Reseller refreshes keeping the faith in PCs

CASE STUDY ONE: National Library of Australia

Public area desktop refresh

When the National Library of Australia set out to transform information access in its public areas, it turned to HP to furnish the latest all-in-one (AiO) technology that appeals to sophisticated knowledge-seekers.

It was an “unusual” buy for an agency, says Michael Thompson, who led the sale for Canberra reseller, Ethan Group.

“A lot of agencies keep their monitors twice as long as their PCs – three years on a PC – so an all-in-one doesn’t work,” Thompson says. “Government almost entirely buys standard desktop and standard monitors.

“An AiO is also not easy to repair on-site. If you have a department with secure data on the hard drive, they can’t let it out of their office. The AiO is unique for government; this is one of our only accounts.”

But user experience and maintenance considerations swayed Australia’s premier library to break the mould. The PCs complement changes to the library’s layout to make it more friendly and useful for STEM (science, technology, education and maths) subjects and for children, Thompson says.

“It is aesthetics and also fewer things on the desk they have to worry about being damaged. They went with a fairly top-of-the-line device they’ll keep for
4-5 years with [an extended] warranty.”

The deployment started last July with a public test of the AiOs and proceeded to rolling out 140 HP 800G1 all-in-one computers early this year. They supplement 1,000 traditional PCs that Ethan Group provided the business two
years ago. 

Thompson says the library investigated thin clients but between the “belting” that public users hand out and the need for devices such as barcode readers, the lighter desktops couldn’t keep up.

“It was so much effort to get it working, it was easier to lock down an image on a PC and if it gets stuffed up, just refresh it.”

Ethan managed the rollout, working with library IT staff. Twenty AiOs were installed at a time (“they don’t have big loading docks”) under the direction of an Ethan engineer who added asset management and height-adjustable stands, ensuring the standard operating environment was running OK.

Ethan bundled waste such as packing, and disposed of it environmentally, while replaced PCs were donated to schools under library policy.

“People say resellers add no value but if you went direct, the manufacturer couldn’t have done this. It took a reseller to assist with project and store the product for weeks.”

Fact file

Device HP 800G1 AiO 2023 (i7 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD), 4 years onsite warranty,
23-inch screen. Optional height-adjustable swivel stand. Number deployed 150-180 

Number deployed 140 units in public areas

Distributor Dicker Data 

Value of deal ~$300,000 (bought with
on-site warranty)

Account Existing client (HP)

Technology replaced HP small
form-factor desktops

Business case Public access to
information, catalogs, internet access 

Challenges Access and deployment
 (20 PCs deployed a week for 7 weeks)

Timeline 

July 2014: Test and try out AiOs

Oct: First quotes 

Nov: Purchase orders sent 

Dec-Mar: Installation (ongoing)

Next: Wellington Shire Council