Pargas wanted to find a more effective solution for workstation acquisitions and deliveries while ensuring that the town’s 1000 employees would get their hardware within a reasonable time. The solution was Tietokeskus’ PCaaS (personal computer as a service) model.
Pargas is a rather typical town in terms of population, but geographically it is quite an exceptional Finnish town: it consists of a widespread archipelago area. Traveling in the scenic archipelago can be a nice way to spend the summer holiday, but for a family of six, it takes much too long.
“Distances within the town are incredibly long, time-wise. For example, delivering a computer could easily take us a couple of hours in each direction,” says Kai Kalliolevo, IT Director at Pargas.
Leasing was replaced by a full service
The change in the hardware acquisition model was reviewed thoroughly at Pargas. The solution had previously been leasing, and while it solved issues related to the financing and recycling of hardware, it meant a lot of work for the IT team. Kalliolevo reveals that it was time to switch things up.
“It did not make sense to us, our able IT people spending their time driving computers around the archipelago. IT environments are becoming increasingly complex, and this means that we need skills put to more productive use purposes than simple daily routines.”
Tietokeskus pre-installs computers, and most importantly, delivers them to the user in a ready state. The coronavirus pandemic has caused some deviations in deliveries, as not all of the town’s premises have been open to everyone. With a little creativity, these situations have been resolved.
“With the PcaaS model, we get more service for the same price,” Kalliolevo states.
Locality enables the necessary speed
When deciding on a partner, Pargas focused on the most burning issue: fast deliveries. This is where Tietokeskus as a local operator had a competitive edge.
“Tietokeskus could offer significantly faster delivery times than its competitors, which we really appreciated. Sensible pricing and our previous experiences with smooth collaboration also made the decision easier,” Kalliolevo notes. The service makes use of 2M-IT’s framework agreements.
The challenges that have generally plagued the market have not been visible at Pargas, as Tietokeskus is in charge of predicting the demand for hardware, along with purchasing and storing them.
“The availability of device models selected for us through Tietokeskus has been very good,” Kalliolevo applauds.
Goodbye to inflexible agreements
The service model also introduced a new level of flexibility into hardware acquisitions. Computers are always leased for a certain agreement period, thus creating a regular need to change devices. A service, on the other hand, is adaptable to customers’ changing needs. Kalliolevo provides some examples:
“We have some project and seasonal workers, who need computers for a certain period. It is good that we can get them devices, say, for three months without having to pay for nothing.”
“Another thing is that when an employee’s device needs changing, we can easily provide them with new hardware while getting rid of the old one. Tietokeskus, in practice, makes sure that people have functioning, suitable devices in use at all times.”
Honing efficiency continuously
At Pargas, leasing devices are replaced by service devices when leasing computers are removed from use. As a whole, the hardware base is changed every couple of years. According to Kalliolevo, the project has been carried out smoothly.
“Tietokeskus’ online store has defined and agreed service devices and compositions, which makes ordering easy. The process is continually developed and made smoother as a joint effort. For example, packaging a laptop, dock and screen into a single product saves many clicks in everyday operations.”
Kalliolevo recommends the PcaaS model to other public sectors:
“The PcaaS model has freed up our own IT resources for other activities, which was our goal. I encourage IT departments to consider whether they have sufficient resources and right kind of model for handling hardware-related needs, or whether they should purchase it as a service, like we have.”
