List of Suppliers (AKL NZ)

[SYNACK]

As for the moment this bit of the forum is rather dead I thought that I would seed it a little by adding a list of some of the suppliers that I deal/have dealt with:

 

 

Connect: CONNECT NZ - Connecting people and technology - Home

Lexel: Lexel : Excellence in IT Business Solutions

EdTech: Edtech Limited .::. trust + innovation

IFiks: http://www.ifiks.co.nz/

Think-IT: Think IT: Network Engineers, Systems Integrators :: Think! IT

Watermans: http://www.watermaninnovations.co.nz/web/

 

Networking:

Outsource Communications: http://www.ocl.net.nz/

Cogent: http://www.cogent.co.nz/HomePage.aspx

 

If anyone else knows of or has dealt with others pleas add them to the list

Edited December 3, 2008 by SYNACK

[markcuk]

school support

 

few schools use these guys

 

Home - NEW ERA IT - Total ICT solutions for schools

[SYNACK]

school support

 

few schools use these guys

 

Home - NEW ERA IT - Total ICT solutions for schools

 

Along the managed service provider route there is also this company:

 

Edtech Limited .::. trust + innovation

 

They do both have a habit of charging like a heard of wounded bison though, and double charging for trainee techs to be on site (New Era).

[earlyriser]

Have just taken over as Network manager at Otago Girls after 4 years in the 'real world'. Prior that that 4 years as tech in a school in Christchurch and network manager at a Uni in the UK.

 

Finding it incredibly frustrating to spend my money! Part of my role is to provide a development plan for our ageing network, and to implement it over the next year or so. That's all going OK so far, but man I am having a hard time finding suppliers who seem interested in taking our money. I have always dealt with ascent www.ascent.co.nz who I can't recommend highly enough, but are very much a "you tell us what you want and we will sell it to you" supplier. Have been looking for advice as well as supply on Servers, Workstations and Thin Clients but none of the major manufaturers (have tried Lenovo, HP, Dell etc) seem to have any real prescence here in NZ, especially not for education. Have an immediate need to buy 30 new workstations and the local suppliers have been a waste of time. Have come to the conclusion at the moment that we will just buy parts and build our own workstations. No problem, but a bit of work that we could do without.

 

Anyway, just wanted to share and get others experience on suppliers in NZ. By the way, have dealt with New Era IT when I was contracting to some local primary schools a few years ago, what a bunch of w.....s. Sell a solution to a school, install a server, don't train anyone or even explain anything to anyone (literallly), leave, then charge a fortune even for a short phone call. The antithesis of a good support company. Avoid like the plague....

[markcuk]

hey I went for that job but visa was a problem good luck with the new job

 

try insite they have an office in Christchurch

 

Wouldn't go down the self build route would get brand machines with 3yr warranty HP maybe

Edited May 24, 2009 by markcuk

[SYNACK]

Have been looking for advice as well as supply on Servers, Workstations and Thin Clients but none of the major manufaturers (have tried Lenovo, HP, Dell etc) seem to have any real prescence here in NZ, especially not for education. Have an immediate need to buy 30 new workstations and the local suppliers have been a waste of time.

 

Anyway, just wanted to share and get others experience on suppliers in NZ. By the way, have dealt with New Era IT when I was contracting to some local primary schools a few years ago, what a bunch of w.....s. Sell a solution to a school, install a server, don't train anyone or even explain anything to anyone (literallly), leave, then charge a fortune even for a short phone call. The antithesis of a good support company. Avoid like the plague....

 

Have a chat to Connect from the first post, they have an office in Christchurch and I have been dealing with them (Auckland branch) quite a bit lately. They are quite good at providing advice/opinions if you ask them for it. We just got a whole bunch of hp workstations for quite a good price from them to.

 

I have had simmilar experiences with New Era but just from having to pick up the pieces after they leave.

[earlyriser]

>> Wouldn't go down the self build route would get brand machines with 3yr warranty HP maybe

 

Just out of interest Mark, why not the self-build route? Other than the 3 year warranty, which I agree is a big bonus, I can't see any other reason to go with the likes of HP, lenovo etc. Particularly when they don't really exist in NZ, it's all done through Australia anyway. I have always used major suppliers myself, but am beginning to question it a bit these days.

 

Still looking for gear that will suit our needs. Have been in touch with Insite and am trialing an R1 All-In-One unit which has been made purposefully for the education market. Great idea, and it looks excellent and reasonably priced. Having got the unit here and got everyone interested though, Insite are now telling me they might not be able to supply them any more! GGrrrrrrrrr

[markcuk]

Just the hassle really when things go wrong sending parts back etc.Can you still build computers cheaper these days?

 

The only part supplier I know in Dunedin is pbtech have you spoken to them?

 

also I think these guys are local to you http://www.logistixonline.com I know a school in Queenstown uses them for support.

 

The R1 is it similar to these on these page http://www.rm.com/shops/rmshop/Catalogue.aspx?nguid=6f72d8c4-d4d0-441a-9080-5d90dbb6801f

 

if so do a search on here for reviews etc

 

mark

Edited May 26, 2009 by markcuk

[earlyriser]

Ordered 28 R1s from Insite on Friday, so that's the workstation issue sorted for now. Was very impressed with the trial unit, and got a good deal (19" Screens, 2Gb RAM) for a cost comaprable to workstations from HP or Lenovo. Insite have been good to deal with so far and are obviously used to schools. Might start a spearate thread to let everyone know how they work out

[earlyriser]

Just a quick update on the RM1 computers that we bought from Insite last year (approx 8 months ago) All going really well so far. I have very little to do with them other than scheduled reimaging, which is always a sign that they are working well. Anti-Graffiti paint seems to work well and the all in one design means the students can't fiddle with any of the cabling etc. at the back of the box. Standard Microsoft Keyboards and Mice, which are OK, and because the students can't unplug them they aren't being moved from PC to PC and damaged as has happened before. I was concerned about power supplies as we have been stung in the past with ex-lease machines and faulty power supplies that are impossible to replace, but so far the PSU's have been fine. I suppose we'll have to wait a few more years for them to start failing.... Insite themselves were good to deal with and for the price (probably $100 more per machine than say an equivalent HP model) they are well worth it. I see there are some available on TradeMe at the moment. Pentium 4s so not as new as ours but probably a good buy for a smaller school.

[SYNACK]

We got a couple of batches of PCs from InSite about a year ago and a year before that, both lots have worked fine - about two years in the case of the oldest ones. We have had a total of one hard drive cook itself which they were very good about and replace with a spare while it was warrantied.

 

The ones that we have got are SFF ones with hard glass displays and were a custom job i beleive.

 

The one issue that I did have with them was the fact that they do not write serial number and product information to the DMI area of the BIOS so my inventory scripts just picked up a generic 123456 until I went in and did it myself. The later ones did have a product name added but still don't include the serial numbers. It is a 5 minute job per station anyway so no big deal, overall a good product.

[markcuk]

quick heads up for of your looking for HP brand HP Desktops for Schools - Contact Us