MikeGreen Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 Morning All, I was hoping you may be able to offer me some advice. A desicion was made by one of our former SLT member not to renew staff laptops due to cost, this member of SLT has now retired. The laptops in use are between 8-10 years old. Staff are not allowed to use their own devices for work purposes. We use Home Access Plus+ as a way for staff to work remotely and I was hoping you may be able to give me some ideas of devices we could use for staff to access HAP but that are also cheap to fund, so that I can revisit this desicion with our head of school. We just need a device with a keyboard and decent sized screen to run HAP/RDS any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Mike
NB9457 Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 The Hp Elite Laptops from @ICTDirect_Dave seem decent for the price, they are very durable and well built too 2
ICTDirect_Dave Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 The Hp Elite Laptops from @ICTDirect_Dave seem decent for the price, they are very durable and well built too They're lovely laptops indeed, really tough and with a superb spec. Take a look at my two best selling business laptops: http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/8470p.html http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/dell-e6430-15488.html 1
mikkydoos Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 HP G series laptops are good and cheap. £230 ex VAT i3, 8Gb etc 1
tomgrindle Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 I could definitely recommend Chromebooks as a solution, if Windows isn't a deal breaker. Pretty inexpensive devices and very little management/maintenance needed. Has the ability to use RDP too. I don't know how adaptable your Staff are ... if they are open to a slight change in mindset? For these to work effectively you would have to have a Google Apps for Education account for Management/Policies etc. If you decide it's for you a chat with @Haptic may be of benefit. If you have any questions don't hesitate to PM me. We have around 200 here at the moment ... 2
ModeratelyGruntled Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 Another vote for the refurb'd Dell E6430s. i5 and SSD for around £225 I believe. 2
AlanD Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 (edited) I always question the wisdom of buying budget second hand laptops. Often 2 years or more behind current generation of CPUs. They don't support the latest "ac" wireless standard so potentially perform poorly - especially in school which are increasingly replacing fixed ICT suites with dense mobile suites. You need to replace the HD with an SSD - and buy a new battery before you start - or soon after ....and then it appears you hang on to this device for a further 8 years. And then you wonder why staff are reluctant to promote and incorporate the use of ICT in their subjects. Still if you can move jobs before two years are up - they will remember you as someone who saved some money and curse the next incumbent who will get a deluge of complaints from staff who well tell them that the laptops worked fine for the first two years. Edited June 8, 2017 by AlanD 1
ModeratelyGruntled Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 I always question the wisdom of buying budget second hand laptops. Often 2 years or more behind current generation of CPUs. They don't support the latest "ac" wireless standard so potentially perform poorly - especially in school which are increasingly replacing fixed ICT suites with dense mobile suites. You need to replace the HD with an SSD - and buy a new battery before you start - or soon after ....and then it appears you hang on to this device for a further 8 years. And then you wonder why staff are reluctant to promote and incorporate the use of ICT in their subjects. Still if you can move jobs before two years are up - they will remember you as someone who saved some money and curse the next incumbent who will get a deluge of complaints from staff who well tell them that the laptops worked fine for the first two years. ...Because we live in the real world instead of imaginationland/neverendingmoneypotland? 1
NB9457 Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 I always question the wisdom of buying budget second hand laptops. Often 2 years or more behind current generation of CPUs. They don't support the latest "ac" wireless standard so potentially perform poorly - especially in school which are increasingly replacing fixed ICT suites with dense mobile suites. You need to replace the HD with an SSD - and buy a new battery before you start - or soon after ....and then it appears you hang on to this device for a further 8 years. And then you wonder why staff are reluctant to promote and incorporate the use of ICT in their subjects. Still if you can move jobs before two years are up - they will remember you as someone who saved some money and curse the next incumbent who will get a deluge of complaints from staff who well tell them that the laptops worked fine for the first two years. It's all dependant on the use and the school. For £225, I can get a Lenovo with a Quad Pentium, 4GB RAM and a 500GB HDD brand new. We bought a few as the school don't like refurb, fair enough. Will the used HP Elitebook outlive this cheap plastic Lenovos? Most certainly, their CPU may be a few generations behind, but it's still more than capable and will walk all over the new Pentium Quad CPU, heck, I still use a Core2 laptop for home use every now and again, works fine. As with all laptops, batteries degrade and at variable rates, at this point I may even favour refurb as a lot of new laptops have the batteries inside, making them a nightmare to service. Plus I'd never buy any laptop anticipating it to last 8 years, always 3-4 and I'm sure to let the schools know after this period, they will show their age. Again, there are pros and cons for each, you may have decided it won't work for your school which is fair enough, but it works for many others and very well! 1
limawhiskey Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 I could definitely recommend Chromebooks as a solution ... Has the ability to use RDP too. @tomgrindle - what do add-on / extension do you use for RDP on your Chromebooks? 1
NB9457 Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 @tomgrindle - what do add-on / extension do you use for RDP on your Chromebooks? I use https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en 1
