New Dell Partnership Will Save UB $2 Million Annually

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo has entered into a partnership with Dell Inc. that will standardize computer workstations for UB faculty, staff and students while saving the institution $2 million annually.

The four-year arrangement also means substantial savings for UB faculty, staff and students who buy standardized machines at UBMicro, the on-campus, not-for-profit computer and software retailer.

The partnership with Dell is a result of the IT Transformation initiative of UB 2020, which had recommended that UB standardize the 16,500 workstations on campus that are not aligned with university research centers like the Center for Computational Research or the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation, according to Elias Eldayrie, chief information officer.

"In evaluating the best service model for our workstations, we needed to answer the following questions: How can we better manage our IT assets? How can we leverage our purchasing power and how can we make it easy to support our IT assets while reducing costs and improving service?" Eldayrie explains.

"Armed with the answers, we decided to engage IT vendors to partner with us on this exciting opportunity.

"Dell stepped up to the challenge and worked with us to address our needs," Eldayrie says. "In the end, we were able to work with Dell "to secure the best prices in all of New York State for standardized equipment for UB employees, UB students and UB offices."

Dell views the higher education marketplace as one of the key areas of its business focus, and is excited about the partnership with UB, says Stephen Harris, director of sales for Dell's Higher Education Division.

"The UB leadership has done an uncommonly good job of creating a comprehensive strategy around information technology," Harris says, pointing to the university's leveraging of technology to complement the pedagogy and curriculum of the institution, as well as reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of procuring, managing and deploying its IT assets.

"Dell's goal is to make IT easy," Harris adds. "UB is a clear leader in this area. That makes this partnership a great match."

The huge cost saving is just one feature that makes this deal attractive for UB, notes Peter Rittner, assistant dean for educational technology in the College of Arts and Sciences and project leader of the Workstation Standardization Team for the IT Transformation initiative.

The computers UB is purchasing feature standardized software so that when they are delivered to campus they are network ready and secure, "so you can plug them in and run them in our environment and make use of them for both network access and productivity purposes," Rittner says.

These computers also include features that they have not had in the past, he adds, among them asset tagging, which details a machine's specific hardware and software specifications; a standard "image" -- meaning the computers arrive with an operating system that has been configured so it can be used in the UB IT environment; asset recovery, where UB receives whatever value a retired machine retains toward purchase of a new machine; lojacks on laptops that allow stolen machines to be traced; and standard four-year warranties for desktops and three-year warranties for laptops.

What does this mean for UB?

It means an estimated annual savings for hardware and software of at least $2 million for the institution, Eldayrie says, as well as deep savings for individuals who buy one of three configurations -- desktop, laptop or lightweight laptop -- from UBMicro.

Those savings can be quite substantial for the UB consumer -- hundreds of dollars less than buyers would have paid in the past on a comparable machine.

Harvey G. Stenger Jr., dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, recently purchased a computer for his daughter from UBMicro.

"I had a great purchasing experience," says Stenger. "I think I saved about $400 over the list price."

Not only is that a benefit for UB employees individually, but it's also a benefit to the institution, Rittner says, noting that many faculty and staff do a substantial amount of work at home and purchasing the most up-to-date computer for personal use can pose a financial burden for some.

"Now, we'll see increasingly that people, in particular the faculty, will be empowered by the equipment they can buy for themselves," he says.

UB also will see cost savings related to managing these machines, Rittner says. Although exact figures are still unknown at this time, he says campus IT staff will save time preparing machines for delivery to faculty and staff because they come already "imaged," and Microsoft products for which UB holds licenses also have been installed, as has security and other ancillary software that is routinely installed on these machines.

"For the most part, those machines will only have to be customized for the individual user -- with accounts and some preference settings -- as opposed to all of that having to be done from scratch on every machine we receive," Rittner says.

While he notes that all computer users on campus won't be using these machines -- some have highly specialized needs, he notes -- UBMicro estimates that 80-90 percent of machines being bought by departments and decanal units are these standardized machines, he says.

Moreover, the pricing on these computers is so attractive, he says, that even researchers with outside funding who commonly have bought computers from vendors like Best Buy or Circuit City have been buying these machines. Even though these researchers are using money from outside funding sources to buy these computers, the university realizes cost savings because IT staff does not have to prepare the machines for use at UB, Rittner adds.

In addition, the low pricing on these machines -- UB is saving approximately 35-40 percent over the previously best price from Dell -- should allow the university to refresh machines more often, he says. If the university continues to spend roughly the same amount of money on replacement equipment as it has in the past, it will be replacing equipment approximately one year sooner than it had before, he says. "That means that faculty and staff will enjoy the benefits of having newer, faster, more reliable equipment and more up-to-date versions of the software," he says.

Eldayrie stresses that the savings departments and schools realize by purchasing these Dell computers will stay in the units. "They are not central savings; units realize the benefits immediately once they participate in this program," he says.

UB has started talking with Dell to try to meet the needs of units with more specialized computing needs, such as the School of Architecture and Planning, Rittner says.

The university also continues to talk to other vendors, including HP and Apple, Eldayrie adds.

"It's a great deal," he says of the Dell partnership.

In addition to Rittner, members of the Workstation Standardization Team who developed the recommendations that have served as the basis of the Dell arrangement are Brian Murphy, Health Sciences Information Technology, functional leader; Dave Yearke, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, technical leader; Lynn Collis-Jay, Student Affairs; Amy Dimatteo, University Libraries; Dan Deakin and Mary Ann Meyer, Computing and Information Technology; Phil Ganze, Engineering; Joel Kuntz and Teri Metz-Zagskorn, CAS; Phyllis Rubino, School of Management; Eric Schiller, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; and Ray Volpe, UBMicro.