PIE Abacus costs : cost sharing

The costs for the PIE Abacus have been deliberately made extremely straightforward and simple to calculate. The cost is £80 per annum, per Abacus (plus VAT). However, you will need a minimum of 10 Abacuses for a PIE Abacus account, which means that in practice, the cost starts at £800; and if you want 20 Abacuses, that will be £1,600; and so on, to whatever level.

 

Cost sharing

This minimum cost may make the PIE Abacus an expensive option for smaller - and more cash-strapped - services. There are still some circumstances, though, in which it may be useful for smaller services or a small network to have an Abacus of their own.

For example, you might be invited by local commissioners and strategic planners to take part in a local strengths and needs audit, using the PIE Abacus. But in this event, you might expect the commissioning group itself to purchase the PIE Abacus, and from the number they have contracted for, they can allocate one to any smaller local services.

Similarly,  you might be invited to participate in a research study, which was using the PIE Abacus to gather data from participating services.   But in this situation, you might expect the research institute itself to have budgeted to pay for the PIE Abacus licence, and to simply allocate one or more of the Abacuses it then has to your service.

Finally, we may find that there could be any number of smaller, perhaps more specialist or ‘stand alone’ services that share a common interest, though they may be widely dispersed, so that face-to-face meeting to share views and learning would not be practical.  In that case, one option is to create a purchaser consortium, rather like a consumer co-op.

For this, one of the agencies takes the Lead Agency role, to purchase an account; and share out the Abacuses and the costs between you.

 

Further background reading/listening/viewing

PIElink pages

The PIE Abacus costs (summary) : HERE

Larger agency costs : HERE

Smaller agencies’ costs : HERE

Cost sharing : HERE

Individual user Abacuses : HERE

Service users' PIE assessments : HERE

 

Library items

The PIE Abacus - essential briefing for PIE leads (and others in comparable roles )' : HERE

'Weighing the costs and 'value added' of the PIE Abacus' : HERE

 

The PIE Abacus

The simplest, most effective way to evaluate and improve your PIE from Daniel O'Brien on Vimeo.

For more on the PIE Abacus, see:

The PIE Abacus - an on-line Pizazz (summary) : HERE

 

All PIE Abacus FAQs : HERE