[March 07, 2013]

Educators Choose Dell Latitude 10 Tablets to Help Personalize Learning

Dell (News - Alert) today reports that schools are already deploying recently announced Dell Latitude 10 tablets designed to address the costly and time consuming device management challenges faced by schools undertaking large deployments of tablets. Fargo Public Schools, Southern Illinois University, Spartanburg School District 3 and Westwood Independent Schools have selected the enterprise-ready Windows 8 tablets for their compelling touch experience, reliability, security and ease of management.

Fargo Public Schools: "We want our students to learn the needed skills to be successful in the 21^st century and we believe they must have the right devices at the ready that will help them not only consume information but also produce new projects and content," said Bill Westrick, IT Director, Fargo Public Schools. "We chose Dell Windows 8 devices because teachers can integrate them into their existing curriculum; students can now produce information as easily as they can consume it and the Dell Latitude 10 tablets are easy for us to manage within our existing IT infrastructure."

Southern Illinois University: "This tablet initiative will enhance student success and help them become more engaged in the campus experience," said Rita Cheng, Chancellor, Southern Illinois University. "Being the first comprehensive research university to launch a large-scale, campus-wide tablet initiative that focuses on student success lets our students know that we are working to revolutionize their SIU experience. We know our students and their families also will appreciate the financial benefits of e-textbooks."

Spartanburg School District 3: "Ultimately, it's all about the learning experience," said Eric Levitt, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Spartanburg School District 3. "Dell Windows 8 devices deliver our teachers and students an intuitive device for self-directed learning that delivers a personalized approach to education."

Westwood Independent School District: "We were seeking solutions that would bring technology into the classroom, sparking students' desire to learn, and also expanding our district's educational opportunities beyond the classroom," explains Dr. Clint McLain, Assistant Superintendent and High School Principal, Westwood Independent School District. "Additionally, Dell's tablets provided the best way to address our online student assessment needs here in the State of Texas. These devices are innovative and will be enjoyable for our students to use."

Study Reveals Multiple IT Challenges of Deploying Tablets in K-12 Schools

A recent Dell and Intel (News - Alert)-commissioned Harris Interactive online survey² of 203 US school sysem administrators and IT decision makers highlights the tablet management challenges faced by schools today. The results show that tablets are increasingly becoming a standard IT device (53 percent of IT decision makers surveyed have deployed them in their schools). However, other studies show some tablets can cost significantly more time and money to manage. According to the results of the Harris survey:

• Preparing tablets to work in a school's existing infrastructure can cost more than $1,400^2,3 on average.
• These costs include time spent on tasks such as device management, password setting and resetting, enterprise domain and access configuration and policy development.
• Fifty-seven percent of education IT decision makers using tablets say there are applications currently used on their desktops and laptops that cannot be currently accessed on their tablets; 46 percent say some can only be used with limited functionality.
• Additionally, 41 percent say they have to purchase applications to mirror desktop and laptop functionality.
• And 31 percent say they require additional software or tools to manage tablets.
• Fifty-nine percent of school system IT decision makers and administrators say choosing devices that integrate with their existing IT infrastructure and that can be managed by existing tools is the best way to minimize total cost of ownership for tablets.

The Dell Latitude 10 tablet was designed to overcome these challenges by combining a great user experience with ease of management and deployment by IT. The tablet fits easily and securely into existing school IT environments to help improve IT efficiency and decrease total cost-of-management. Because it is managed like any standard Windows-based laptop, the Dell Latitude 10 tablet is significantly easier to deploy and manage than the iPad in large scale implementations.

According to third-party testing performed by Principled Technologies¹, when compared to the iPad in large scale education deployments, the Latitude 10 essentials configuration:

• Requires 52 percent less time to manage.
• Is 99 percent faster for software updates, saving approximately 197 hours with automated updates.
• Saves IT time, doubling the number of devices a single IT staff member can manage.

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Additional Resources:

More information, including images, infographics, full research reports and blogs that further explore the research findings and Latitude 10 for Education can be found here.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is committed to helping students develop the knowledge and skills they need to learn and succeed in an increasingly digital world and a globally competitive workforce. As a top provider of technology and services to schools, Dell listens to and works with students, educators, administrators, parents and community members around the world to deliver innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more in and out of the classroom. Learn more about Dell in Education at www.dell.com. Follow us on Twitter @DellEDU.

¹Tablets in Large Enterprises: Dell Latitude 10 with Windows 8 vs. Apple (News - Alert) IPad, A Principled Technologies Test Report, Commissioned by Dell, Jan. 2013

²The Dell Education and Technology study is a third-party study commissioned by Dell. This Dell Education and Technology study was conducted online within the US and UK by Harris Interactive on behalf of Dell between Dec. 27, 2012 and Jan. 14, 2013 among 203 US and 120 UK IT decision makers who work in K-12 education and are either principals, school administrators or IT professionals working inside or outside a dedicated IT department, and who have at least a major influence on decision making regarding purchasing computer equipment for the school. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available here.

³Price does not reflect cost paid by listed customers.

⁴Offers subject to change, not combinable with all other offers. Taxes, shipping, handling and other fees apply. Offers available only to qualified U.S. customers and subject to restrictions in your applicable contract, if any. Dell reserves right to cancel orders arising from pricing or other errors.

About Harris Interactive (News - Alert)

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll® and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers proprietary solutions in the areas of market and customer insight, corporate brand and reputation strategy, and marketing, advertising, public relations and communications research. Harris possesses expertise in a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Additionally, Harris has a portfolio of multi-client offerings that complement our custom solutions while maximizing our client's research investment. Serving clients in more than 196 countries and territories through our North American and European offices, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us-and our clients-stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

About Principled Technologies and Management Cost Methodology

Principled Technologies (PT) compared a set of typical enterprise IT management operations on the Latitude 10 and the Apple iPad. PT looked at what the cost of doing these operations would be in a typical enterprise with 1,000 of the devices using existing management tools like SCCM. Principled Technologies provides industry-leading technology assessment and fact-based marketing services relying upon extensive experience with and expertise in all aspects of technology testing and analysis, from researching new technologies, to developing new methodologies, to testing with existing and new tools. Principled Technology's founders have worked in technology assessment for over 20 years. They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media's Winstone and WebBench. They founded and led eTesting Labs, and after the acquisition of that company by Lionbridge Technologies (News - Alert) were the head and CTO of VeriTest.

Dell, Latitude and OptiPlex are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

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