AOpen Launches Education White-Box Program

Called AOpen for Education, the program promises consistent supply and local service to schools, which typically can't rely on either from name-brand suppliers, Paul Su, president of the San Jose, Calif.-based company, said in a meeting at the Computex expo in Taipei, Taiwan, earlier this month.

At least four motherboards will be available for a minimum of one year with no changes, including engineering and BIOS reversions, according to Su. The motherboards will be in stock locally to ensure that no shortages arise for education customers, he added.

Still, Su said, it's hard to not make changes to motherboards, whose alterations depend on customer needs. "If you have education or commercial customers, you don't want to change often," he said. "If they are gamers, you might change the BIOS every day. HP and Dell may change the BIOS every two months, even if it's on the same motherboard."

AOpen also plans to make joint sales calls to local schools with channel partners and provide them with customized cash-flow programs, customized just-in-time production and logistical support, as well as local education events and training, Su said. In return, partners need to make commitments to ensure that schools can get immediate access to the support they need without experiencing downtimes, he said.

For instance, partners must be able to provide local build-to-order capability, tech support, delivery service and inventory service. "The inventory will be mine, but partners have to carry the parts locally," Su said. "We don't want the school to place an order they can't get right away."

Partners will also have to provide local RMA and other services plus make sure that the schools have certain products, such as optical drives, available on their own campuses for immediate replacement if there are problems. They must also commit to face-to-face service, Su said. "They can't send the products back to San Jose," he said.

AOpen's distribution and system builder partners are already preparing to take advantage of the AOpen for Education program. Larry Gatza, owner of Tactical Business Services, a Crystal Lake, Ill.-based distributor and AOpen custom-system partner, said he expects to roll out the program to nearly 130 solution providers in 14 states over the next couple months.

"Many already work with AOpen," Gatza said. "If they don't, this is an opportunity for them to do so."

The only problem, Gatza said, is that schools have pretty much made their purchases for the coming school year. "We will hit them hard with the AOpen program next year," he said.

Kirk Sipes, vice president of marketing and business development at Open Tech Center dba AOpen Center Dallas, a Dallas-based system builder with financial ties to AOpen, said that under the new education program his focus will be on VAR customers, through which his company gets nearly 80 percent of its business. Open Tech will also use the program to extend its reach to other solution providers, as long as they work with school districts outside the business reach of current partners, he said.

"If a VAR works with a school, it doesn't make sense to open it to another partner," Sipes said.

It's difficult to underestimate the importance of knowing that a motherboard will be in production without modification for a minimum of a year, said Don McKay, vice president and owner of Alden Associates, a Redmond, Wash.-based system builder. Educational institutions account for more 90 percent of Alden's sales, he said.

"Schools care about having a product available for a long time because of the desktop images they use," McKay said. "One school district I work with has 3,400 AOpen computers but only five technicians. They need everything to be standardized. If they have a software problem, they don't want to deal with the software. They just want to download a new image. ... With AOpen, I'll guarantee that you'll have image-compatibility for a year."