BACK TO SCHOOL
EDUCATION ESSENTIALS: six school-friendly services
The market for education technology continues to thrive, with the total global spend in the sector hitting £7.6 billion in 2013 according to Futuresource Consulting – a fi gure expected to rise to £11 billion by 2018. As schools get ready to open their doors, Matthew Jarvis looks at some of the services that technology fi rms should be swotting up on…
EXERTIS MICRO-P The distributor has created a tablet bundle for education resellers bundling hardware, software, fi nance, insurance and more. It’s accessed via an educational portal. Exertis Micro-P provides training to selected resellers, as well as product, services and market updates. It has also announced the Samsung interactive classroom solution promotion through to September, which focuses on Samsung’s 65-inch large format
TECH DATA
display, combined with a 4 point or 6 point touch overlay and software. Visit
www.exertisconect.co.uk/ business-solutions/tablets-education.
Tech Data is offering resellers to get more of an idea about how their educational products will be used in schools with a virtual classroom. The online classroom allows resellers to see the many different technology products used in an educational environment, from interactive whiteboards to visualisers and server racks. The clickable objects link through to relevant products, allowing resellers to fi nd out more about
each product. Visit the virtual classroom for yourself at http://
virtualclassroom.techdata.co.uk. Tech Data also offers a guide outlining the changes in the education sector at www.techdata.
co.uk/publicsector/foeguide.
WESTCOAST
Westcoast recently created a new specialist team to encourage reseller growth within the education sector, focusing on supporting and delivering educational-led vendor programmes and initiatives. The distributor’s dedicated education specialist works with resellers to emphasise what separates Westcoast from other suppliers regarding value-add for education. The specialist also works
with vendors to bring new education technologies to market. For schools looking to purchase software licenses for multiple computers, Westcoast offers its own L@W tool for resellers to give online pricing for Open Licensing quotes. L@W assists resellers in purchasing Microsoft Open. Visit www.
westcoast.co.uk/education/site.
NORTHAMBER Distributor Northamber’s Education
Team division offers resellers a host of optimised pricing and services, including education bid pricing, asset tagging, ‘Bill & Hold’, installation services, fl exible credit and more.
There are also bundles and
warehousing available.
Plus, a confi guration service means that qualifi ed engineers can build or upgrade desktop PCs or notebooks to the customer’s bespoke specifi cations, before the order is shipped to the reseller. Brands include Apple, Acer,
Brother, Oki, Ricoh, Sharp, Lenovo and more, as well as
NetSupport’s classroom management solutions.
MICROSOFT
The Microsoft Authorised Education Reseller (AER) programme allows resellers to sell Microsoft products at academic prices to qualifi ed educational users.
Microsoft also provides tools to enable resellers to improve their knowledge of how to select the right licensing for customers, and create a community of resellers that Microsoft can begin to engage with. Some of the services on offer to AERs include web-based training,
and a members-only web site. Resellers who are members of the Microsoft Partner Network can apply at
https://aer.microsoft.com. As well as this, the UK Government Department for Education has agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft, enabling schools who purchase the software to benefi t from signifi cant savings.
APPLE
Apple Authorised Resellers can highlight a number of educational provisions available from Apple, in order to bolster their product offerings with services.
For example, iTunes U provides access to free educational content, including more than 250,000 audio and video fi les from learning institutions worldwide. Tutors can also utilise
iBooks Author, a free app which allows them to create multi-touch
books and reading materials for iPad and Mac. Tutors can even use iBooks Author to design an interactive report card. Apple also offers a range of professional workshops, designed to ensure tutors are using Apple products effectively.
34 | PCR August 2014
www.pcr-online.biz
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