Timely Tech: Technology Equipment Financing for K-12 Means More of What’s Needed Today with a Sustainable Plan for the Future
IFS helps school district obtain thousands of Chromebooks in time for the school year – accelerating refresh for more students
A growing school district in California with nearly 12,000 students and a one-to-one Chromebook initiative was facing a refresh requirement for many of its units. Historically, the district had purchased its technology equipment outright, using available annual budget or occasional one-time state grants, bonds, and stipends. But given the increasingly high costs to purchase, maintain, and repair student laptops, combined with the rapid rate of technology obsolescence, the district felt this approach was no longer sustainable. They knew it was time to explore other strategies for acquiring technology.
The district was introduced to IFS by its technology reseller. IFS met with the district to explain the benefits of technology leasing and how its programs have helped other districts. Subsequently, the administrators determined that this route could fulfill both the short and long-term technology needs of the entire district. Not only would lease-financing the Chromebooks eliminate upfront capital expense, it would enable the acquisition of more laptops sooner and help the district stay current with technology innovation. Also, rather than struggling each year to come up with enough budget, IFS’ financing program provided stable, predictable, and affordable payments over time so the district could plan ahead.
IFS offers flexible equipment financing programs to help schools manage their technology acquisition and asset lifecycle. With these programs, districts can provide students, faculty, and staff cutting edge tools such as laptops, tablets, software, monitors, audio/visual equipment, and more. In the case of this K-12 district, IFS initially provided the leasing program to refresh nearly a third of its Chromebooks annually. The three-year agreement included the devices, the carts for storing them, as well as the white glove service, which pre-installs software on each unit so it is ready for immediate use. However, when the district completed the refresh of the first third and realized its budget savings, it accelerated its deployment and doubled its order after a few weeks. IFS was able turn the additional order around within 24 hours, so the district could take delivery in just two weeks before start of school.
IFS’ unique technology leasing model and its fast service made it possible for the district to accelerate the deployment to more schools than it originally anticipated, and accomplish its refresh for the school year. Thanks to IFS’ ability to be nimble, fast, and provide its flexible equipment financing solutions for a wide array of equipment, the leases for this district met the customer’s quick turnaround requirements and budgeting cycles. Both leases included competitive rates, a customized timing structure that followed the academic calendar and provided the extra time needed to return and replace the equipment at lease end.
IFS’ experience in the education market, along with its flexibility and commitment to serving customers made this district’s first experience leasing technology equipment a rewarding one. Going forward with a predictable, affordable, sustainable technology budget means the district can take comfort in knowing that it can reliably refresh its one-to-one laptop initiative with current equipment without having to allocate time, expense, and IT resources to keeping outdated and deteriorating laptops running.
Contact Insight Financial Services today to learn more about how the dedicated K-12 team can support the specific technology equipment financing needs of your organization. info@ifsleasing.com or www.ifsleasing.com
