hello everyone, and welcome to how to select theright computer hardware for your organization. thank you so much for joining us today.we know hardware is a big investment for most organizations, so we are here to giveyou some tips on choosing the right hardware to meet your organization’s needs. before we get started we want to make sureeveryone is comfortable using readytalk, the webinar platform we are using today. youcan chat into us at any time using the box on the lower left-hand corner of your screen.you can let us know if you are having any issues with the audio or with viewing the slides.this is also where you can ask questions. we will be flagging your questions andcuing them up for our q&a slots later on.
we will be keeping all participant lines mutedso we will have a nice clear recording for you to refer back to later. if you happen to loseyour internet connection you can reconnect using the link emailed to you in yourregistration confirmation or reminder email. if you registered more than an hour ago thatreminder email will have also included a copy of the slides that we are using today. and everyonewill also get a follow-up email with the slides, a link to the recording, and all thelinks and resources we will be sharing. that follow-up email will come out in thenext day or 2. if you are hearing an echo through your computer speakers or youare having other issues with the audio, you can also dial in via the phoneusing the toll-free 800-number
that was listed inyour registration email. as i mentioned, today’s session will berecorded. you will be able to find the recording on techsoup’s webinar page within aday or 2. this is also where we share all of our previous webinarrecordings and our upcoming webinars. so we encourage you to check it out attechsoup.org/community/events-webinars. you can also view recorded webinarsand other videos on our youtube channel. and if you would like to tweet about today’sevent you can use that hashtag techsoup or just tweet us @techsoup. my name is ariel gilbert-knight and iam the content director here at techsoup,
and happy to be your host today. i amalso happy to be joined by mike mckean who is the sales manager atcdi computers, one of techsoup’s hardware donation program partners. mikeleads a large team at cdi as well as heading up many of cdi’s initiatives aroundcertification and training. i’m also happy to introduce one of my veryfavorite techsoup colleagues, barb shaughnessy. barb is a senior relationship manager here attechsoup. she has been at techsoup for 8 years and manages a wide variety of our donationprograms. she is also currently serving on our hardware task force whichis an internal techsoup team focused on improving current hardware offers andbringing on new hardware donation programs.
also from techsoup helping out withanswering your questions and chat are kevin lo and frank babbitt. so welcomeeveryone and thank you. a quick look at our agenda today. iam going to briefly introduce techsoup as well as some basic terminology thatyou will likely see when you are thinking about acquiring hardware. then i will handit over to mike who will walk us through how to make hardware decisions includingunderstanding what different kinds of products are available, whether a desktop, laptop,or tablet is right for your organization, and some key features to look out for.then barb will share some information about the ever expanding hardware donationprograms available through techsoup.
i’ll share some additional resourcesand there will be time for q&a. so like many of the organizations you workfor, techsoup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. we operate out of our headquarters here insan francisco. mike is actually joining us from markham ontario. and while iintroduce a little more about techsoup, why don’t you chat into the bottom left box,the chat box, and tell us where you are located. we have somebody fromvermont. hello vermont. so techsoup’s mission is to empower nonprofitsand libraries around the world by helping them get the latest tools and resourcesto help them meet their mission. we serve over half a million organizations acrossthe us and in over 120 countries around the world.
this slide just shows our reach,where we have various programs, and where we are servingorganizations globally. a quick note about our impact, we are proudto have connected nonprofits and libraries with over $5.2 billion in technologyproducts, resources, and grants from over 100 corporate and foundationpartners. but that’s enough about us. now we want to hear from you.techsoup is probably best known for its software donation programs, but wealso as i mentioned, have a growing catalog of hardware products thanks to partners like cdiand others. so we are going to do a quick poll to see how many of you are already usingtechsoup’s program. just click on the screen
for which items you have accessedthrough techsoup’s donation programs. and if you have accessed multiple donationsfeel free to click multiple options. we’re seeing the results roll in. mostpeople are new to techsoup’s hardware program, so be sure to stay tuned at the endwhen barb shares what we have available. all right, i am going to beclosing the poll in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. so as you can see most of theparticipants have not actually accessed our hardware donation programs yet. thank you. the last thing i am going to share beforepassing it over to mike is some key terminology
and definitions that you will likely hearwhen you are researching which computer to buy. first is the cpu which stands for centralprocessing unit. this is really your computers brain and it does all the hard work of processinginformation. a faster processor usually means a faster computer. but, how do youknow if you’re getting a fast processor? one thing to look at is the numberof cores. your computer’s processor can have one or more cores in it, so it can bea single core, a dual core, or even a quad core. you’ll also want to look at processor speedor how fast your cpu processes information. this is measured in gigahertz, and somore cores and a higher processr speed usually translates into faster performance.another thing you want to look at
is the amount of ram or random access memory.ram is a temporary way for your computer to store information while it is turned onand working. so it is kind of like a quick temporary reference for your computerlike really fancy digital post-it notes. and generally, more ram means you can domore things that once, or multitask better without slowing down your computer. ram ismeasured in gigabytes and you will likely see ram available in 2-16 gb amounts. one kindof confusing thing is that ram, or memory, is not the same thing as storage. the storageis how your computer keeps information long-term v. temporary memory which is ram. the storageis kind of like your computer’s filing cabinet where you put files, and documents, and photosand things you want to hold on to long term.
