In March, specialist education reseller Winthrop in conjunction with Acer, won a three-year, $27 million tender to supply notebook computers to 16,000 public school teachers in Western Australia.
It was the second time the reseller had teamed up with Acer to win the WA Department of Education and Training’s Notebooks for Teachers (NFT) Program. The NFT provides notebooks to public school teachers throughout Western Australia and offers onsite training, support and help desk as part of the package.
Cedric Celestine, general manager of Winthrop Australia, says NFT is a “refresh” program and the company started rolling out the new machines in January. “We’re refreshing the people who received their first machines in 2001 at the moment,” he says.
While Acer ships the notebooks directly to the teachers, Winthrop has to train them wherever they are throughout the state. “Winthrop also provides the onsite warranty for the notebooks, and we assist in the pre-delivery information given to the teachers,” Celestine says.
To train 16,000 teachers in 800 schools across a huge geographical spread as West Australia, Winthrop has about six trainers. “Essentially if they have to hop on a plane and fl y to Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Broome or wherever to conduct training, that’s what we do,” he says.
Winthrop created all the training documentation and a training video for teachers in more remote places like Christmas Island.
The Department of Education and Training (DET) provides a central help desk for teachers so there’s just one number for them to call.
“Anything software-related, the DET’s help desk staff will walk them through that. Anything that’s hardware-related gets logged on to Acer’s service management software. Winthrop provides onsite service from Perth’s metro area, and Acer provides the return-to-base service for all the country areas,” Celestine says.
Winthrop also offers special deals to teachers on equipment that DET does not provide, such as extra peripheral items they can purchase at their own cost including web cams, printers, modems, routers, scanners and wireless.
Bidding process
The principles of a good pitch for notebook projects is the same irrespective of what industry sector you are working in, says Acer’s state manager for WA, Roger Heale.
“You have to understand what the outcome needs to be, what the customer wants, gain a full understanding of what they need and why they need it.”
Given that there are some substantial notebook tenders in the education sector in the wings, Celestine was understandably hedgy when it came to telling how Winthrop won the NFT tender twice in a row.
“We don’t want to give away all of our secrets because some of the readers will be our direct competition out there. But probably one of the most important things is to choose the correct vendor. Acer and Winthrop have had a long-standing very good relationship with each other and work very well together,” he says.
“If you don’t choose the right vendor or they don’t have the necessary experience then it’s a recipe for disaster.”
While it might sound trite, good communication cannot be underestimated, Heale says. “Keep good documentation all the way through the project and record all communication and meeting reports. Any changes should be formalised with documentation,” he advises.
You should also keep notes from any issues you discuss, document the goings-on of any meetings and any changes that are made so you can always refer back to them.
The department loaded and licensed all the software on the notebooks so Winthrop did not have to provide any additional applications. All teachers are entitled to introductory training on how to use their notebooks. “The course is a two-hour course, and might spend 20 minutes on Word, and 20 minutes on Excel, for example. What we did as extra value-add to this project is offer additional training to the schools and teachers on any software application they wanted, such as Adobe or PowerPoint,” Celestine says.
Security is managed by the DET and all of the notebooks come standard with inbuilt wireless network cards with Centrino processors, he says.
Wireless options come down to a school level or the individual teachers themselves. “Some schools have a wireless network, and some teachers ask us to install a wireless service for them in their homes,” he says.
While the department has gone to great lengths to make sure the notebooks have all the right software and applications the teacher needs, there will still be other items the teachers want to enable them to work from home for instance.
It is an incredible opportunity to sell add-ons and Winthrop has negotiated “very aggressive pricing for them” on side orders of programs or peripherals, Celestine says.
“Based on the past three years’ experience, we’ve made up a catalogue which goes out to every single teacher when they receive their notebook. It has a list of the peripheral items that we stock at a special price for them. Most popular are printers, scanners, digital cameras and security devices,” Celestine says.
“Teachers get basic security needs provided by DET but if they ask us to install a wireless network for them at home at their own cost, we do things like setting up firewalls and making sure their wireless network is secure,” he says.
