Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Hello Instead of me just putting random offers in the "Our Advertisers" forum (which doesn't seem to be going very well), i wanted to see what offers would tickle your fancy? As you know, i work with all the vendors and i'll put forward anything that you suggest. I know it depends on what you actually need and your budget but if there's something you would like to see an offer on or some kind of promo, post it! It can be on hardware, software, installs or whatever! I just want some ideas so i can go to the vendors and get the offers you want. No one understands the needs of you guys better than yourselves Get creative Luke
featured_spectre Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Free Apple MAC air laptop for every stick of RAM purchased...lol Something like barebones machines you see on ebuyer but better.:-) 4
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 Free bulbs with projectors! On certain ones you get get free bulbs
Rydra Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Unfortunately with Education we tend to only buy things we need when we need them (though on occasion we manage to catch the HT/SMT/Bursar offguard and get things we want). There's usually a stock of things that we all buy on a fairly regular basis, that I at least hate having to chase up when I want them. -Projectors. Ones with extended/long life warranties, free bulbs are often good, or free mounts/cabling kits etc. We all get those projectors from time to time that go boom/pop, and need to replace them ASAP, so knowing what's the good/best offer out there available this week is a bonus. -Laptops. When it's time to buy that next batch of laptops, I find we all buy roughly the same things each time; it's roughly the same spec of CPU, 2-4GB of memory, DVD drives and most other features are a bonus. Whatever is Best Value, maybe bundled with laptops bags can be good, Cashback is a pain to chase (Would be good if companies would stop doing this and just give us the £50 or whatever off in the first place. It must cost them half of that money just to manage the scheme effectively!) but again always a bonus. Beyond that, what I buy is rarely predictable from a school POV, so just what you normally do; random offers and good prices as they come in. Maybe advertising stuff that we ourselves might be interested in; Decent new monitor for home, good prices on SSD's/high capacity Hard drives, new Mice/keyboard options (I'm on the hunt for a wireless keyboard and mouse set for a Home entertainment PC atm, and I've been looking for a good offer on some new gaming monitors for a year now) 2
pete Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 (edited) Something like.....£X off the GBICs if you buy them with a switch? Agree that Cashback or Free iPod is pretty useless - the former is annoying to chase, the latter could be seen as a kickback, so it'd make me not pick that offer. Edited October 20, 2011 by pete 1
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 Something like.....£X off the GBICs if you buy them with a switch? Could be done but it depends on which switch. It'd have to be HP or Cisco for that kind of offer
SteveBentley Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 (edited) I can't remember us ever buying from somebody because we saw a good offer - we're not really in the business of making impulse buys. Consistently competitive prices are of more use to us than short term offers. Edited October 20, 2011 by SteveBentley missed a word! 1
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 I can't remember us ever buying somebody because we saw a good offer - we're not really in the business of making impulse buys. Consistently competitive prices are of more use to us than short term offers. Not really an offer but.... I can't guarantee to beat everyone's prices all of the time and if anyone else does, they're lying:) But i can promise to be very very competitive and i'd be surprised if other companies consistently come in cheaper than us. Free delivery, good account management (if i do say so myself HA)
Admiral208 Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Sorry to hijack the thread but I seem to remember you offering the HTC flyer on trial a few weeks back. is that deal still available because I would be very interested now? Or have I completely made that up?!
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 Sorry to hijack the thread but I seem to remember you offering the HTC flyer on trial a few weeks back. is that deal still available because I would be very interested now? Or have I completely made that up?! No you're not making it up but i think HTC have stopped offering this now but i'll double check for you and drop you a PM They had issues getting enough loan stock for the demand Ta
featured_spectre Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 One offer would be good is as follows Buy a laptop with X Spec (say dual core CPU, 2GB Ram, 160GB HDD) and you will upgrade the Ram to 4GB for free Buy a barebones PC with X Spec (say dual core / quad core, 2GB Ram, 60GB HDD) and you will upgrade either RAM to 4GB or 160GB HDD for free Buy 10/20 laptops of the same make and model, get 1 free (very handy for those looking to buy 60 or 70 as I have seen on occasion) Buy 2 fibre/GBIC switches, get discount on the GBICs Buy a 300m drum of cable, get 10x 0.25m patch cables free
bossman Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 @Millgate: What would be really good and slightly more than you can offer but maybe the owners of this site can come up with an.........................wait for it http://www.edugeekcompare.com Which is just like the search engines on the net for insurance etc etc only this one pulls in all the information on prices from all the available suppliers and you guessed it............compared them on certain criteria. Now that's what I would like to see all in one place and a place for everything sweet!!! 1
featured_spectre Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Ahh but doing such a thing pulls out the wool from sales peoples eyes, and they can undercut in that instance Best to keep it between account managers and staff, that way you can haggle as you see fit and not say "but x has y price on z comparison of products on the Edugeek site". Simple haggling is best 1
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 Ahh but doing such a thing pulls out the wool from sales peoples eyes, and they can undercut in that instance Best to keep it between account managers and staff, that way you can haggle as you see fit and not say "but x has y price on z comparison of products on the Edugeek site". Simple haggling is best I agree because by dealing with an account manager rather than just a webiste, you develop relationships and it benefits both parties. An example of this happened the other day when my client order the wrong Oki printers, opened them and only realised when coming to use them. Now, policy is that once opened, unless faulty, we can't return but because the client has history with me, i returned them with no charge! It's not always what you know...
