My role as a Services Consultant is to design the support structure to support this innovative ICT. This is often in the form of a Managed Service, where schools outsource their ICT support to RM in a similar manner to the way many businesses outsource their IT Support to a specialist company. Providing this service to education establishments presents many unique challenges, and it is impossible to employ a one-size-fits-all approach. My role is to work with both the Sales and Delivery teams to produce a Managed Service designed specifically around each customer’s criteria which is both competitively priced and deliverable. The challenge of tailoring each solution to the subtleties of each customer’s requirements ensures every bid is different and is one of my favourite aspects of my role.

Day-to-day my role is quite varied and a typical day in the office could involve anything from designing and costing the Managed Service solution to articulating this solution to the customer through bid documents. Working in the bidding environment also means there is plenty of opportunity to get out of the office to visit customers. This could be a visit to understand their requirements, present the Managed Service solution, or even, later in the process, negotiate the contract. The day-to-day variety of my role and the opportunity to get involved with all aspects of the bid-process means that there is always something new to learn or get involved in, and has enabled my role to evolve as my experience and confidence has grown over the last year.

Since starting on the graduate scheme I have been actively encouraged to attend a range of training sessions, both specifically related to my role, such as Bid and Tender Management training, and personal development training in more general areas such as Communication and Influencing. There has also been plenty of opportunity to work with the other graduates through both the graduate project, a project assigned to new graduates when they first join the company, and through graduate charity events. These events, as well as providing an introduction to RM’s business, provided an early opportunity to get to know the other graduates, and form a close graduate network. This was particularly important during our first few weeks at RM, with many of us recently having moved to the area, and a graduate social scene was soon established. This still continues two years on, with the majority of us still meeting up for lunch and the occasional graduate night out.