New Devices

[Iain.Faulkner]

Evening all, our team is doing a piece of work around device replacement in preparation for Windows 11. We've been asked the question as to what schools/Trusts are currently doing, are they buying outright or are they leasing devices?

 

So I figured let's do a poll :-)

 

Thank you

[Jamman960]

I think it really depends on how you’re planning to do it, if you’re going to replace everything at once leasing makes sense but it’s hard to get back out of it once your device life cycles involve replacing so much kit.

 

At my previous school we’d replace iPads for years 3 and 6, we initially leased but soon found that all the leases combined cost us more than buying a batch outright each year, typically operating leases cost about the same once you’ve factored in interest and you end up paying over the odds if you decide to extend leases or buy the kit at the end.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Results are certainly interesting so far.

 

My big concern on purchasing devices outright is that the organisation will "sweat the asset"....we've been sweating assets for nearly 15 years in one of our schools now. By moving into a lease agreement, they should stay on a rolling program every 5 years (or however long the lease is for), plus with a lease agreement it's less of a capital expenditure year on year, although the overall value will be higher than if we purchase outright over the same period.

[PotNoodleTech]

Thing is more often than not having the ability to be flexible is a big positive especially if it's over a 5 year period. I don't miss the lease days where we basically couldnt do jack sh* until the lease renewal.

[ITGuyNW]

We just have a rolling programme of refurbs and we've just replaced the last room so now everywhere is completely Windows 11 compatible.

[Jobos]

The school has not bought any new devices of 15 years.

[LeMarchand]

The school has not bought any new devices of 15 years.

 

OK. My main school can hand over the "Tightest School in the UK" crown.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Thing is more often than not having the ability to be flexible is a big positive especially if it's over a 5 year period. I don't miss the lease days where we basically couldnt do jack sh* until the lease renewal.

 

This is definitely a concern as well the inability to change what we have.

[thebatman]

We used to have a rolling program of 5 years, but over time the school wanted more and more PC so insted of replacing the PC, we have ended up adding. We are always having meeting with the SLT, saying we need to redue or replace a lot of the PCs. They always agree, then in the next breath say, we need more PCs in/for x.

[LeMarchand]

Thing is more often than not having the ability to be flexible is a big positive especially if it's over a 5 year period. I don't miss the lease days where we basically couldnt do jack sh* until the lease renewal.

 

Given that SMT here don't do anything until way after 5 years anyway...

[dhicks]

We've been asked the question as to what schools/Trusts are currently doing, are they buying outright or are they leasing devices?

 

We buy outright, with the expectation we'll get 7 or 8 years out of a desktop or laptop, maybe 10, but all depending on usage and so on. That probably does mean more time spent on management / care of devices. All our portable pupil / staff devices are full-flip, stylus-enabled Chromebooks, which have been nice and easy to manage.