Most of the projects that we have started in July are progressing, albeit somewhat more slowly than I had hoped for. Progress has been slow due to various reasons and mostly it has been with the vendor side of the purchasing process. I had envisoned a dismal time of getting the work out the door from our offices but in fact, that has not been a problem. A couple of dropped POs means nothing when you are pushing millions of dollars in POs out the door and really with just one person handling the job. No, the problem is with the companies selling things to the educational audience. I have been trying to buy a music program Sibielus for the past month. Ben Fong, my music contact tells me that this is a popular program. I can't seem to get them on the phone. I have tried three different contacts. I let Ben know the problems and he is now pitching in to give me a hand but so far no luck. I did find a company called the CD-ROM store that will sell it to us along with another program called Music Ace or Smart Music or something like that. I doubt I'll see them soon. Every order from TekConnect has been wrong or simply just not what I had originally purchased. I can honestly say that the only vendor and this includes all the vendors that I have done business with this year from Verizon to Dell and back, HP Direct has been the best of the lot. So much so that I am going to switch to going direct for all our printer and tablet needs. The fact that really bugs me is that if you do business with education then you should know your sales cycle. Not many do, as witnessed by the number of sales people out on vacation during the peak time of either the sales cycle or the delivery and install process. I never really had a vacation of any kind when I was out on my own, I was on the phone all the time continuously tieing up loose ends. I made my guys wait until September or October to take their time off. So much for the old times. I can't get a hold of anyone. And whats up with all this training for sales people? It seems that everyone at TekConnect is either on vacation or out at training for some new product. Meanwhile the orders are not getting filled and customer service is not really a priority. I am so glad I didn't go.
I have decided to take a bit of a chance and go with some small color lasers in the Media Centers, GEM, and Art, especially Art. I will need about fifteen of these units and I think the HP 2550Ln will do well for us. It is an HP color laser so it will be able to produce about 30,000 copies a month. This should be more than enough of a duty cycle for our needs. I am concerned about the toner but I want them in use so I will just have to monitor them more closely than in the past. The cost on the units is approximately $695 per and that includes the network print server that is needed to directly attach them to the network. I will need to remember to put in an extra drop in each of the areas or add a network switch to the mix as I will need to connect them to the system to get them working. I think it is a safe bet that I am putting them in good hands all around so the users that are going to be responsible for their use will help out as well.
Speaking of the Media Centers a few changes are being forced on me due to some fiscal restraints as well as proximity to electric and just ceilings that are too high for anyone to reach screen handles. I will need to put in a mechinized unit in the Reeds Rd. Media Center for their use. I am going to give Dave Johnson from Troxell Communications a call and ask his opinion on what I can do. He has not steered me to far off course in the past so I should be able to go with his recommendations. Money will be a problem but I think I may be able to save the funds I had budgeted for carts for the TVs that are heading to grades one to three. I think we can use the material that is left from the counter top replacement project at Reeds Rd. to build a small "cabinet with three sides and a top out of the material we have left and some 2x3's. I spoke to Steve Wilkens, our resident carpenter and he thinks he can come up with a solid design that will allow us to place the TVs on these boxes as well as make a shelf for a VCR and some storage as well. The cost of the wood and screws to make them up is far, far less than I would have spent for carts out of a catalog. I would estimate the cost of each box at about $30 as opposed to $250 or so for something that was "pretty".
With that last statement in mind, I guess the watchwords for the summer projects has been functional and cost effective with an eye on the price of everything. Till next time.
9:26:09 PM 
|
