*NEW RESEARCH* RM plc: History, Performance and Prospects in Education Technology

Over the first half of 2019, TechMarketView met senior management at RM plc to discuss progress made in its RM Education and RM Results divisions and how the education specialist expects opportunities to develop over the next few years.

Research Machines (as RM was originally known) was established in 1973 to provide electronics for university research departments. It soon moved into the supply of electronic components and kits, and from there into selling pre-built computers, before establishing a niche in the UK school market. It expanded rapidly in the 2000s as it benefited from the Government’s school investment programme, Building Schools for the Future (BSF). Successive management teams have fought to halt the decline in revenue that followed the cancellation of BSF in 2010 and increasing commoditisation of technology in the sector. Progress is being made and in 2018 the business achieved its first organic growth since 2010.

The RM Group is divided into three divisions: RM Education, RM Resources and RM Results, all of which specialise in the education sector, but RM Education and RM Results can both be considered software and IT services businesses and it’s on these two parts of the Group that this report focuses.

TechMarketView subscribers can read about the history of the business, its recent performance, the impact its 2017 acquisition of education supplies business Consortium has had on its education technology divisions, and look at its prospects for the future. If you are not yet a subscriber and would like to find out more, please get in touch with Deb Seth.

Posted by Dale Peters at '14:43' - Tagged: education   research   schools   assessment   edtech