case study The Ultrabook.. That Refreshes..

Derrick Unruh Director of Technology Park Hill School District Kansas City, Mo.

At a Glance Lightweight, slim, sleek and fast, Ultrabooks help users stay SCHOOL DISTRICT: Park Hill mobile and connected. LOCATION: Kansas City, Mo. SCHOOLS: 17

STUDENTS: 10,500

I.T. STAFF: 27

OVERVIEW: The Park Hill School District encompasses the Northland region of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The district consists of approximately 10,500 students attending 17 schools, including 10 elementary, a sixth grade center, two middle schools, two high schools, an early education center and a special needs day school.

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Everyone knows mobility equals productivity. That’s one to drive and enhance their own learning through personalized, reason why students and workers seem to be constantly relevant and engaging educational opportunities. Project- on the go. In order to support their increasingly mobile lives based learning and collaborative team activities have been without interruption, Ultrabook are fast becoming improved when students use the notebooks and teachers a computing device of choice. are allowed to more effectively facilitate learning rather than standing and lecturing in front of the classroom. Ultrabooks could be considered a “unique” breed of PCs. In many ways, they look and perform like typical notebooks. Essential to the success of the project was the acquisition But they do have to meet a set of standards in order to gain the of powerful, rugged, lightweight, trouble-free notebooks Ultrabook moniker. They must align with criteria set by , that could run demanding applications such as the full who established this class of computers. Adobe Creative Suite and AutoCAD without issues that would cause distraction or reduce productivity. All day battery life While and tablets may be the rage, for individuals was also essential, says Derrick Unruh, director of technology creating serious content on the go, notebooks are still a must- for the Park Hill School District. “We didn’t want scores of have. In fact, while PC sales as a whole have declined over the power strips and lots of spaghetti wire in the classroom.” past few years, sales of notebooks are actually up almost 15 percent this year, according to data compiled by the Global Previous notebooks lacked the ruggedness for the student Technology Distribution Council, an industry consortium. environment and needed frequent repairs and new parts. Wireless connectivity was temperamental and non- Mobile devices are prime candidates for refreshes every three removable batteries became an issue when battery life started to four years. Aside from depreciation schedules and declining to degrade. “We also wanted a screen size that was large product reliability and technical support over time, mobile enough for working with creative applications,” Unruh adds. technology moves forward at a particularly rapid pace. The advent of the Ultrabook in particular has been a strong 15 Notebooks Evaluated driver of refreshes among organizations now using bulkier The district evaluated 15 notebooks from several vendors and and less rugged notebooks with lower power and battery life. involved students in the evaluation process. “It was pretty Fast enough to cope with everyday tasks, Ultrabooks are neat to hear students discuss notebooks as knowledgeably designed with looks and portability in mind – just what users and intelligently as IT,” Unruh says. One notebook, the HP are looking for today. EliteBook Folio 9470m, was preferred by more than 85 percent Park Hill School District Selects of students surveyed. HP Ultrabooks Teachers and technology staff also preferred this device over the other notebooks evaluated. All groups appreciated For the Park Hill School District, located in Kansas City, Mo., the large, crisp 14-inch screen; sleek, lightweight design; equipping thousands of students with light, powerful durable construction; all-day battery life; and removable Ultrabooks drove the success of its educational battery of the 9470m. “The students liked the stylish design transformation. The Park Hill School District’s approximately as well, which made them proud to carry and use their new 10,500 students attend 17 schools, including 10 elementary, a sixth grade center, two middle schools, two high schools, an early education center and a special needs day school, spread across Kansas City and seven other municipalities.

Two years ago, the district began its Future Learner Project, also known as FliP, to transform the school learning environment into one more student centric than the traditional model, with the teacher acting mostly as a facilitator of student self-guided learning. The goals of FliP are to increase 21st century technology skills and enhance student engagement and academic achievement. Early evaluations indicate that the project has been meeting its goals quite successfully.

