Total Cost of Ownership ChromeBooks vs. Laptops for Downey Unified School District

Total Cost of Ownership

ChromeBooks vs. Laptops for Downey Unified School District

Author: Chris Nezzer

June 29^th, 2014

Introduction

As part of the CTO Mentor program, Candidates were directed to prepare a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) study on a technology project within their LEA. Before I present my TCO study, I will review what a TCO study is and review the TCO formula used. Second, I will discuss the project and goals associated with it and explain why I needed to develop a TCO study for this project. Next, I will detail the costs of each proposed solution and possible funding sources. Finally, I will analyze the results of the study and make recommendations on the next steps.

Total Cost of Ownership (TC0) is the sum of all costs associated with a project over the projects lifetime. It is important that costs from all phases of the project including planning, design, installation, integration, training, support and maintenance are included. These costs include both the one-time costs such as equipment acquisition costs, software, facilities improvements and may include costs incurred at the end of the project to retire the system or transition to new equipment. They also include recurring costs such as utilities, maintenance and ongoing support costs associated with the project. These costs can be divided by the duration of the project, usually in years, to determine the average annual cost for projects that have pre-determined lifetime.

The TCO calculation used for this study is shown below.

Definition of terms used above:

TCO – Total Cost of Ownership, the sum of all costs associated with the project including one-time and recurring costs for all phases of the project.

One-time Costs – These are the costs incurred once over the life of the project. They may include equipment acquisition costs, facilities improvements and costs to remove the system from service.

Recurring Costs – Costs incurred on a periodic basis to pay for utilities, maintenance, support, annual licensing costs and planned upgrades over the life of the project.

Project Duration – This is the expected lifetime of the project or equipment. Project duration should be standardized for specific project types to allow accurate comparisons.

Performing a TCO study is a systematic way to discover the true cost of a technology project. Using the same metrics for multiple solutions gives the chief technology officer a powerful tool for making informed financial decisions.

Executive Summary

Downey Unified School District is Located in the center of Los Angeles County in California and serves approximately twenty three thousand students from Downey and surrounding communities. Downey Unified serves students in K-12 as well as provides services to special needs students from infants to pre-school through our early intervention programs and adults at Downey Adult School.

Last year the Technology Department deployed 1,352 devices for students to take the Smarter Balanced Field Test. These devices were a mix of desktop and laptop Apple computers, Dell Laptops and ChromeBooks. While we have extensive experience with Apple devices and Dell laptops, this was our first experience with ChromeBooks. As we prepare to purchase more devices to provide additional flexibility to school sites, it was clear we needed to perform a Total Cost of Ownership study on each of the platforms.

The purpose of this study is to determine how to maximize the use of funds allocated in the next two years and determine if adequate funding has been allocated. Since these devices are to be used for instruction outside of the testing windows, we must also include the costs to support and train teachers on using each of the platforms for instruction. Having a complete Total Cost of Ownership for each platform will ensure we have the funds to be successful with our purchases.

Background

With the transition to the Common Core state standards, the need for student devices has never been more critical. The summative assessments students take to demonstrate mastery of the standards are online computer adaptive tests developed by the Smarter Balanced Consortium. The Smarter Balanced Assessments require students to spend four to six hours on an approved device to complete the test. Downey Unified will need to test almost thirteen thousand students each year.

While many of our existing devices could be used for testing, we still only had about forty percent of the needed devices. Last year Downey Unified spent approximately one and a half million dollars on devices for Smarter Balanced testing and schools still struggled to complete the test within the five weeks we allotted. Last year we purchased a mix of devices for testing including, Apple MacBook Airs for our thirteen elementary schools, Dell laptops running Windows 7 for our four middle schools and ChromeBooks four our 3 high schools.

For the next two years we have received an additional half million dollars for devices. While the low initial cost of the ChromeBooks is appealing, we want to verify the total cost of ownership compared to our current deployments before making a larger commitment and expanding beyond the high schools.

Devices for Comparison

Dell ChromeBook

11.6 “Screen 1366x768

Dual Core Processor at 1.4 GHz

4GB Memory

16GB SSD

1 Year Warranty

Dell Laptop

14” Screen 1600x900

Dual Core i5 Processor at 1.9Ghz

4 GB Memory

320 GB Hard Drive

3 Year Warranty

Apple MacBook Air

13” Screen 1440x900

Dual Core i5 Processor at 1.4GHz

4 GB Memory

128 GB Solid State Hard Drive

3 year Warranty

Total Cost of Ownership Components

• 
  Device Cost
  
• 
  Warranty Cost to 3 years
  
• 
  Storage and Charging Carts
  
• 
  Management License
  
• 
  Site Staff Training
  
• 
  Setup and Delivery
  
• 
  Network Installation
  
• 
  Electrical Outlet Installation
  
• 
  Secure Storage Location
  
• 
  Support and Maintenance
  
• 
  Electricity cost
  
• 
  Security
  

Total Cost of Ownership comparison for ChromeBooks for 5 Years

* - Time based on 10 minutes for setup each ChromeBook and 15 minutes per Laptop plus 2 hours for cart delivery

** - Storage based on cost per square foot per director of MOT

*** - Based on 2 hours per year for software updates and two percent replacement cumulative per year

**** - Kilowatt hour cost from Director of MOT as average paid

Total Cost of Current Technology Mix for 5 Years

* - Time based on 10 minutes for setup each ChromeBook and 15 minutes per Laptop plus 2 hours for cart delivery

** - Storage based on cost per square foot per director of MOT

*** - Based on 2 hours per year for software updates and two percent replacement cumulative per year

**** - Kilowatt hour cost from Director of MOT as average paid

Findings

Even with the additional cost of training elementary and middle school teachers, the use of ChromeBooks for Smarter Balanced testing will result in over a half million dollars in savings over the five year expected life. The cost savings come primarily from the lower initial cost of the devices. In addition, since one class set of ChromeBooks fits in one cart while the Dell and Apple laptops require two carts, we realize a significant cost savings in many areas. First, we have to by half the carts, even though the carts for ChromeBooks are only twenty to twenty five percent more expensive. Second, we only have to install half the electrical outlets for charging. Third, storing half the carts saves significant costs in storage space, and finally having less carts results in needed fewer security cameras to monitor the locations. These savings more than offset the cost of training the elementary and middle school teachers use the ChromeBooks effectively in the classroom and the higher costs of extended warranties, management licenses and installing wireless access points with the carts. The use of ChromeBooks also allows us to complete the rollout of additional devices with the funds allocated. The table below shows the cost comparison for the total costs for each scenario with the amount and percentage saved by using only ChromeBooks.



Conclusion

Downey Unified should prepare to provide additional ChromeBooks to meet the need for more devices for Smarter Balanced testing. The next steps would be to meet with the elementary and middle school principals to gain their support and then plan the training for the upcoming school year.