There’s more to consider than the price when shopping around for the best value technology.
When it comes to tech for education, thinking about the value you gain from the whole lifecycle of your new devices leads to deeper considerations than the price tag. Build quality, repairability, operating system updates (OS) and other vital evaluation metrics come into play.
With over 40 years of experience in providing ICT services for education establishments, Scomis has a deep understanding of what ‘best value’ means for education procurement and purchasing.
You might be facing similar challenges to these from our customers, so carry on reading for our insights into how you can find value for money beyond the price.
1. Build quality
As we all become more conscious about electronic waste (and waste in general), the only clear path to sustainable ICT is to purchase hardware that’s built to last. In classroom environments where knocks and spills are commonplace, look for devices that have been tested to military specifications with ‘ruggedised’ features, a tough screen and trackpad, anchored keys and durable hinges.
However, ruggedised devices aren’t all created equally. A bulky-looking laptop is often a heavy one. Some manufacturers compromise on quality by substituting in thinner, lighter materials that just don’t stand up to the rigours of school life.
At ScoStore, you’ll find a range of devices that have been tried and tested in classrooms across the country that use quality materials that staff and children of all ages can comfortably take with them on their teaching and learning journeys.
2. Reparability
Not too long ago, if something broke then most people would recycle the unit and buy a new one, but intrinsic to our move towards a circular economy is the repairability of the devices we offer. More manufacturers, such as Asus and Lenovo, are starting to include repairability scores with their datasheets, which gives us a chance to filter out hardware that’s more expensive to fix than it’s worth before offering the solution to our customers.
We pay special attention to how straightforward to disassemble models are, how easy to replace whatever’s broken, the availability of spare parts and the duration required to complete common repairs.
At ScoStore, this extra attention to detail means that schools and trusts that purchase ICT hardware from us often spend less and buy less in the long run.
3. Framework procurement
We have researched the market to find the most cost-effective and DfE compliant means to buy ICT hardware. It’s via the lowest-cost framework that education establishments can use to purchase technology. It comes with a number of benefits and guarantees available to our customers, cutting down on the time you might otherwise spend running a three-way tender process.
As an authorised supplier on the framework, our partner Getech is committed to providing a variety of sustainable products with demonstrable environmental benefits, capped pricing on core products and the procurement of ICT hardware with extended product lifecycles. Our relationship with Getech also enables us to take advantage of economies of scale and call off orders when our customers need them, helping us further to deliver best value to you.
At ScoStore our customers appreciate saving the time and hassle of three-way tendering by purchasing online via our very low-cost framework.
4. Software updates
We’ve all had experience with buying a new bit of kit and realising just how much faster, smoother and shinier it is than the one we had before, only to notice later how much the performance had degraded since the initial purchase. Over time, all those security patches, locally-stored files and downloaded applications take their toll and it seems eventually you’re back where you started.
Laptops built for cloud computing such as Chromebooks come with 10 years of guaranteed updates, which happen automatically in the background every month to keep the device optimised and working as quickly as you do without needing to restart your device or worry if you’ve got the latest antivirus definitions.
For Windows laptops our ScoStore partner, Getech, can support you with maintaining your fleet so your users always have a good experience and disruptions are never due to slow tech and software update incompatibility.
Generally, schools and trusts look for at least five years to ensure value for money from their IT procurement. Whether you’re shopping for ChromeOS or Windows devices, you can rest assured that Scomis will help you get the most out of your devices.
5. Confidence
As a certified Google for Education and Microsoft Partner, we’ve spent years of continued effort to train and maintain our teams with the latest knowledge and best practices necessary to solve ICT issues for schools and trusts efficiently and professionally. Over the years, our capabilities have grown alongside our customer base; our services are relied on by long-standing and brand new customers alike via Scomis’ range of support contracts.
Our services have evolved as support technology has improve. For example, many of our customers are served over our remote technical support system. And we can supply on-site engineers where a customer doesn’t otherwise have an in-house IT manager or administrator. Other customers take advantage of our secure and encrypted automated cloud backup service. Many enjoy the variety of bespoke consultancy and tutor-led training Scomis provides.
Best value ICT purchasing for education