and the amount of storage capacity onyour computer or other devices is measured in gigabytes as well just like ram, butthe numbers are going to be much bigger. so you will see hard drives with severalhundred gigabytes of storage v. 2 to 16 for ram. and i have to admit that i always mix up the2, storage and memory, but now that you know the difference feel free to impressyour dorkier friends and colleagues by pointing out the difference betweenstorage and memory at your next meeting. and i promise, this makes for superscintillating dinner party conversation as well. now the last thing to note is that storagehappens on your computer’s hard drive. and there are 2 key types of computer drivesto be aware of. one is a traditional drive
which a lot of us have, especially if we don’t havebrand-new computers, and most of us at nonprofits don’t have brand-new computers. traditionaldrives are made up of a spinning disc that is attached to a platter. and becausethese traditional drives have these moving parts they are susceptible to mechanical failure.another kind of drive that is somewhat newer is called a solid state drive. and as youmight imagine from being called solid state they are solid, so they don’t have any moving partsso they are less susceptible to mechanical failure than a traditional drive but they do tend tobe more expensive than a traditional drive. there’s a lot more lingo and a lot moreparts inside a computer or other device, so to learn more as well as to see the minimumstandards that we here at techsoup recommend,
we have 2 articles on techsoup.orgthat you can feel free to check out. one is “investing in computers: 7questions to consider,†and the other is “laptops v. tablets: what to considerâ€.and you can’t click on the links on screen but they will be included in the slidesthat will be emailed to you as well as links in the follow-up email. all right, and that is it from my side. so i am goingto hand it over to mike to explain in more detail the kind of questions that you shouldask when you are deciding what hardware is right for yourorganization. take it away mike. mike: thank you very much. and thank youto all the attendees today for joining us.
i hope i cover an array of different subjectsand answer a lot of questions at the end of this. so my name is mike mckean and i amthe sales manager at cdi computers. just briefly, i’ve been with cdi for 10 yearsand we’ve been a proud partner with techsoup now for just over 2 years. so a brief history of cdiin a short sentence would be, we are the company that allows you to get the most out of yourit budget, a vague statement but very true. we are about improving your technologyinfrastructure and more importantly, saving you money along the way. the unique thingabout cdi is we can dramatically lower the cost of your technology into your facilities,and provide the highest quality of equipment and customer service. for over 30years now, i think now close to 33,
we’ve been helping thousands of clientsacross north america save on their it budgets. we do this by providing a fullaccess to the computer market. instead of just buying brand-newcomputers, we give you the option of buying the same brand-new computers you’veknown and trusted, albeit at lower prices, and factory refurbished versions of those samecomputers at roughly half the price of brand-new. and i will touch on that throughout the presentation.and cdi certified version of those computers at roughly 1/3 the price of brand-new, and backedup with a great zero cost of ownership guarantee which i will also touch onlater on in the presentation. so now i wanted to move over to the agenda. sofirstly, i am going to talk about the different levels
of products, second, desktop v. everythingelse, third, mobile computing tablet v. laptop, and lastly what should ilook for in a unit itself. levels of product, the first level of producti would like to discuss is cdi certified. cdi certified products go through anextensive 16 step recertification process. it results in the highest quality andlower failure rates than brand-new. you can save roughly 2/3 of the price whenchoosing cdi certified without compromising on quality. additionally, your maintenance costsare reduced to zero dollars while you’re units are under warranty with thezero cost of ownership guarantee. manufacturer refurbished are unitsthat are typically returned by a client
or overstocked equipment, so stores like, toshare a couple of examples would be stores like best-buy, other large retail chains that returnbrand-new equipment back to the original oem. and then they provide that equipment tocompanies like cdi at discounted prices. we ensure a full inspection on those unitsto make sure they are in perfect condition. and that is where the namemanufacturer refurbishing has come from. they are typically at half the price of brand-newequivalents, and you’re still receiving the same coverage under the manufacturer’s warranty.lastly is brand-new units. so with over 32 years in the business, we have very close and long-termrelationships with manufacturers and distributors. we are able to source brand-new equipmentincluding the latest generations in technology
