Cost of NZTE's iPad spend-up revealed
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise goes bananas for Apple's tablet.
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Hawke’s Bay
A keen reader spotted this snarky comment after a August story on Andrew Ferrier’s appointment as New Zealand Trade & Enterprise chairman:
“Have you heard the one about how all client staff at NZTE getting iPads to match their iPhones? Perhaps the govt could spend the annual NZTE budget on buying every NZ business one instead.”
The reader, who says she deals a lot with NZE, fired off a request for about NZTE’s iPad purchasing under the Official Information Act.
A reply came back yesterday.
It said NZTE has bought 308 iPads.
During the 2011-12 financial year, the agency purchased 280 under the new All-of-Government contract for Apple purchases at a cost of $257,320 (or $919 per iPad - the tablets were all the same model, the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad with Retina Display that retails for $1079).
24 were bought earlier at retail price, and used for a proof-of-concept trial.
$19,839 was spent (including travel) on IT training tour for staff in South and South East Asia, which included iPad training.
It all seems … pretty good to me.
NZTE would probably have spent the same or more on new laptops [UPDATE: an insider tells NBR ONLINE some staff got new laptops at the same time, and needed some convincing of the tablets' merits.]
I agree with the agency that iPads are a great tool for presentations, collecting customer information and communicating globally via Skype.
Someone’s probably going to leave a comment about Android tablet alternatives.
NZTE says it carried out a robust business case process (not detailed) before settling on Apple’s iPad, coupled with Airwatch for device management and security.
I’d add, too, that it’s a good look for an NZTE rep to carry a tablet to a meeting rather than lugging in a laptop.
All looks good to me. Carry on.
Chris Keall
Wed, 28 Nov 2012
Wed, 28 Nov 2012
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Cost of NZTE's iPad spend-up revealed
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