CRN Summit: The classroom of 2020

CRN: If hardware needs to be replaced so regularly, does it make more sense to lease or rent?

Pace: Just like any business, you've got to look at the finances of the school and how they're spending their money. Leasing is great but it's really dependent on the business.

Quinn: Schools in the past used to have these goalposts where they'd say, "we'll spend this huge chunk of money now and then we'll be right." Well, they're not right anymore. That's the biggest challenge I find with education customers - so we've got heaps of issues, what's the dollar spend to fix it now, how long's that going to last us?

And when you tell them maybe two years, they go, "Hang on, do we have to spend this again in two years' time?" Schools have to understand that this is an ongoing operational cost.

Years ago, it was spend your money, there's your technology, and it lasts for five years. It doesn't anymore. If it lasts for two years you're doing well. And moving schools to a two-year mindset is a bit of a challenge.

Paxton: An ongoing operational cost becomes a strategic cost. In our strategic planning over five years now it's a key building block for how the whole school directs its efforts.

Quinn: And that dovetails with whether you are spending the money or leasing. A lot of the schools I work with buy some, lease some, rent some. It depends if they're an independent school, they're all different depending on where the money comes from.