AyatollahPies Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 I'm sure you are well aware of the budget constraints facing schools at the moment. Therefore, can you understand why I would recommend a school purchase these HP 500B MT Desktop PC - Desktops | Ebuyer.com £250 ex vat over these http://www.edugeek.net/forums/our-advertisers/84334-hp-compaq-8200-elite-sff-free-19-monitor-millgate.html £520 ex vat I know they are not like for like, but the price difference is far wider than the performance difference, even taking the monitor into account. 1
Millgate Posted October 20, 2011 Author Posted October 20, 2011 I'm sure you are well aware of the budget constraints facing schools at the moment. Therefore, can you understand why I would recommend a school purchase these HP 500B MT Desktop PC - Desktops | Ebuyer.com £250 ex vat over these http://www.edugeek.net/forums/our-advertisers/84334-hp-compaq-8200-elite-sff-free-19-monitor-millgate.html £520 ex vat I know they are not like for like, but the price difference is far wider than the performance difference, even taking the monitor into account. I agree and the only reason i put it on is because 2 schools recently purchased 30 units and i thought it was a good offer. I'll start and put some cheaper ones on and see if we can throw in a freebie
Rydra Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 I'm sure you are well aware of the budget constraints facing schools at the moment. Therefore, can you understand why I would recommend a school purchase these HP 500B MT Desktop PC - Desktops | Ebuyer.com £250 ex vat over these http://www.edugeek.net/forums/our-advertisers/84334-hp-compaq-8200-elite-sff-free-19-monitor-millgate.html £520 ex vat I know they are not like for like, but the price difference is far wider than the performance difference, even taking the monitor into account. Just to note, those are 2 very different machines. One is a full size desktop with one of the cheapest (nearly 5 year old tech too) CPU's on the market, the other is a SFF PC with a low end but modern CPU. The desktop is also an endofline, being a Core2Duo platform that is now 3-4 years old in architechture. The i3 architechture is barely 2 years old. At this point, I would not now recommend anyone spends money on a Core2Duo platform. Buying kit that is essentially 3 years out of date before even taking out of the box is inadviseable. 1
localzuk Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 The newer processor machine has a processor that is around 40% faster than the older Core2Duo. The newer machine also uses RAM that is about 20% faster also. Add in the free monitor, and the fact that the older machine is EOL and using out of date technology, and the 3 year on-site warranty rather than a 1 year return to base then I'd still be looking at the newer ones. 2
synaesthesia Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 The i3's are stonkingly quick and I would choose that over any Core2Duo instantly. Regardless of current budget, it is folly to buy what is the cheapest when you should be looking at best value for money - something very different. Why buy something that's already obsolete which will be even worse in a couple of years time? If you're not planning for the future, you're not taking the school's best interests into account. I think decent bundle deals would be helpful - things like mainboard/cpu/ram, also server self-build kit with bundle deals too. In most cases we also find offers a bit of a flash in the pan. 2
rad Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Guys and Gals, you are getting it all wrong, what we really want are things we will see. I worked for a company that bought toners etc from the best account manager ever, we got Haribo every order, not just one pack, but 3 (one for each of us) and we even ended us getting plush toys etc including a monkey, shark... So as its Edugeek, it will be the famous Hobnobs. 1
glennda Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 that HP at £520 is expensive imho I paid £270 ex vat for core i3 64gb SSD drives 4gb ram although no os...
AyatollahPies Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Just to note, those are 2 very different machines. One is a full size desktop with one of the cheapest (nearly 5 year old tech too) CPU's on the market, the other is a SFF PC with a low end but modern CPU. The desktop is also an endofline, being a Core2Duo platform that is now 3-4 years old in architechture. The i3 architechture is barely 2 years old. At this point, I would not now recommend anyone spends money on a Core2Duo platform. Buying kit that is essentially 3 years out of date before even taking out of the box is inadviseable. Not when they are replacing 8 year old single core workstations with 512MB ram they aren't. The school have very little money and need other things doing to their network with are a bigger priority and will make a bigger difference than an i3 will. The point I was trying to make to the OP was that a lot of schools simply do not have the budget for £500 / workstation and that advertising cheaper deals in the current climate may help his bottom line more.
AyatollahPies Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 The newer processor machine has a processor that is around 40% faster than the older Core2Duo. The newer machine also uses RAM that is about 20% faster also. Add in the free monitor, and the fact that the older machine is EOL and using out of date technology, and the 3 year on-site warranty rather than a 1 year return to base then I'd still be looking at the newer ones. Ebuyer deal includes 3 year NBD warranty. Doesn't show until you put it in your basket though. I don't understand the argument about it being out of date technology. It's more than capable of running Windows 7, Office 2010 and the curriculum software that will be installed on them.
featured_spectre Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 Sometimes schools with a lack of budget may even need to buy reconditioned machines and visit the likes of @ictdirect (who btw are fantastic for their kit!!) and it works out the best value deal! Thats just how it rolls nowadays. Gone are the days when I started in ICT and the budget was £50k (after LEA costs etc) a year, to now when its just over £8k (after LEA costs etc)
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