iPad supplier?

[boomish]

So we are finally getting enough money through to get our first set of iPad's, not sure how many at first but probably 15-30 , anyone know of a good supplier? I presume it's best to get iPad 2's and get them from someone that can provide the power cabinet and setup or is it cheaper to get your own parts and put it together yourself, if so any recommendations?

 

Appreciate any feedback, there seem to bea lot of suppliers.

[Joanne]

iPad 2's are end of life now, so you'll be getting airs or minis. I get mine from IDNS, but there is also Jigsaw, KRCS and apple education direct... Edited May 12, 2015 by Joanne

[fairm010]

Misco have always been good to us for iPad purchases. Would seem the Air 2 are going well at the moment.

[jonnykewell1]

I too have worked with IDNS. They managed to provide me with a DEP member ID too which might be worth knowing if your going down that route.

[boomish]

Wow thanks for the fast replies, ok I'll check what our quote is for, the deputy head got a quote for iPad 2's ages ago, I presume they are going to supply the same as their cheap, but your right be better to get at least up to date air's or mini's if we can. We have an old Mac that's a bit slow can we reuse that or is it better to have something a bit quicker for admin?

Sorry so many questions:)

[Joanne]

I got a macbook air, the cheapest one, think they are £550 now. I'd get a new one for the volume of iPads you will be getting. Just helps when syncronising on configurator and whatnot!

 

I have bought mini 1's. I don't think that suppliers will be able to get hold of the ipad 2's anymore? Maybe go for a 3 or the air 1 if money is an issue

[EvLPhenom]

We use either IDNS or KRCS and both are very competitive on pricing for iPad Airs. You will be surprised what you can get them for. I would also try and get a newer mac if you can as will make life a little easier. We use a mac mini and got one for less that £500.

[localzuk]

Paul Topham at IDNS would usually end up getting the job for us, as he always seems to come in best value. That said, we always get multiple quotes from different suppliers.

[GuyJD]

I use our old Macbook for configurator and it's painfully slow, so if you can get a new one for a good price it would be well worth it.

 

We recently bough 48 iPads from Edsure Edsure - GSS they managed to beat all the other quotes we had when we told them how much we'd been quoted.

[Iain.Faulkner]

We've used GBM Digital in Manchester for the last small iPad project we did (10 iPad mini's with a mac mini running OSX Server), they were very good. We're now in talks with them to do a full iPad deployment to all teaching staff. Our contact is Anthony Darlow, and he's been brilliant for us.

[boomish]

Thanks for all the replies, we have an existing quote for iPad air's and a lock&charge iQ16 trolly, so going to see what I can get from your recommendations. One thing I forgot to ask is setup do these firms setup for you? we have an additional £850 setup fee on our quote which includes Meraki management tools.

 

I'll call them these other suppliers & see what they say, but be interested if there are any pit falls to watch out for. Or if anyone has other recommendations on the iPad trolly? you never know of the build quality of these things.

 

Sorry to ask so many questions I really want to get this right so we don't waste money.

[Joanne]

I like the parotec insync charge/sync trolleys. Expensive, but worth the money.

 

I set all ours up myself. Set up one iPad how you want it, back up with apple configurator, restore the backup to the rest. Add them all to Meraki and then you can set apps to install... et voila.

 

For more info regarding setup, check this thread I made http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/143645-ipad-setup-idiots-guide.html

 

Let me know if I can help any further

[StormTrooper59]

Thanks for all the replies, we have an existing quote for iPad air's and a lock&charge iQ16 trolly, so going to see what I can get from your recommendations. One thing I forgot to ask is setup do these firms setup for you? we have an additional £850 setup fee on our quote which includes Meraki management tools.

 

I'll call them these other suppliers & see what they say, but be interested if there are any pit falls to watch out for. Or if anyone has other recommendations on the iPad trolly? you never know of the build quality of these things.

 

Sorry to ask so many questions I really want to get this right so we don't waste money.

 

Is this for primary or Secondary age students? We use trolleys from ISIS Concepts - they are very lightweight, however not the greatest build quality. What you might want to consider is what case you are going to protect the ipad with, and will that case fit in your trolley.

 

You've had many suppliers provided to you already but we use Academia. They were at BETT this year and we have used them for about 4 years now for macs and ipads. Very quick delivery, very good support team, good after sales care etc, very helpful and dont mind answering any questions you have. Not always the cheapest but by no means the most expensive (in our case anyway)

 

In regards to managing the iPads, Meraki and Apple Configurator are very good and pretty simple to use once you get your head around it, I self taught myself on how to use it and setup the right restrictions, took abit of fine tuning but after a good 3 or 4 days of trying different setups found the setup that we use currently.