of the brands that you have known andtrusted, dell, hp, apple, so on and so forth. you can still realize savings while partneringwith us for your brand-new hardware needs and enjoy the benefits of a dedicated accountmanager who understands those challenges. so let me start with desktop v.everything else. this is unique to me. i say that only because possibly like manyof you, in my years of being on the work force i’ve always used a desktop. the desktopof course was paired with a monitor, and the only thing that has grown with otherthan replacing that desktop over the years, is i went from one monitor to 2 monitors, nowto 3 monitors. and i like to think that at times that’s because my boss is expecting meto do 3 times the work. but in most cases
what i have found is through usage of separatemonitors, and having the capability of that with the desktop, it does make for aneasier transition from working on excel, moving over to a crm system, or acall log platform along those lines. it makes your day a little more efficient.so i am going to talk a little bit about desktop v. everything else. solaptops long ago surpassed desktops in sales. and tablets and smart phones are taking amajor market share from laptops currently. so the tendency is clearly toward smallerlighter and more portable computing devices. there are some very good reasons to stickwith a big box that sits on or below your desk. i’m going to touch on a few of those now.price performance ratio, so whether or not
you are spending $300 or $3000, you willget a more powerful computer for your money if you are willing to give upportability. your upgrade options, you will have more than with a desktop.most laptops will let you easily add ram and swap out the hard drive, butyour average desktop can take more ram than your average laptop. andwith a desktop’s multiple bays, your drive options open up considerably.for instance, you don’t have to choose between a sata state drive, an ss drive, anda hard drive on a laptop, you could have both. upgrading a cpu or a graphics cardreasonably easy tasks on a desktop are a little bit more difficult to impossible on alaptop. repair, it is easy to open up a desktop pc
for most, not for myself, but for most, andto check to make sure the cables are secure. you can cleanout dust and remove a brokenpart and replace it with something generic. laptop repairs take considerable more skilland many parts are specific to that model. desktops also use less electricity andthey also have an ergonomic advantage thanks to the big screenand full-size keyboard. we live, i believe if not currently, weare definitely pushing in the direction – we live in a society in which there is somuch marketing, there are so many new devices, things change so rapidly, and mobilecomputing has become very dominant. and what we are seeing isanywhere/any time computing.
we are seeing some powerful systems, and weare seeing mobile devices taking over market share. form factors are becoming blurred,phone, phablet, tablet, 2-in-1 laptops. laptop v. a tablet, laptops and tablets are widelypopular within different groups and demographics mostly because they deliverspecialized experiences to their users. the laptop v. tablet market, we have reallyseen a shift in our younger generation also. tablet devices started off as the very cool uniquedevice to have at home. it’s a friendly device to not have to get up and walk to where your pcmay be in the house. you can sit on your couch. you can access the internet. you could accessyour facebook account. you could check your emails. you could work through your emails all from theluxury of doing it while enjoying a morning coffee
at your coffee table, or laying down on the couchwatching one of your favorite television episodes. laptops are generally characterizedas a mobile personal computer, a device in which you can performall the tasks available on a desktop but in a mobile like compact fashion. it is whatmost people of course would travel with for work, attending a trade show, visiting clients.they’ve become lighter and smaller over the course of the last few years. andthey’ve really made a significant stride when it comes to power,functionality, and performance. laptops have become their preferred computingdevice because it allows them to complete tasks they would need on a desktop but with theconvenience of mobility, and flexibility.
tablets on the other hand, are currently thepinnacle of mobile technology. they are compact. they’re very lightweight, and they areextremely easy to carry. they do not possess the processing power of a laptop, andtheir functionality as a computing device is limited although sufficient for most people.tablets are ideal for those who browse the web casually such as read the news or visit popularwebsites, and those who play lightweight games, or want to watch tv or films while travelingwith friends or the family or on business. laptop v. tablet, laptops are going to be a lot morepowerful, easier for creation. most are non-touch. they are more expensive and they rangein size from 11.6 inches to 17 inches. tablets, battery life, graphics, price, andwhat i think is one of their biggest features
is they are small, they are light, andthey are very portable and consumption. so when trying to decide between atablet and a laptop, remember there is not necessarily a winner, only a morepreferable choice for your particular needs. both laptops and tablets offer extremelyconvenient and powerful features, but the most efficacious for you will be basedupon the tasks you seek to complete by the device. i talk to hundreds of clients on a givenmonth, and we travel for trade shows. we are asked a lot of these questions.how do i know what’s right for myself? or how do i know what’s right for my business?or how to i know what’s right for a classroom or a corporate event? in a lot of cases i alwayscircle back to it’s about your environment.