Zipsterr Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 We just got some refurbished hp E6430s also - Great laptop. They came with 12 months warranty and look and seam great. Worth a look 1
Bob_the_Goon Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 @ICTDirect_Dave do your laptops come with new batteries? Is this an optional extra? 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 @ICTDirect_Dave do your laptops come with new batteries? Is this an optional extra? Our lovely refurbished laptops don't come with a new battery or SSD as standard. These are optional extras. We do test the batteries to make sure they're still decent, but a new replacement will probably set you back about £25. Our SSDs are new, and carry their own 3 year warranty, so if you only take our two year laptops warranty, any ssd you upgrade to will still have that extra years cover. We've found that slightly older i5 cpus outperform the cheaper more modern processors. We're also keenly aware that the cheap plasticy laptops you can buy for a similar price are unlikely to take as much punishment as the top-end business laptops, with all-metal chassis, designed to meet military standards. Yes they may be more ugly, but these are tried and tested designs that have been powering global business. At a fraction of their original price, we think these laptops are ideal for schools. And the thousands we've sold would seem to back that up This year the Dells are our biggest seller, probably because the Latitude E5430 are slightly cheaper than the other models we sell. but we're still shifting tons of the HP Elitebooks too. 2
rogerdnixon Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 All staff have Chromebooks here. Easy to manage, reliable and staff seem to like them. Not much to go wrong. For SIMS access we use Ericom AccessNow + Ericom Secure Gateway - works well. 1
AlanD Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 Yes - I'm always impressed with the whole concept of Chromebooks....and if it wasn't the perception (if the reality) that we still need to run some Windows software I would be racing down this path. I think it needs a "Vision" from senior management and an absolute commitment from a strong core set of users to make them work...and clearly some school have successfully done this. 1
mikkydoos Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 Yes - I'm always impressed with the whole concept of Chromebooks....and if it wasn't the perception (if the reality) that we still need to run some Windows software I would be racing down this path. I think it needs a "Vision" from senior management and an absolute commitment from a strong core set of users to make them work...and clearly some school have successfully done this. Yep. They're pretty good when adopted wholesale. 1
tomgrindle Posted June 12, 2017 Posted June 12, 2017 @tomgrindle - what do add-on / extension do you use for RDP on your Chromebooks? Hi @limawhiskey I most commonly use one called Chrome RDP ... although I have swapped and changed. I can't say it's something that I have to use all that often, but offered it as a possibility. With Chromebooks starting to have the added benefit of being able to run Android Apps there will be even more to choose from. 1
deano3693 Posted June 17, 2017 Posted June 17, 2017 Or why not just allow staff to bring their own laptop to work and RDS in to the network. Given that 80/90% of staff will already own a device. We provide a small number of older desktop machines in office (rippled down when the IT Suites are replaced) One is designated for the Head of department and the rest are hot desk machines. Staff can bring their own laptops in if they wish. They also have remote access from home. We no longer provide laptops. A definite saving for the IT Budget.
Edu-IT Posted June 17, 2017 Posted June 17, 2017 Or why not just allow staff to bring their own laptop to work and RDS in to the network. Given that 80/90% of staff will already own a device. We provide a small number of older desktop machines in office (rippled down when the IT Suites are replaced) One is designated for the Head of department and the rest are hot desk machines. Staff can bring their own laptops in if they wish. They also have remote access from home. We no longer provide laptops. A definite saving for the IT Budget. Who pays if a student damages a member of staff own laptop or it gets stolen or something?
AlanD Posted June 18, 2017 Posted June 18, 2017 We give £120 per member of staff every 4 or 5 years, but they then have to fund their own purchase and they need to show the receipt to get the money. This, therefore acknowledges that at least half of what they do is probably for their own use rather than school use. But we do have desktop PCs at every teacher desk in school as well as a cluster in the staff room. so they don't actually need those laptops to deliver lessons.
elsiegee40 Posted June 18, 2017 Posted June 18, 2017 We give £120 per member of staff every 4 or 5 years, but they then have to fund their own purchase and they need to show the receipt to get the money. This, therefore acknowledges that at least half of what they do is probably for their own use rather than school use. But we do have desktop PCs at every teacher desk in school as well as a cluster in the staff room. so they don't actually need those laptops to deliver lessons. What arrangement do you use to ensure HMRC is happy with this?
AlanD Posted June 18, 2017 Posted June 18, 2017 HMRC? Don't care - why would they? GDPR - is another thing. We will probably start insisting that nothing is stored locally....and only use the school's office 365 cloud storage. Teachers - even with a school laptop - might use their own PC/tablet/laptop to draft school statements/reports etc which might have student names etc so everyone will have to tighten up on making staff aware of what data is allowed to go where.
MkII Posted June 18, 2017 Posted June 18, 2017 HMRC? Don't care - why would they? GDPR - is another thing. We will probably start insisting that nothing is stored locally....and only use the school's office 365 cloud storage. Teachers - even with a school laptop - might use their own PC/tablet/laptop to draft school statements/reports etc which might have student names etc so everyone will have to tighten up on making staff aware of what data is allowed to go where. Where do we stand with O365 and data crossing public space? Is that secured?
3s-gtech Posted June 18, 2017 Posted June 18, 2017 HMRC? Don't care - why would they? That £120 would be taxable. As would any device bought for staff that they use for personal business.
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