This week, Apple will undoubtedly make several announcements at
the Macworld Expo in New York. Among these will be some product
revision announcements, Mac vs. PC benchmarking demonstrations, and
sales figures showing how Apple has regained the lead position in
educational sales.
What won't be announced are some of the unfortunate tactics
Apple has used to get to this position in the education
market.
For those of you who are not budget-savvy, in any large
organization there are two calendars. The calendar year is the same
as the one you hang on the wall. The fiscal year is the date that all
accounts are reconciled, the checkbook balanced, and budgets for the
forthcoming year finalized. The end of the fiscal year is an
important time because that is when annual profits are calculated,
expenses for the next year are estimated, and the overall health of a
company is evaluated.
The budget year is divided into 3-month quarters, and at the end
of each quarter a financial statement of the company's performance to
date is computed. The end of the year (4th quarter) calculations are
the most important, and it's probably not a coincidence that the
Macworld conferences are scheduled following the end of the
quarter.
This year Apple had considerable motivation to improve its
standing in the education market before the end of the fiscal year -
they needed to refute Dell's claim that Apple has become irrelevant,
its stockholders should be paid off, and Apple's employees sent home
permanently.
Last year, as you may recall, Apple dumped its contracted sales
force which had served as liaison between Apple and the school
district technology purchasers who were responsible for buying,
installing, and maintaining Apple equipment. New people were
appointed who were internal (and inexperienced) Apple employees. No
less than Steve Jobs admits that the move was at best poorly
timed.
In many districts, the committees formed by the schools and
districts were stocked with technology teachers, parents, community
members, and others who looked to the district technology staff for
guidance - and were told that Apple would not be a part of the
equation. Just this past weekend, I spoke to two glum science
teachers who said they were inheriting the Macs discarded by other
parts of the district because all high school purchases would be PC
only, no matter what, no discussion allowed. "There's no
consideration for the fact that I think the Mac's the best tool for
the job," said one. "Now I have a Dell Doorstop, which the tech
department really likes," said another. "I don't want it, and I won't
use it unless forced to."
In other California districts this year, the district made a deal
with Apple for the purchase of hundreds of Apple computers. And in
others, such as the one I am going to tell you about, passionate
arguments among the Digital High School committee members led to the
purchase of some PC computers and some Apple computers - nearly a
50/50 split.
In this district, contracts were signed with Apple and with Dell
to provide several hundred computers on site with installation
services.
Most of us never buy more than one computer at a time, but large
corporations and districts must sometimes ask the computer vendors to
prepare the computers with configurations and software preinstalled
in custom arrangements. The district and vendor work together to
prepare a master disk which is used to set up the machines prior to
shipment from the factory. When the machines arrive, techs from the
vendor install the computer, boot it up to make sure it is working,
and the district techs make sure it has the right IP address,
security settings, and so forth.
At least they do when the vendor does its job correctly.
In this particular case, Apple didn't.
According to the district's technology director, who has asked
that the district's name not be used, Apple was contracted through
its iServices program to burn the district CD (using only legally
licensed software, of course) onto hundreds of new iMacs, deliver
them in a staggered schedule to multiple school sites, uncrate the
computers, remove the trash, and assist as necessary to get the
machines up and running for school this fall.
That isn't what happened.
The tech director, who is admittedly not a fan of Apple Computer
or Apple computers (to put it mildly), was in a meeting with his tech
staff discussing the scheduling of work for the individual schools,
coordinating summertime vacations, arranging for IP addresses to be
made available, planning the inventory of equipment coming in to the
district, when a phone call came in, interrupting the meeting.
"There's a semi here with 200 iMacs," the person on the line said.
"There's no one here to unload them. What do you want to do?"
With no other choice, the tech director canceled the meeting
(irrelevant now) and sent his entire staff to the school to unload
and inventory computers.
And to add insult to injury, Apple also did the following things
wrong:
A sizable chunk of the machines had the wrong disk copied onto
the drive, technically making the district have illegal,
unlicensed software. Now each machine will have to be configured
by hand using an already understaffed department.
Because of the hurried unloading and inventory, the district
is still not quite sure every machine was placed where it was
supposed to be. Inventory control efforts are still ongoing.
The machine's delivery dates were not scheduled to be on one
day; the agreement was to stagger them over three days. Three days
is the maximum time to which Apple would agree (unlike Dell, which
had no such limitation). The staff from Apple computer was not on
hand to assist with the delivery of the machines. The dumpsters
included in Apple's iServices fees were not in place.
Most significantly, because Apple's iServices are normally $80
(per machine) and Dells' are $15, the district had every right to
expect world-class service getting those Macs into classrooms and
having them up and running correctly. The district did successfully
negotiate a lower price per machine with Apple, but they didn't get
what they bargained for. Instead, they got a screw-up of titanic
proportions. (It is true that Apple's iServices include some services
not covered by Dell, such as waste disposal, but the difference in
service is not worth the difference in price, according to the
district.)
And the tech director is disappointed. "If any other vendor sold
Macs - any other vendor," he said, "I'd cancel the contract
and go with them."
The Mac-friendly assistant who worked directly with the sales rep
for Apple had no kind words either. "It was the worst vendor
experience I've ever had," she said. "I sure hope Dell doesn't have a
big problem like this," she continued. "It would completely ruin my
summer." She has deleted the iServices fee payment from the invoice
before authorizing payment for the computers.
Both the tech director and the assistant have been unsatisfied
with Apple's response to the problem. "We got a little apology card,"
said the director. "Somehow, it just doesn't do the job for me." The
assistant chimed in, "I think the entire staff here should get a
Titanium each for the hassle we've been through these past two
weeks," she said, half-jokingly. The sales rep offered some other
things, such as free training, but the district refused. "I'm not
inclined to value anything Apple has to offer," he said. "Apple is
just riding on its laurels from the past and has nothing compelling
for me compared to PCs," he continued.
Why not name names, I asked. "The sales rep seems like he's been
overwhelmed with work all of a sudden," said the tech director. "It
may not be his fault." It's the opinion of the staff at this district
that Apple, desperate to increase the bottom line and close as many
purchases as possible prior to the end of the quarter, pressured its
sales staff to complete deliveries no matter what before June 30.
Mac advocates like to point out that Apple is the only vendor
responsible for the entire experience. That also means Apple needs to
be responsible for the entire experience, not just the nice
display for individual users in the Apple Store. Here we have a case
of a technology director, practically dragged kicking and screaming
to the Apple camp, only to be handed a giant I-Told-You-So on a
silver platter.
This is the audience Apple needs to win over - the tech staff
that, despite their training and better judgment (as they see it),
responds professionally to the demands of their committees, teachers,
and staff, and goes ahead with a cross-platform implementation. As it
stands, it will be a long time and a hard road before Apple makes a
significant sale in this district again. Despite the fact that this
district has a lab of iMacs right next to the director's office and
several vocal Mac advocates - all of whom are angry and
disappointed. Apple needs to make this right, and they need to do it
immediately. They cannot afford the ill will that will spread from
this district to others with whom they come in contact.
Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.
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