and in some ways i draw some synergieswhen it’s almost like shopping for a car. if you are single and you do not play a lot ofsports, there is no need for golf clubs in the trunk, or there is no need for really a lot of people tobe in your backseat, then maybe a 2 door honda civic would work for you. if you are a family, marriedwith kids, and you need room and you need storage in the back, then a different line of vehicle wouldfit your exact needs. and what we try to do here is get a real understanding of your environmentand what that environment looks like, and then we are able to do a cost versus featurebenefit analysis and suggest the right device for what environment youare going to be using it in. tablet – tool not toy, so 235.7million tablets were sold in 2014.
and by 2016, 30% of all enterprise end-usermobile computing devices will be tablets. for businesses, tablets deliver a significantproductivity boost and not just because employees who use them feel more value than those forcedto lug ancient laptops around. like smart phones they are always on and wake instantly from sleep,so there is no waiting for the computer to catch up. they can go places that normal computers can’tbecause they are as portable and accessible as a clipboard with integrated wirelessnetworking, and in some models high-speed mobile broadband too. they are almost as lightas clipboards. they can run apps that are designed to speed up common tasks such as data entry,notetaking, and reporting from site visits. that is a particular boon for any organizationthat currently relies on paperwork and form filling.
tablets in business, so the cloud is makingthe business world mobile, access apps or document anywhere any time. multiple devicescan be used. all new apps are being designed for mobility. tablets are just another edge devicethat can be used for things such as web activity, email, productivity tools, e-readers,online or internet accessible apps, and meet online features. what should you consider if thinking aboutbuying a tablet? there are so many choices, what do i buy? it depends. you have to askyourself, what are you going to do with it? what is the environment it will bein? how long would you like it to last? screen size and quality, what sort of internetconnectivity do you want? how many gigabytes?
what apps am i going to run? what ecosystemam i working in now, and what accessories would you need and what arethe cost of those accessories? which ecosystem, now we live in ageneration of a few different ecosystems. so i’ve always grown and been in a workforcethat uses an ecosystem based off of windows. i think most people have. so they are familiar.it’s compatible. there are lots of apps, office 365, cloud services,cross device, and a windows store. ios for ipads, familiar, intuitive,consumer driven, cross device, itunes. we have android, inexpensive, popular inphones, lots of apps, google play store. and we have chrome, inexpensive,controlled, easy to manage, not touch,
in a google play store. windows is a platform that almosteveryone is comfortable with. it is solid and there are some intriguing improvements withwindows 10. the ability to install full programs on windows tablets makes itan ideal laptop replacement, the true meaning of a portable computer. ios offers an accessible uniform experience.it’s a great official library of apps, a huge range of interesting peripherals. andapple focuses on making processes extremely easy for the users. apple offers thebest of course, in multimedia. android, it’s a great all arounder which offersby far the greatest choice. there are more handsets
at different price points, a much wider varietyof customization options, and greater freedom to tweak your device if you choose to doso. if you already use google services, it will sync over to yourtablet once you login to google. some of the other features to think about isscreen size; size, type, touch, resolution, glass. wi-fi capability; single v. dual band,ac, 2x2, mimo, 3g, 4g, lte, bluetooth. ports; usb, tf slot, hdmi. and things likeaccessories, keyboard, stylus, protective cases, pens and so forth. other considerations, what kind of coverageare you looking for? is this a device in which you know the refresh cycle may befrom 12 months from now, or is it a device
in which you will have to be usingfor anywhere from 3 to 5 years? price, like most things in life, the more expensivea device, typically the more you are receiving in performance, in storage, in screenresolution, and or in accessories that will come with the device. serviceability, what are you lookingfor from a service standpoint of view? this is really important i believe, when itcomes to technology. and the reason i key in on this one particular consideration is wenormally know as individuals what we are good at, where are our strengths,and where our weaknesses are. i will always need a good mechanic. andthen when i think of someone like my brother,
he will never need a mechanic because itis something that he is very strong at. he has a strong suit at being able to lift theengine, or sorry, take a look at a car engine, be able to diagnose the problem, andprobably be able to fix it on his own with one quick shopping trip tosomewhere to pick up the parts. when it comes to technology and a lot ofthese mobile devices, you want to make sure that you are being offered the service to lookafter them, especially if you are not qualified on your own to do any sort ofdiagnostics or be able to troubleshoot what may be causing your device to freeze,or crash, or not load a certain app. you want to be able to make sure thatyou have the support behind that purchase
