HP gives nine resellers nod for education trade-in programme

Schools and colleges will be able to trade in old HP hardware via scheme involving nontet of partners

HP has revealed plans for a push in the education sector following the launch of its Trade Up for Education programme.

Run via nine resellers, the scheme will allow schools to trade-in old HP hardware for up to £250 credit per device to spend on new hardware, software and training.

Neil Sawyer, education and channel director at HP, told CRN that education can be a fruitful sector for the channel, provided partners are willing to evolve and adapt how they sell to schools.

"I do [think the education sector can be lucrative], providing channel partners look at ways of differentiating their message to schools," he said. "Long gone are the days where we just sell in a lot of transactional items because it's at an affordable price. I think we need to be different in what we say, and programmes like this are a good example of that."

Sawyer says that programmes like this will give schools more flexibility when deciding how to spend their IT budgets, and will help eradicate the conundrum of choosing between new hardware or new software that schools regularly face.

"What we're trying to do is add more value to what we are delivering and remove the complexity of where they invest and the decision they make - whether it be software or hardware," he said.

We wanted to allow the ICT managers at schools to invest in more technology instantly which is something that's new to this type of programme, and remove the dilemma that a lot of schools have spoken to us about."

"It enables them to get instant value and recognition from the types of programmes that HP are running - that's not happened before and we're very excited about that."

The scheme will be offered through nine of HP's partners (full list below) - some of which HP has worked with for 20 years, and others who are only 12 months into their relationship with the vendor.

"The partners that are named are those partners that contribute the significant proportion of what we do in education throughout the summer and peak period," Sawyer said.

"We've got some new partners as well as established HP partners. Academia, Getech and C-Learning are partners who we've really developed a strong relationship with over the last 12-18 months.

"XMA, Europe Electronique, Insight and Misco for example are partners with we've worked with for the last 15-20 years - we wanted to support them and let them give a slightly differentiated message into their schools and colleges as well."

Since the middle of last year XMA has been pushing hard in the Microsoft education space, to move it in line with its current footprint in Apple and Google education, its commercial director for client business, Ian Cunningham, told CRN.

XMA's allLearn programme, which assesses a schools current IT set up and helps them migrate from one system to another, "perfectly dovetails with HP's trade-up scheme", Cunningham explained.

"We're excited and very hopeful that they'll be a big uptake and it'll help us really grow in that Microsoft education space," he said.

"In schools there's sometimes a perception that a Microsoft device or a Microsoft-related device is not as cutting edge as their Apple or Google counterparts, but actually the software strides that are being made by Microsoft and other partners are really transforming the space."

"Technology is so fast paced in terms of its evolution that there's no longer a three-, four-, five-year refresh cycle - you're talking two years maximum, where the device has to fit in with the software requirements etc, and so this type of programme allows and facilitates rapid changes which is important."

The programme will be available through the below partners:

XMA
Academia
European Electronique
C-Learning
Insight
Misco
System Active
Lanway
Getech.