Steljes Goes Into Adminstration

[Diello]

FYI, Steljes have now gone into administration - Updated: Steljes confirms it has gone into adminstration | CRN

 

Related: SMART Technologies goes direct to resellers for AV offering

[Paul_L]

Wow, just Wow, how times have changed!

[localzuk]

Wow, just Wow, how times have changed!

 

Indeed. Times have changed, but Steljes didn't change with them really.

[dry]

Yikes!

 

Last time I phoned them (a couple of months ago), the rep said something along the lines of "if we still have a contract with SMART next time you call". Didn't think much of it at the time!

[Clevertouch_Rob]

Sad times. Not nice to see a long standing company go, even if they are a competitor.

[muppet]

Literally just got an email from them advertising AVer Visualisers!!!

[theeggmaster]

I've just had a phonecall from a supplier saying that they are organising a roadshow near us, with all the big names; HP, Dell, Steljes...

[truebluesteve]

They were pretty awful to deal with in terms of support, so while I have sympathy with their staff to some extent, I won't mourn this companys passing

[free780]

Feel bad for the staff. The smartboard licensing changeust have hit the hard.

[Homer]

I feel for the staff, but the company itself and it's manglement I do not feel for... utter rip off pain in the backside company to deal with (from my previous experiences a few years ago)

[markofealing]

They ran out of cash UK distributor Steljes goes titsup ? The Register.

 

They were a terrible company to deal with, had no regard for the needs of the UK education market and were a monopoly created by SMART. Whilst Steljes did provide onsite support for SMART boards they would only give you 60 minutes notice as to when the engineer would arrive meaning you would have to either close the whole classroom for the day or pay then £100 for a preferred time slot.

 

Apparently their re-seller account mangers were also rubbish and lacked product knowledge, especially when it came to the recent SMART licence changes. In the end we had to escalate the issue tot he SMART country manager for the UK to get a quote as Steljes were unable to help!

 

Like everyone else here I feel sorry for the competent staff at Steljes who tried very hard to do a good job but lost their jobs as a result of the company being run by incompetent managers who just cared about making a large profit out of UK Education and not about providing a quality service. Hopefully, the good staff will quickly get jobs, as for the rest of them......

 

My only concern now is about support for non-SMART products i.e Steljes Vividtouch interactive panels with 5yr warranty. If they are rescued, I hope the buyer will honor all existing warranties!

[markofealing]

Just spoken to Steljes technical support, they are still answering the phones. The warranty and support situation on their product is as follows:

 

1. They are not sending any engineers out for calls reported since the company went into administration. Presumably they are just providing telephone support.

2. If you have a call logged with them before they went into administration, then for now at least, the engineer will still attend site as agreed.

 

We have an engineer out on Tuesday to replace a faulty £6K 1yr old Vividtouch screen so here's hoping that they do come out to replace it. It was booked four weeks ago.

 

I will keep you posted as to what happens.

[psydii]

And now Smart themselves have been bought by Foxconn!

[Arthur]

And now Smart themselves have been bought by Foxconn!

For ~£136.8 million.

 

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/27/foxconn_to_slurp_lossmaking_smart_technologies_for_200m

 

Loss-making interactive display vendor Smart Technologies has agreed to sell up to Foxconn for $200m.

 

Under the terms of the deal, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer will fork out $4.50 per Smart Tech share, equating to a 21 per cent premium on the average trading price in the last 90 days.

 

The buy gives Smart access to a “broad range of new technologies, markets and financial resources” that will speed up its “strategy”, said Smart president and CEO Neil Gaydon.

 

Foxconn generated revenues of $150bn in 2015 and counts more than one million humans on its payroll, though the robots are gradually replacing some of them. Companies that pay the company to make their gear include Apple, Nokia and Sony.

 

Revenues at Smart peaked at $800m in 2011, but things have taken a turn for the worse since as the global economy remained stuck in a rut.

 

In the last set of results for fiscal ’16 ended 31 March, Smart made a net loss of $60.9m versus a profit of $24.1m in the previous year, on sales of $348.5m, down from $431.3m.

[DJ-1701]

And now Smart themselves have been bought by Foxconn!

 

For ~£136.8 million.

 

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/27/foxconn_to_slurp_lossmaking_smart_technologies_for_200m

 

Wow... I find it interesting that I asked this question on Friday...

 

With SmartTech having a subscription based model for their newer SmartBoard software, I was wondering if anyone had thought about using any other options for IWB Software for their Boards?

 

Luckily the version of Notebook pre-subscription model works with Dot Net 3.5 installed on Windows 10, but I can see a point where it won't work, or SmartTech possibly shutting down the Activation Server for it's now older products.

 

... and now they have sold up... makes me a little weary as well.

[localzuk]

Interesting that their poor performance is being blamed on the economy and not on what actually has affected it - effective competition.

[sted]

Interesting that their poor performance is being blamed on the economy and not on what actually has affected it - effective competition.

and to some extent the hardware was too good 500 series boards are hard to kill in normal use so why replace them esp when the newer boards are nasty and licensing is now a pain so im slowly trying to move staff to one note

[elsiegee40]

BenQ warranties sold through Steljes being honoured by BenQ

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/170852-benq-interactive-flat-panel-warranties.html#post1462573

[markofealing]

So the engineer never turned up last week to swap out our faulty Vividtouch screen and we have been told that Steljes are unable to send out the engineer because they can not pay then the £300 call out fee as they have no money.

 

We have been in touch with a 3rd party repair company who repair Vividtouch screens and they can not get the parts because Steljes hold the spares and I guess spares are an asset controlled by the administrator. They have now passed out details on to the administrator as we are now creditor (low down the list).

 

For anyone in a similar position the administrator is Corporate Turnaround and Corporate Restructuring | AlixPartners.

 

The Steljes website is down and has been for a while and tech support has a person manning the phones although this seems to be random

 

Personally, I don't see anyone buying the company, and it looks like the company will be sold for its remaining assets to pay the creditors off.

 

Schools are the biggest looser with Vividtouch customers left high and dry until such time they can purchase the spares.

 

I assume nobody knows the company who made the Vividtouch screens for Steljes?

[CHM-ITServices]

I won their entire stand at BETT show this year (8 vividtouch screens, soundbars, fixing and fitting), not sure they'll be coming for that case study after all

 

A part of me thought they might be ringing me up and asking for it all back!

[mavhc]

Both the hardware and software are rather generic these days, is there any reason for them to exist?

[snagrat]

VividTouch are a separate company to Steljes

 

We've heard just to hold on for now as talks go on about the future of VividTouch.

[Avocor]

Avocor is the Vividtouch Manufacturer.

 

Any Vividtouch warranties purchased before Steljes went into administration (23.05.16) will be honoured by us.

Edited June 23, 2016 by elsiegee40

[markofealing]

Had our 85" Vividtouch screen replaced by Avocor last week.

 

Pleased this nightmare is now over.

 

Hopefully, they will be contacting all of their Vividtouch customers to explain the change.

[psydii]

Q&A with Nigel Steljes | CRN