Custom Systems Hold Their Own In Education

All were veterans of the bidding process in that region, but none seemed to recognize the name of Bollig's company, which is a sister company to Nor-Tech, the Burnsville, Minn.-based system builder. Heads turned when the deal went to Reason, which provided thousands of slim-line PCs under the contract.

"They didn't know who Reason Computer was at first, and then they figured it out," Bollig said. "We came in under their price."

They know Reason's name now. Custom-system builders like Reason report that the education market has gotten off to a solid start and they are well-positioned to go up against tier-one competitors.

One factor may be Dell's problems. A number of system builders that have competed with Dell for contracts over the past several months have seen the one-time fierce competitor in the education space going through a period of confusion and inability to match lower pricing by system builders as it attempts to strengthen its own operating margins.

But there are also other factors that are converging to create different opportunities this year for custom systems in the K-12 space.

Bollig cited Reason's ability to be flexible on pricing and configurations, as well as its ability to turn the order around quickly, as critical to fend off his larger competitors. Many school districts also seem to have healthy budgets and a desire to spend on technology. And even the shaky rollout of Microsoft's Vista operating system is boosting the cause, system builders say.

While school districts tend to be among the last to transition to new technology, districts are ordering systems that are Vista-ready, which adds to hardware sales. Other districts are buying Vista with a downgrade option—paying for Vista, which will ultimately be installed, but having PCs set up with XP so all their existing applications can run.

Next: Other factors driving white-box sales in education