David v Goliath –competition in educational IT
For several years now Dell along with RM have been the largest suppliers of computers to the UK education market. RM were an education-focused company for several years before Dell even existed.
Since their arrival in the UK, Dell have used their low cost model to good effect, particularly targetting the public sector and education markets. According to David Todman, Schools Manager for Dell UK, they are now just a whisker behind RM in terms of market share, ‘but the difference is probably less than a rounding error’. So why have Dell be so successful in education? David Todman’s answer is ‘very competitive pricing, technical superiority, good service, being platform agnostic and really understanding what schools and teachers need’.
While this may sound like a corporate spiel, Dell’s success in the BECTA-administered Laptops for Teachers (LFT) programme speaks for itself. Since its launch in 2003, Dell have been the number one supplier each year and this year are offering four models that range in price from £559 (Celeron 1.4 GHz with 266MB RAM) to £999 (Pentium M 1.86 GHz with 512MB RAM).
With Dell and RM running neck and neck in such a price-sensitive market you would expect there to be very little room for smaller competitors, but not so. Within the LFT one of Dell and RM’s biggest competitors has been Nottingham-based Ergo. Ergo’s turnover is probably less than 1% of Dell’s and yet they compete strongly with them in the UK education market by trying to deliver added value services that are important to schools, like free delivery, on site service and lifetime technical support. Ergo also believe in doing this their own way and have developed (in-house) things like a robotic assembly line, software for speed loading and testing Windows and even designed and financed their multi-million pound factory in Nottingham.
The difference between the two companies and their approach is vast; one is a huge multinational and the other is a tiny bespoke regional manufacturer. What this shows is that there is room for a variety of players in this highly competitive market and the ultimate beneficiaries are teachers and students.