Technology Replacement Planning: How Refreshing!

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Technology Replacement Planning: How Refreshing!

6/27/2006

By Matt Villano

STRUGGLING TO COME UP WITH AN AFFORDABLE TECH REFRESH PROGRAM THAT MEETS THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF? TAKE SOME CUES FROM THESE SCHOOLS, AND PLOT A PROGRAM THAT DELIVERS.

For the 105 faculty members at Hartwick College (NY), new equipment is as cyclical as the seasons: Every three years, faculty members receive a new laptop computer; departments are divided into three groups, and each year a different group receives the new machines. This past year, for instance, teachers in Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy, and English got new machines. Ellen Falduto, VP and chief information and planning officer, says the program is a fair and balanced way of providing faculty with the technology they need to do their jobs well. The price tag, she says, is about $100,000 per year, and hasn’t changed in 10 years.

The Hartwick program also provides new technology for students. All 500 freshmen receive new laptops from Hewlett-Packard when they arrive on campus, and keep the computers until they graduate. Because all students are on the same machines, Hartwick tech support representatives don’t have to waste time learning new systems. What’s more, Falduto says that because the student body pays for the laptops via roughly $800,000 in annual technology fees, the IT department has a guaranteed line-item in the budget that it can count on when it comes time to plan for future expenditures in other areas. “Our refresh program makes technology expenditures somewhat predictable, which is great for our bottom line,” she says. “In the process, we’re giving our students and faculty members great technology, year after year after year.”

Hartwick isn’t the only institution of higher ed embracing tech refresh. At a time when colleges and universities are struggling to plan the mobile campus of the future, many of those with laptop programs have found refresh programs to be their key to success. Planned well, these efforts establish a strategy to rotate the latest laptop products into the campus technology portfolio, ensuring that schools stay up-to-date. In addition to hardware that can perform at maximum levels, the programs also help universities minimize help desk expenditures and improve total cost of ownership (TCO) figures across the board.

Nationwide, higher ed institutions such as Seton Hall University (NJ), Coppin State University (MD), and Minnesota’s Walden University (affiliated with Laureate Education) are embracing regular refresh programs as a critical component to extend and amplify their existing laptop efforts. While some of these programs present logistical challenges in the sheer number of laptops to be distributed in an often short time period, technologists in the trenches report that the bene- fits far outweigh the drawbacks, and offer institutions a viable method of controlling tech adoption moving forward.

“Refresh programs can be challenging, but they are critical,” says Stephen Landry, CIO at Seton Hall. “The only way to stay ahead of the times is to constantly refresh the technology you have.”