Arguably the two of the biggest Events for 2016 happened in July—when both of the major political parties confirmed their nominees for President of the United States.
The Republicans celebrated their nominee in Cleveland OH, the city that coined the phrase Rock and Roll, and where four-time Olympic gold-medalist Jesse Owens grew up. One week later, the Democrats celebrated their nominee in historic Philadelphia, not only home to the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence, but also the place that gave America the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. We salute you!
The American viewer was held spellbound for almost two weeks. News agencies did a superb job. Their success, in part, came from the massive numbers of news people who traveled from around the country to join their production teams. One of those Media Outlets rented 300 laptops from Rentacomputer. In Starbucks terminology, they definitely ordered the GRANDE.
Getting that many laptops into the hands of the people who needed them might appear to have been massive, but in fact this rental was surprisingly simple. Randy Moore from our sales team shed light on how it works.
The goal of this article is to alleviate any jitters you might have about large quantity technology rentals, and to provide you with a template of sorts to organize the technology piece of your next event.
Preliminary Decisions
Before we begin, you need to be able to answer these questions:
- What are you trying to do
- What types of technology will you need to accomplish this
- Who will be using this technology
- What unique applications will you need
Their IT staff handled all the communication with Rentacomputer.com. Not every company is fortunate enough to have a dedicated IT Department, and if you don’t, you’re fine. You can rely on your RentaComputer.com to fill the gap.
What this news outlet needed
The people using these laptops came in from local and national news teams. It wasn’t clear what kind of equipment they’d be bringing with them. Rather than leave things to chance it made sense to supply users with dependable, robust laptop computers.
The model they chose was an HP model with 8-gigabytes of RAM.
Their IT Department staged the laptops in an enormous War Room, where journalists could go throughout the grueling, 4-day schedule of either week, to work on reports.
Lead Time
For large orders, it is helpful to communicate early. Even with RentaComputer.com’s 1,500 partners in 35,000 cities, it may take a little time to pull together hundreds of the same model for the dates that you need them.
RentaComputer.com requested a 30-day lead for the 300 laptops this client needed. Smaller quantities 30-50 can be handled right away.
Loading Your Software Specifications
Configuring the laptops was easy. RentaCcomputer.com shipped one laptop to the Media Organization’s IT Team to configure their setup. Then the news organization shipped that unit back to RentaComputer to replicate.
The only apps that they requested were Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010. The rest was configuring the operating system to company standards.
RentaComputer.com can also load proprietary apps and links to websites. Corporate trainers and benefits administrators often link to website platforms to access proprietary applications when doing corporate rollouts.
Delivery
RentaComputer.com can ship to your company or to your venue. We can even personally hand deliver—whatever makes the most sense for the event and your budget. For the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, RentaComputer.com shipped the required computers to the Media Outlet’s offices in New York City. Their IT Department handled the proceedings from there.
Your technology provider can even provide onsite technicians to act as IT Staff to keep things rolling throughout your event.
Concluding Observations
A large quantity laptop rental doesn’t have to be any more complicated than this. Your provider can help you map out a comprehensive plan. They can take you through each step to ensure that no detail is missed:
- Planning phase
This is the phase where you decide the—who, what, and when—and, of course, how your technology will integrate into your event. You choose the type of technology that will best serve your needs and your budget.
- Lead time
The earlier the better—when it comes to large orders. In most cases, smaller orders [30-50 computers] can be turned around virtually overnight. Even if you’re still thinking things through, it’s smart to call ahead to alert your provider of your plans. And, it’s a great time to ask questions so that you’re confident when you are ready to move forward.
- Loading software and configuring your system
Your provider will work with your IT department, to configure equipment to your exact specifications. If you DON’T have a dedicated IT team, RentaComputer.com will be happy to do this for you.
- Delivery
Your provider will ship or hand deliver your order to wherever it makes the most sense. RentaComputer.com can even provide onsite tech support for your event.
Rentacomputer.com thanks you for your business. Here’s to wishing you great success in the 2016-2017 season.
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