to really free up any of yourtime and just have it looked after. and then of course, last but not least is the lengthof ownership of how long you’d like that device. although there are lots of devices that areportable, and consumer devices on the market, a lot of those devices aren’t meant to lastmuch longer than 12 months to 24 months. the reason for that is they are just notbuilt for being able to travel with them, dropping them on the ground. some of thebatteries inside some of these devices won’t last much longer than a year or 2years. and then some of these portable devices you will find there is no interchangeable battery.so it’s not like a laptop where when your laptop is starting to not perform at the same standardof battery life, you can go out and purchase
a new laptop battery, put it in there, and now youhave that battery power to last a long time again. so all things to think about when looking tomake or acquire your next technology device. whether it is for work, business, pleasure,these are all things to think about. that’s it for me today. i want to thank everybodyonce again, for joining us this afternoon. and i will stay tuned forquestions. thank you very much. ariel: great. thank you mike. people in theaudience, if you have additional questions please feel free to chat theminto the chat box on the left. we had one question come in which is, what is thelife expectancy of a desktop v. a laptop v. a tablet? like how long do these devices actually last,or how long should we expect them to last?
mike: it’s a great question. if i may, i’m goingto use an example. i’ve been with cdi for 10 years and my actual desktop underneath the office inwhich i am in now was just replaced 3 years ago. and i had the one prior for i believe 6 years,or close to 5 or 6 years and it was working fine. desktops as i believe i touched on inthe beginning, desktops and any type of pc in that range are really work horses. andoutside of the memory and storage capabilities and being able to upgrade them, theynever really leave that general area. the fans inside of them are good at removing dustand filtering out any kind of dirt and particles. and because they are stationary youdon’t have to worry about damaging them, and you can always upgrade the partsinside of a pc to make it more efficient.
outside of that, it’s relatively easy to beable to save data through one of the drives and then free up storage space inside yourpc. when we are talking about tablet devices and more of your traditional hand-held devices,they tend, what we tend to find in the marketplace is they tend to go through long hours ofinternet browsing and long hours of downloading, whether or not that is particular programsor whether or not it is particular things such as programs or facebook, or those typesof things. the battery is constantly running on those devices. and we find that there isa lot more downloading on the mobile devices. everybody wants to have a device that they canwalk around in if they want to show their colleague or their friends something cool or unique thatthey saw. it is very easy to pull up the browser
and start to download. constant downloadingof course, can wear and tear on your battery. and when that starts to happen, and i don’t knowabout the audience but i am terrible at this too. think of your telephone device. iown a blackberry, and i own an iphone. my blackberry is meant only for work purposes.my iphone is meant for, i check my sports score, or i have an instagram account. all thosethings where i am constantly refreshing and i am constantly moving to different pages,my battery on my iphone, it’s almost nonexistent. in 4 hours time i am plugging in myiphone so it can have a full charge again. my blackberry on the other hand i amusing it predominantly just for emails. i am responding when i am out of the office to anemail, or the odd email if i am out having lunch
or time at an appointment. and i can actuallygo close to 3 days without charging my blackberry battery. so that’s your biggest concern whenit comes to hand-held and portable devices. one key note, and i don’t mean this in anydisregard to any of the manufacturers out there that build these devices, but they’relower end on the affordability scale, meaning you are not going to pay a lot of money fora lot of your smaller tablets and mobile devices. and there is kind of a catch 22 to that. thatis that the likelihood of you replacing that in the next 24 months is high. and what doi mean by that? well with portable devices, even with some of the most rigorous screens,they get broken. you travel with them. your colleague, or your friend, or a familymember drops them. the replacement cost
on screen devices like that you will find that youare better off just purchasing a brand-new unit. they also design them so thatthe batteries aren’t replaceable. so it kind of puts you in a bit of a catchbecause if you can’t replace the battery eventually the battery will soak down to whereunless it is constantly plugged into the wall, you are not able to have it performor do the things you would like to. and there is nothing more unsettling thansitting with your portable tablet device but you aren’t within 3 ⽠feet of theclosest outlet because it has to be plugged in in order for you to perform what you want.it takes the whole idea of being portable out of the equation. i'm not sure if icompletely answered the question correctly.
