NComputing seeks resellers for the Digital Education Revolution

Like many PC vendors, NComputing has made a concerted effort to get a piece of the government-funded pie by directing its focus to resellers in the education sector.

Michael Pamphilon, vice president and country general manager A/NZ and South Pacific, NComputing told CRN the vendor offers a unique value proposition to resellers by offering a suite of virtual desktop products available solely through the channel. He claimed that other PC vendors may be considering offering ‘direct deals’ and cutting out IT resellers when government contracts are handed out.

“We are a 100 percent channel organisation, so would much prefer to see the $900 million allocated to a whole lot of resellers around Australia, rather than just the big four PC vendors,” he said.

Pamphilon commented that the government won’t be employing a system of central procurement. Rather, the Department of Education Workforce Relations (DEWR) with a digital education taskforce in Canberra will be facilitating the distribution of the funds.

“It’s a competitive situation, even now schools are competing against each other as to who has the greater need, but the government won’t be making any direction about technology. It will be up to the Department of Education, the Catholic Education Office and the Australian Independent Schools Association who will be talking to schools about what is appropriate and looking at issues like sustainability and impact on infrastructure,” he said.

Kevin Rudd has commented on the practicality and sustainability of virtual desktops in recent statements to the public; however Pamphilon claimed considerations needed to be made to ensure thin clients possess capabilities that meet the needs of students.

“Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are up to speed on our technology, naming virtual desktop as a valid option for schools to leverage. This opens up this valuable new technology to all schools in Australia,” he explained.

“I guess the key is if someone is going to use a virtual environment or thin client they’re going to need to make sure it can handle multimedia appropriately. It’s key to secondary and even primary education these days and it’s pretty well known that 90 percent of thin clients can’t handle anything more than web streaming.”