HP urges resellers to help schools make 'difficult decisions'
As education budgets continue to run tight, vendor applies further focus to helping schools
HP has extended its 'customise-to-order' (CTO) initiative and launched a scheme to boost the value for money the education sector gets from its technology.
The vendor launched its CTO approach, which is implemented through the channel, six months ago with a desktop-only catalogue. It has now extended it to include the 400-series laptop.
The initiative allows customers to order customised HP technology with delivery within 48 hours.
Its new scheme, HP for Education, allows those that invest in HP hardware to collect credits or cashback of up to £250 per device. These can be leveraged by schools against software, training or device upgrades.
HP has also launched its Parental Contribution Scheme to allow parents to purchase education-specific technology for their children attending primary or secondary school via installments.
"At HP we recognise that with tight budgets, schools have to make difficult decisions every year between buying much-needed education hardware or investing in software such as education programmes and training courses," said Neil Sawyer, education business director at HP.
"We want to stop schools from being forced to minimise their IT assets or forgo software purchases in order to invest in vital education technology."
Sawyer told CRN that the reason HP is applying so much focus to education is because of the global importance of the vertical.
"We believe that as a technology firm, to deliver 21st century learning, what we deliver and how we educate our resellers has to be focused on a student-centric approach," he said.
"Historically, people have invested in core computing, which is still important, but you have to complement that by educating partners and end customers in the future technology that will make a difference for the IT industry and the economy."
Sawyer added that alongside this philanthropic interest in education, HP also sees the commercial advantage of working with the channel to stay relevant and healthy.