Rolling out this many notebooks in a state as big as WA brings many challenges, and not just pure logistics.
One of the biggest hurdles is to keep track of communication between the teachers, the schools, the vendor, Winthrop and the DET.
Many of the teachers now participating in the refresh project have moved schools. “Three years ago when we first did this project we may have gone to 50 or 60 schools and made an offer to these teachers for notebooks. But now when we go back to refresh, they’ve moved around, and to make sure we’ve contacted all those teachers, we have to cover 800 schools,” Celestine says.
Having done the NFT program once before, the second three years should be easier, but not so says Heale.
“The added complexity for the second stage is the fact we now have to recover the original notebooks [the ones issued in the first three years]. So while we’re rolling out new ones to the teachers, we’re also recovering the old ones and returning them to the lease organisation. In terms of logistics it’s three times as hard. You have to be very well set up logistically for that part of the contract,” he says.
Asset tracking is critical, he says. You have to have the back end working efficiently or you will have no way of controlling and recording where the notebooks are and who has what and at the appropriate time in the refresh cycle. “It’s a difficult process but through smart logistics, process and delivery and collection it all really comes together. Acer and [Winthrop] have some pretty smart software packages that we use and it’s a matter of working together and communicating with all parties,” Celestine says.
There is less training required in this second phase of the program compared to the first rollout of notebooks three years ago.
“As far as the training is concerned, in this refresh we’ve re-offered training to teachers but we’re finding that not many teachers are needing training this time ’round. They’ve got a new notebook, and while it may be a different shape or have a few new features, there’s nothing dramatically different about it,” he says.
However, there will always be some training required. As one teacher put it, “Notebooks are not going to make teachers faster and more efficient in their work unless teachers learn how to use the computer and have some skills in typing”.
Outcomes
The original concept from the Department of Education was to make the teachers more aware of the ability to use technology to teach, says Heale.
Teachers can have their notebooks with them 24 hours a day and the more you use something the better you get at it.
“They can take it home with them, they can take it to the staff room at lunch time. Take it to classes with them, rather than take the kids to the desktop in another room. It also raises the tech literacy of teachers … They’re actually going home and creating things on their computers for the classrooms,” he says.
Notebooks offer mobility and flexibility so teachers can do their lesson plans or reporting at home with internet access rather than being stuck at school doing it. Celestine emphasises one of the keys to the success of programs like NFT is having the right partner. “Acer has a strong presence in the education market and has dedicated people that focus purely on that market,” he says.
Pick a partner that has experience, expertise and a long track record of operating in the sector you are focusing on, whether it be health, education or finance, Celestine continues.
“You’ll know when you’re engaging with these people and talking with them, the level of commitment they have to your market.”
The fact that a core team of four people -- one each from Winthrop and Acer and two from DET -- remained unchanged throughout the duration of the whole NFT program was crucial to its success, he says.
“Obviously we have scores of people underneath us that run around and do stuff as well, but the key to this successful project is that there’s a core of four key players for the past four years. That kind of stability is hard to find in IT projects,” he says.
Conversely, there are some things to avoid doing as well. He says some resellers become complacent after winning a large contract and say, “Ok we’ve got it and don’t have to work to keep it”.
“That’s a mistake, you do have to work to keep it,” Celestine says.
Also, do not agree to any service you know you cannot provide and do not oversell your expertise if you don’t have it in a particular area.
“Don’t try to be everything to everybody, all things to all people. That’s a mistake.”
“Focus on your core market and go after that market only, and build and foster relationships.”
Heale agrees, adding that while the successful rollout of the first three years helped claim the second phase, it is crucial to hold a strong relationship right up until the end of the contract as it is at the beginning.
He says some people have a good relationship right at the start but then they tend to forget when it comes to the second half.
“You have to treat it as a full-term project, not like it’s great at the start but don’t worry after that.”
Heale says the key to the success of the first three-year term was maintaining the level of support and service throughout the full term of contract. “That probably was critical in terms of us being chosen to renew the contract for another three years,” he says.
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