if i didn’t, then feel freeto ask me anything else. ariel: yeah, i think you did. and it’sinteresting to hear how long your devices last really depends on how you use them and whatyou use them for. there maybe isn’t a hard and fast rule necessarily forhow long does a device last. a couple of other questions thathave come in, what do you think of the different kind of hybrid options?so for example, the all-in-one desktop compared to a standard desktop with atower, as well as the hybrid tablet devices that are somewhere inbetween a tablet and a laptop? mike: i love them. and i am not so sure –i’ve had the opportunity to use all devices.
the first one, i’m sorry, which phone wasthat that you mentioned, the first device? ariel: the all-in-onedesktop and monitor. mike: yeah, so the all-in-one desktop andmonitor devices are really unique device. i think that they are building those devices witha lot of applications on there which are great for marketing, powerpoint presentations, drag anddrop, downloading of pictures, building albums, all that kind of stuff. and then it also gives yougreat capabilities like working off of a desktop in which i have underneath my desknow. so everything from emails to excel, to doing your day to day kind of – if it’sa corporate environment that you are in, you can conduct kind of the best of both worlds.there isn’t really a downside to those devices
other than typically they tend to bea little bit higher on the price range. and that is because they are kind of givingyou the best of both worlds so to speak. the 2-in-1, i think the next one was the 2-in-1 tabletdevices kind of like a laptop and a tablet all in one, is that correct? ariel: yes. mike: so really cool devices. i can tell you thati’ve traveled for business with them, terrific. so i have an ipad at home and the second istarted to travel with the 2-in-1tablet device i left the ipad back at home. i had alot more space. i didn’t have to worry about a secondary device. becausewhile i was away traveling for business
you want a tablet device to be able tokind of just, if you’re in a hotel room, or you’re in a meeting, or you want tofind a cool place to go for lunch or dinner, or greet some guests or some customers, youhave the accessibility of the tablet device. you don’t need the keyboard. you could useit just like, i’m using apple as an example, but you could use it just like an ipad device.what is super cool about that is that with 2 clicks of a keyboard you can be in a board room, or ata trade show, or talking to any type of clients or engaged in conversation, and you haveall the familiarity of being at your desk whether or not at work or at homebecause you have the keyboard right there and it is just like working off of a laptop.so super cool devices, kind of trendy,
but i think trendy in the right direction for somebodythat – you know, i’m not your typical very trendy, got a have the newest and the coolest device, andi’ve worked for a technology company for 10 years. so they are the kind of a device that isright in my alley. the majority of the time, i’m 85% business and i need a machine thatis going to be very efficient and allow me to complete my work. but i like to be ableto maybe buy some sporting tickets online, check out a few restaurants, accessmy linkedin account. and that device actually gives you bothright there. it’s terrific. ariel: great, thank you. we will have another q&asess. a little bit later so i am going to switch over to barb now. thank you mikefor answering those questions.
mike: no problem. barb: okay, well thank you very much mike forthat excellent presentation. i learned a lot and i’m sure our webinar attendeesdid as well. as ariel introduced me, my name is barb shaughnessy. i’vebeen with techsoup for 8 years now. i am going to talk a little bit about thehardware offers that we have available for you. and the first thing i would like to shareis that within techsoup we categorize and think about some of these hardwareprograms as donated and discounted. and what that means to you is really whatthe admin fee is going to be on techsoup. if one of our donor partners is able to fullydonate a product to us, we are able to offer those
at a much lower admin fee than whena particular product is discounted, meaning that we are receiving that product at anattractive discount for our nonprofit membership, but the admin fee is goingto be a little bit higher. talking first now about some ofthe discounted hardware programs, starting off with the techsoup refurbishedcomputer initiative which we also call rci. mike is a big part of our rci programrepresenting cdi. we also have 2 other refurbishers who provide us with products for thatprogram. they have the names of interconnection and pcrr. you can actually search ontechsoup by those refurbisher names to see the various products that are available.these would be products such as tablets, laptops,
and desktops as mike described them to us.we also from time to time get new products within the rci program, and the catalog is alwayschanging. we have at least one major catalog refresh if not more, each quarter. sodefinitely keep an eye on that program. new to techsoup is infocus. infocus isprobably a brand you are most familiar with as it relates to projectors connecting your desktopor a laptop to a projector to display a presentation. currently we have some tablets availablefrom infocus. and for those of you attending our webinars, i always like to givean early scoop and that scoop is going to be that infocus projectors will be coming soon.we also have recently partnered with journeyed. if you have been in college any timerecently, you may know of journeyed
as one of the main academic resellersavailable to that particular education vertical. happily, many of the participating vendorson journeyed have offered academic pricing to techsoup members. literally it is thousandsof products and over 200 different vendors. it does include both hardware and software. togive you a sense of what is available on hardware that is really an extra discount atthe moment, we have recently added some lenovo refurbished tablets thatare $49. if you are with a library and looking to set up a lending program thatmight be something you’d want to check out. we have seen a lot of techsoup member interestwith refurbished ipad iis through journeyed. and we also recentlyadded some rico projectors.
