When Brighton Schools, Brighton, Colorado, decided to upgrade existing desktop systems to support 4400 students spread throughout nine schools, it hired a third-party to conduct a competitive evaluation and administer the RFP. Against Compaq and IBM desktop products, HP won the bid based on price, product mix and overall service by teaming up with Lewan & Associates, a large HP Colorado reseller, for implementation of the Brighton installation.

"We love HP OpenView, their desktop management system, and this was a key point of HP differentiation for us as the Technology Team," said Frank Klein, MIS Director at Brighton. In addition to the initial installation of 450 HP Vectra desktops and plans for purchasing 650 more in the next nine months, the Technology Team envisions additional investments in HP OpenView software for each of the installed desktops throughout Brighton schools.

Brighton is using HP Vectra PCs throughout the entire district for administrative, instructional and lab purposes. "We wanted to provide internet access to our teachers and improve the overall productivity of the school administration personnel," sited Klein in describing the various objectives sought with their HP desktop purchases.

Brighton is equipped with many different HP products -- HP ProCurve Hubs, HP NetServers, HP Domain Controllers, HP Printers and HP Vectra PCs. The Technology Team's goal is to standardize Brighton on HP products in order to take advantage of HP's product quality across all product lines, enjoy HP's top performance in customer service, improve Brighton's own organizational efficiency and effectiveness, and utilize the strength of HP's reseller relationships.

Lewan & Associates, Brighton's reseller based in Denver, is a critical link to Brighton's high level of customer satisfaction. With great expertise in serving the education market, Lewan is familiar with the added services required by schools. Accordingly, Lewan's leasing program, consisting of a four-year technology replacement across all installed units, was a necessary feature for Brighton in its effort to maximize its return on technology investment.