Technology Partnerships that Work: a real-life example

By Tina Burkhart - September 12, 2008

As a former Director of Technology in multiple districts, I know how hard it is to balance the day to day tech emergencies with long-term technology planning. In most cases, the long-term planning is postponed for a “quieter” day and meetings with vendors are pushed to the back burner. This practice may hinder possible partnerships that will have long-lasting benefits for the district. In Fresno Unified School District, Kurt Madden, chief technology officer, took the time to create partnerships with vendors and these partnerships have had rich dividends for the district.

The FUSD/HP Partnership:
The Fresno Unified School District recently partnered with Hewlett Packard and Western Blue to design, purchase and install 7,000 small laptops to be used by students in classrooms throughout the district.

Fresno Unified had tried other brands of small laptops and knew the key features they wanted. They worked directly with Hewlett Packard to provide input for the design of the HP 2133 Mini-Note laptop, and will now be the first school district in California to use this HP 2133 laptop in their schools.
The district received a substantial financial discount through Western Blue, the district’s local technology vendor, on the purchase of the laptops, because of this partnership with HP.

Western Blue is now busy setting up the laptops and distributing them to schools and classrooms. Western Blue has also now agreed to sell the laptop at this discounted price to parents, teachers, and students of Fresno Unified so that the entire school community can share in the benefits of this partnership.

This type of partnership provides benefit to all parties, such as:

HP was able to have customer input on a design which would work for students. In a tough financial year for technology companies, they were able to sell 7,000 laptops to a single district.
Fresno Unified was able to acquire a laptop that met their needs and for a price they could afford.
Western Blue was able to receive the contract to provide technology expertise to setup a large group of computers, and is able to sell additional laptops to the larger school community.

Sometimes districts are shortsighted when looking to vendors for the cheapest price only, when other benefits derived from a real partnership may be of greater value.

How can your district partner with companies or vendors to provide mutual benefits?

Talk with vendors you work with regularly and discuss current and future needs. Make sure your vendors are aware of changes going on in your district.
Communicate with vendors about products or services you would purchase if they were available, or if they were modified to meet your needs.
Ask your vendors what type of assistance they could use from you. Do they need a beta test site for a new product, input on design or feedback about current products?
If you can provide assistance to the vendor, can the vendor provide additional services to your district in return? Many times a vendor has experts in specialized areas and can assist in designing a project or providing training.

Many vendors want to assist their customers. But they may not be able to reduce their prices – they too are working in tough financial times. If you treat them as a partner and communicate honestly about ways you both can benefit, you may end up with a partnership which will benefit the district and your partners for years to come.

Editor's Note: Tina Burkhart is the Director of District Support Services for the educational consulting firm Total School Solutions.