SMEC drops Dell for Acer

Acer and channel partner Leading Solutions have signed an exclusive agreement to supply PCs and services to the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation(SMEC).

Over the next three years, Acer and Leading Solutions will provide around 600 desktop PCs, along with services and support. They replace SMEC's previous supplier and direct sales vendor, Dell.

SMEC’s general manager of IT, Dennis Harris said the company put out a tender around October last year, when its contract with Dell, for desktop and notebook PCs came up for renewal.

“We didn’t stop using Dell, we just decided to look at price differences and see what else was in the market. Dell was a good supplier – in fact Dell and Acer were the two remaining vendors on our shortlist,” said Harris.

According to Harris, the key reason for selecting Acer and its partner was its ability to deliver products to offices within a couple of days.

“In the end we chose Acer because of it local assembly and production plant. It offered quicker delivery times and that for us was pretty attractive. Also it had a really close relationship with its partner.

“It was impressive how the company presented themselves, which could not be said of several other vendors that put in a bid,” he said.

SMEC expects it will need at least 300 desktop PCs and 200 notebook PCs to replace its existing system. The partnership will also provide computer-aided design workstations and servers.

“I think the number will grow to around 600 PCs over three years, even this is a base estimation because we are growing pretty rapidly,” said Harris.

The contract is worth $1 million, however Leading Solutions' managing director Frank Colli said this amount could change with any projects implemented by SMEC.

"We will also supply services to SMEC for special projects," he said.

According to Colli, the project wasn't in the high-end profitibility bracket for the company.

"We make money on all our projects. We have a spectrum by which we rate profitibility, projects can either be at the high-end or low-end of that beam. This deal sits somewhere in the middle," he said.

Colli also said the company wouldn't have agreed to take on the project if it wasn't going to make enough margin.

Acer and Leading Solutions also offers a customised support contract to SMEC.

The service agreement includes a guaranteed response time for maintenance problems; a three-year warranty on equipment; electronic logging for all support calls; and replacement insurance for lost or stolen laptops.