For the 2012-2013 school year, the school district distributed notebooks to all fifth graders in three elementary schools. This year, the program expanded to all fifth graders in all the district’s elementary schools. The students use the notebooks 800.800.4239 | CDW.com 3 personal learning device,” Unruh says. “They also liked the use of SSD [solid-state drive] storage making the boot up and login Wireless Upgrade process very quick.” In preparation for the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m One of the more popular enterprise Ultrabooks, the HP Ultrabook rollout, Park Hill School District, Kansas City, EliteBook Folio 9470m is based on third generation Intel mobile Mo., performed a significant upgrade to its wireless processors and chipsets, and features integrated (on dye) Intel infrastructure. HD 4000 graphics, a full supply of ports; a sleek, .75-inch thick “We redesigned our wireless infrastructure and added a unibody design; flash storage or flash cache with mechanical number of Cisco Aironet 3500 and 3600 Series access hard disk storage for fast boot-up and resume; and up to points in each of our classrooms,” says Derrick Unruh, 16GB of RAM – all in an Ultrabook package that weighs less director of technology for the school district. The district also upgraded to the latest Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series than 3.5 pounds. switch with multiple Cisco Wireless Services Module 2 Unlike many competing Ultrabooks, the EliteBook Folio (WiSM2) controllers. 9470m’s battery is removable. Therefore, new batteries can be The result has been a fast, seamless wireless experience added after the original starts to degrade, or users can swap that has enhanced the ability of students to collaborate, batteries on the road as needed. research and further personalize their learning experience. “The EliteBook Folio 9470m has a soft, silky, textural feel and good fit to your hand,” says Ajay Gupta, director of the most demanding applications, trouble-free operations, low notebook development, CMIT, for Hewlett-Packard. “At the rate of damage and repair, and easy, fast wireless connectivity. same time, all that IT needs for security, connectivity and productivity is there, including the Trusted Platform Module CDW Refreshes with [TPM], an HP BIOS, a smart card reader or fingerprint reader, HP Ultrabooks and a full-size dock option with multiple USB and display ports.” Two years ago, CDW, a leading provider of technology The 9470m is also completely IT serviceable and has passed solutions, was ready for a complete notebook refresh MIL-STD-810G durability testing. The test requires that the across many areas of the company. This included sales, device endure multiple drops on edges and corners from finance, coworker services, senior management and most up to 28 inches high. other departments.

“The same docking station is also offered with other HP “We were seeing an increased demand for smaller, lighter products for easy support,” says Gupta. “And, of course, and more reliable devices that would reduce downtime and enterprises get HP’s full enterprise support organization increase productivity for our coworkers,” says Travis Chavous, and multiple enterprise support options.” CDW senior manager for IT service management. CDW also wanted to encourage employees to take notebooks home A Favorite with Teachers Too more often so they could have access to the most current In addition to students, the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m information and data if needed. Ultrabook has been distributed to some teachers. CDW evaluated several Ultrabooks and found a number of “We are finding that they take the unit home more features that made the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m stand out. often than their previous notebook PCs, thanks to its The first was the full-featured, one-button docking station. lightweight portability,” Unruh says. “Our employees like that they can press a single button, pull HP support has also been a plus. “We’re part of the HP Self- the notebook out, put it back and it just works,” Chavous says. Maintainer Program, which lets us perform repairs in-house,” “The docking stations for some competing models required says Unruh. “Under this program, we can get support and plugging and unplugging cables, which employees find more of parts from HP quickly and easily. We don’t have to justify a hassle and prone to issues.” needing a new motherboard or other part.” The result is that when a repair issue does occur, which is much less often than Multidisplay Capabilities before, the notebook is back in operation in a few days or less. CDW users also liked the multi-monitor display capabilities In all, the FliP program and the notebook PCs used to enable it provided by the docking station. “Every coworker at CDW has have been a success. Says Unruh, “Without the performance multiple monitors at their desk,” Chavous says, “In fact, some and reliability of the HP notebooks, we wouldn’t have been able staffers may even have three. to accomplish our educational goals.” “We know there’s a direct correlation in terms of productivity, For the Park Hill School District, the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m especially for the sales folks,” he adds. “For example, when has proven to be a success, providing solid performance for Ultrabooks 800.800.4239 | CDW.com 4

