Drew has led the ICT side of three separate FE college mergers, including the first-ever three-way merger, bringing infrastructure, systems, staffing and budgets together so the new organisation could operate as one as quickly as possible. He has also stepped in after mergers that hadn’t gone to plan, helping organisations regroup around a shared set of aims and technology fit for their new scale.
That experience extends into the wider public sector. In the NHS, Drew managed the ICT through the complex reorganisation from Primary Care Trusts to the CCG and CSU model, moving three PCTs into six CCGs and one CSU, transferring assets and re-tendering outsourced provision to suit the new structure.
Strategy, reviews and policies
The rest of the offer completes the picture. Drew has written ICT strategies with costed action plans, carried out independent reviews of everything from staffing structures and infrastructure to cyber-security position and Cyber Essentials readiness, and developed full policy suites covering acceptable use, security, business continuity and more. Whatever the brief, organisations get an honest assessment, clear recommendations, and the experience to put them into practice.
What it means for you
The common thread across all of it is judgement: choosing the right level of process and governance for the task, communicating clearly with everyone from boards to service users, and seeing the work through to a result you can measure. It’s the difference between advice that sits in a report and advice that gets delivered.
Want to know more?
Our Assignments page sets out recent and ongoing work, and Drew’s LinkedIn profile is kept up to date. If there’s something you think ITspire could help with, please get in touch — Drew would be glad to talk it through.