Over the past two months, Information Resources and Technologies conducted an analysis of the current computer lease pricing and service offerings from Dell, comparing it with HP with the goal of reducing the university’s annual leasing cost. The project included a rebidding process with Dell and HP, as well as an evaluation of their service offerings.
IRT received similar pricing from both Dell and HP, which is expected to result in up to an 18 percent discount over the projected costs for this year’s systems. HP emerged as a leader in service offerings, understanding of the education market space, and guaranteed future price savings. HP has partnered with many faculty and academic departments in higher education institutions around the world on many different types of projects. IRT will be working with HP over the coming months to discuss these opportunities.
In early January, IRT invited the UST community to test HP hardware test systems and provide feedback, and IRT interviewed local and national schools that use HP. The feedback received was largely positive.
Starting with this summer’s lease, IRT will transition its PC hardware fleet to HP as the fleet is scheduled for replacement. The Apple lease will remain the same.
For more information contact the IRT Tech Desk, (651) 962-6230.