in terms of some of our donatedhardware programs, the largest and really the oldest hardware programthat we have on techsoup is cisco. they’ve been a partner of ours since 2002.this is enterprise networking products. “enterprise†i know that came upearlier in the chat, what does that mean? that means that you are a larger org. soyou need sophisticated networking equipment whether it be to support wi-fior virtual private network which would be used for remote desktopsupport. one of the unique characteristics of the cisco program is the length of themaintenance that it includes, up to 5 years of maintenance. this is a global donationprogram. so if any of you work and partner
with ngos outside of the us itmight be worthwhile for them to know about the cisco program as well. ishould also share that with cisco, although it is one of our oldest and largesthardware programs, it is limited in terms of the amount of product we are able todonate. so sometimes if you come to techsoup you will find that those products areout of stock. they are also pretty strict in terms of their eligibility. for thoseof you who have not ordered any product whether it be software or hardware on techsoup,all of the various programs are subject to what we call rules, eligibility andrestrictions. and you will find those detailed in every product description whichidentifies based on your mission type,
whether or not you are eligible to receivethe discount or donation, based on budget, and also the quantity of product youcan order during a certain time frame. i also want to give you an early scoop on anotherhuge donation partner that is headed our way, western digital which is a maker of harddrives. i’m sure you’ve heard of that brand. these are going to be refurbished internalhard drives for the initial products. the best way to keep up to date with anythingand everything that is going on on techsoup is to subscribe to our product alert newsletter.personally, i subscribe to the newsletter because it’s the only way i can keepup with what is happening at techsoup. there are so many changes all the time, butthe product alert is the best way to find out
about new hardware andsoftware coming to our platform. and finally, 2 more examples of hardwareprograms that we offer on techsoup, these would be discounted versus donated,headsets.com. i am using a head set right now for this webinar. we offer headsets inseveral flavors, some that connect to phones, and some that connect to computers. andhead sets are also new or can be opened box. so opened box means they were used asdemos. they were returned. they were checked. and they are available to youat a very attractive price point. one of our smaller hardware programs that hasbeen with us also for many years is pitney bowes. you probably remember those from thepostage meter days. well, as they say,
it’s not your father’s postage meter anymorebecause these things have gone very high tech and they are now referred to as a desktopmailing systems. but we are able to offer remanufactured systems through pitneybowes and also discounts on monthly service. we would love to hear more from youin terms of what type of hardware, or really any types of products orservices you are interested in on techsoup. i would encourage you not only to participatein future webinars, but also to participate in our discussion forums. andwe happen to have a forum topic that is called techsoup technology wishlist. and this is reviewed by techsoup staff, really around the world to stay in touchwith what is of interest and in demand
by our member nonprofits and libraries.so to you ariel i will pass it on. ariel: great, thank you barb. and asbarb mentioned, we are always expanding and improving the selection of hardwareprograms available through techsoup. and i would like to reiterate her suggestion thatif there is a kind of hardware or even software that you are interested in techsoup carrying thatwe currently don’t carry, please do weigh in on that technology wish list. it’s one of our greatestsources for finding out what people need so we can best meet those needs. i do wantto add before we switch over to another round of q&a, we have a relatively newprogram at techsoup that is called boost. it is an annual subscription fortechsoup members. and among other things,
it provides access to deals on new andrefurbished hardware. so for example right now, there is boost subscribers have access to infocusq tablets that are $40 off the regular price. so in addition to the other benefitsthat we have listed here for boost, there are consistently updated, newand shiny offers on hardware as well. you can check that outat techsoup.org/boost. all right, and we have a couple ofminutes for some additional questions. one question that came in i am going toaddress to mike which is around the difference between refurbished and new products.sometimes people are little bit leery about refurbished products. so is there away – at techsoup we know that the partners
that offer refurbished productsthrough the techsoup programs have extremely high standards for quality andensuring that those products that they are offering through techsoup are in perfect condition.but is there a general way that people can know that a refurbished product is of the same qualityas a new product, as well as is there any difference between the life expectancy of arefurbished product versus a new one? mike: sure, great. fantastic questions.a refurbished product, you know, the name scared me when i firstjoined the organization 10 years ago. and the word refurbished is also usedas in recertified. and we tend to think that the word refurbished hasnegative connotations in the market.
