Methodist Ladies' College

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Fujitsu scores top marks at Methodist Ladies' College

Melbourne's Methodist Ladies' College has purchased 800 Fujitsu LifeBook notebook computers for students and staff in 2003, choosing the Fujitsu notebooks for their lightweight, integrated architecture, advanced technology and competitive pricing.

The sale, worth several million dollars, was awarded after a six-month tender and evaluation process in which Fujitsu edged out competition from several other leading vendors, partnering with the local division of national reseller, Fed IT to supply and support the LifeBook S6110s.

A long-term user of notebook technology, MLC was the first school in the world to introduce personal notebooks for students back in 1991, and now operates a fleet of almost 2,200 notebooks for its 1,900 students and 250+ staff, with students from Year 5 up required to use a computer in all their classes. One-third of the fleet is replaced each year as new students enter the program and three-year old machines are replaced.

MLC's Director of Computing and Multimedia, Leon Guss, said Fujitsu offered a quality product in a lightweight form factor.

"Fujitsu offered a two-spindled device that was under 2 kg in weight and was completely integrated, so students don't have to carry external drives or other equipment apart from a power supply," he said.

"As part of the deal, Fed IT will maintain a full-time support person at the school to offer warranty and insurance repairs as required, with an extensive inventory of parts and loan machines to meet our Service Level Agreement requirement of 24 hour turnaround on repairs."

The notebooks being supplied to MLC are Fujitsu LifeBook S6110 computers with a 40GB hard disk, internal CD-ROM drive and built-in wireless card. MLC is progressively moving towards full wireless networking and large sections of the school are wireless-ready, even though it will take until 2005 before all notebooks have been refreshed to include wireless capability.

The Fujitsu Lifebooks are individually configured to fit one of five different images, depending on whether they are to be used by a teacher or by students in Year 5, 7, 10 or senior school. As part of a closely-managed team effort, Fujitsu is handling the generic imaging while Fed IT will perform additional personalisation to meet the needs of individual students.

"We take delivery of around 650 computers in December, with around 70 going to staff and the remainder being given to students during a carefully managed program that operates over a three-day period in mid-December," said Mr Guss.

"Given the number of machines involved and the fact that we spend around 90 minutes with each student to familiarise them with the notebook and provide basic training when they receive their LifeBook, the handover program looks a bit like a military operation.

"We supplement our full-time IT staff of 12 with a large team of casuals to perform around 550 handovers in two days, scheduling meetings with 80 students at a time across four sessions each day. An additional 150 notebooks will be supplied in January for those students unable to collect them before Christmas," he said.

One of Australia's premier independent schools, chosen as The Australian School of the Year in 2002, MLC is also a global leader when it comes to applying technology to enhance the teaching experience.

"Although Fujitsu is relatively new to the education market, the quality of their notebooks and the confidence we have in Fed IT as their channel partner encouraged us to award them this significant contract," said Mr Guss. "I'm confident their support will assist us in further enhancing the standard of excellence in education we are able to offer our students in 2003."