they’re assisting a CDW customer, they can review an email to reconfigure my wireless settings,” Chavous notes. “With on one screen and enter orders quickly on another. It’s simply some of the other models, switching wireless wasn’t always as faster to have two separate screens than to switch back and seamless as it was with the HP Ultrabook.” forth between applications on one display.” “At HP we spend a lot of time and effort optimizing the wireless CDW decision-makers also liked that the battery was placement and user experience,” says Gupta. “We place the replaceable on the HP Ultrabook. “If I’m three years in on wireless antenna at the top of the display for the broadest the notebook and the battery goes bad, it’s much easier to dispersion and highest quality connection. We were very replace if it’s removable,” Chavous adds. “It’s also very easy careful to create a window for the antenna that ensures the to swap batteries if you’re traveling and need more battery magnesium case doesn’t cause interference of any kind.” life.” The ability to upgrade RAM on the HP Ultrabook was also HP support has measured up to its reputation and CDW’s important for CDW’s power users. expectations. “We have HP’s Elite Premium Support, which is In addition, solid-state storage provided the reliability, a great offering. It allows us to customize our support for durability and performance boost CDW was looking for. exactly what we need,” Chavous adds. “With HP’s Accidental “We used to spend too much time fixing hard drives,” Damage Protection, we can get a quick replacement if a Chavous adds. “Using solid state can help reduce drive failures notebook breaks from an accident.“ significantly.” What’s more, HP’s optional wide-screen Recently, HP refreshed its Ultrabook product line. The new high-definition 1600 X 900 configuration, called HD+, EliteBook 800 Series Ultrabooks run fourth generation works well for multiple displays and large spreadsheets. Intel notebook processors and the new Haswell chipsets. The devices offer more significant gains in power, graphics Ultrabook Envy performance, battery life and touch screen capability to take Finally, CDW liked the HP Ultrabook’s sleek, silky design. full advantage of . “When our sales team is in front of customers, they appreciate a well-designed notebook,” Chavous says. “The HP design is thin, silver and lightweight – with only three buttons. It doesn’t look as bulky as the mainstream notebooks we had before.” What is an Ultrabook? The result of the first stage of the refresh – replacing 750 notebooks in July 2013 – was a solid success. With its combination of power and good looks, the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m has caused a lot of notebook envy across the company.

The rest of CDW’s employees will be covered by future According to the latest Intel standards, to be officially given refreshes. “We’ve always believed there’s a direct correlation the title of Ultrabook the device must offer the following: between employee satisfaction and productivity,” Chavous • Needs to be slim (not thicker than 23mm or 0.9 inches) adds. “Particularly in a technology company, users like Ready for voice command and control knowing they have the latest and greatest.” • Offers battery-life requirements to provide at least The performance and solid-state storage also have made • six hours it much quicker and easier to configure and encrypt the Ultrabooks, leaving more time for more important IT functions. • Bundles Intel’s ULV hardware platforms and fast storage “It used to take us four hours per notebook,” he says. “Now it’s (solid-state drives or a mix of HDD and SSD storage) taking less than one.” • Needs to support Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) technology Transparent Wireless Connection • Supports several Intel technologies, like anti-theft or Wireless switching, a popular feature with users, is also identity protection technology effortless with the HP Ultrabooks compared to other solutions. • Outfitted with a touch screen (according to the “If I take my notebook out of the docking station and move to latest definition from Intel based on fourth-generation a conference room, I want to stay connected without having core processors)

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