it’s kind of viewed as negative. so acouple of key things that you should focus on if you are looking for a refurbished device.one, and i think one of the most important ones, is where are you purchasing the devicefrom? so make sure that you are purchasing the refurbished device from a reputablevendor whether or not it be techsoup, whether or not it be cdi computers. shopslike best-buy and other big retail chains offer refurbished equipment in there. so youwant to make sure that first you are buying it from somewhere where you knowservice is going to be key afterwards. let me touch on that though, becausethere is a lot of thoughts out there that when you are buying refurbishedyou are buying an old piece of equipment
that is not going to last you long. ourtest and audit reports actually show us completely different results. what do i meanby that? most of the equipment that comes in through cdi can range anywhere from 1 to 4or 5 years old as far as when it originally stepped place out in to the marketplace.what is unique about what we do and other refurbishers do is if they have theright test and audit facilities to be able to – essentially that machine or device isgetting not only an oil change, but everything is going to be cleaned and/or replaced, and/orupdated. so think of it as in everybody knows they have to take their vehicle in foran oil change every so many kilometers depending on the manufacturer. it is not justan oil change that these devices go through.
it is everything from a complete hard drive wipeto a replacement of the hard drive if needed. it is a full dust clean. and the inside of thesemachines smell like you had just buy it brand new from a retail store. outside of that, everythingis inspected which means we put these machines through very stringent tests that wouldbe – it’s almost like they are imaging what it would be like for that machine to beback out on the work force. we test the battery. we test the cores and the processors tomake sure that there is no interruptions in how they are performing. and there aretimes in which throughout all this testing that gets conducted, where we find ourselveswhere we have to change the processors because they are not up to speed. and we knowthat particular device wouldn’t last the length
of the warranty that we are offering on it. sowe know that in the end that would cost us money shipping in, shipping out, so we replacethose parts inside until it reaches the point to what we consider to be perfection.some of our longest clients work off of a seven-year refresh. sothat should give you a bit of an idea. if they are purchasing from us devicesof refurbished pcs or notebooks, so that they can save money, be offeredtremendous service, and they are not refreshing that equipment for anywhere from 5 to 7 years,a lot of times you are looking at devices that are still working at the end ofthat 5 or 7 years, and those devices themselves are 8 to 10 years old. i like tolook at it in a lot of ways of, in a sense,
a television for a lot of people anyway, will lasta long time and it gets used and in a lot of cases sometimes even more than a pc or a notebook, butnever has a chance to go in and get a full clean or get updated or make sure that everythingis running properly. the pc’s and the notebooks that most of your refurbished suppliers willoffer should be completely tested and audited. you’d like to look for things like isoregistration and a reporting structure that knows that they take that kind ofstuff very seriously. i know that we do, and those are some of the key things that youcan look for when buying a refurbished device. ariel: great. thank you so much. all right, aswe are getting on toward the top of the hour, wrapping up, we would like it if you could chatin one thing that you learned in today’s webinar
that you found most helpful. and of course,if you learned something new and interesting feel free to share this information withyour colleagues and within your network. we are going to include some additionalresources. this content on techsoup includes a buying guide for computers,including the minimum specifications for each kind of part inside your computerthat we recommend. and so we did get a number of questions through chat of how doi know what a good basic computer is, and that article will help you with it. we alsohave as i mentioned before a laptop v. tablet buying guide. and if you want to dive a littlemore into the considerations for tablet purchases, we also have a quick guide to buying atablet. and just kind of general resources
in terms of how you think about and procuretechnology. we have a tech planning tips post that could be relevant and interesting.and for those libraries on the line, we actually have a post aboutone library’s recommendations for how to do a loaner laptop program. we’llalso include links to all of the donation programs that barb mentioned. finally, i wanted to encourage you to checkout our upcoming events, including on the 19th we have a webinar on gettingtechnology donations through techsoup. so that’s a great opportunity to learnmore about the various donation programs both hardware and softwareavailable through techsoup.
we encourage you to take a minute or 2 afterthe event to answer the postevent survey that will pop up. that feedback is really helpfulfor us to understand and improve our programming. so thank you to all of our presenters today.and thank you to our audience for joining us. and thanks also to our webinar sponsorreadytalk who provided this platform for us to be able to host thesewebinars and share them with you. have a good afternoon.thanks everyone. bye.
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