Personal Device flyer via REMC

HANCOCK — As students and families make their final preparations for returning to school, REMC 1 has announced that the Device Personal Purchase Program (DPPP) is now open and will be available until September 30, 2022. REMC 1 is a service agency of the Copper Country and Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School Districts.

The program, REMC 1 Director Steven Kass said in an email allows staff, students and their families to make personal device purchases at a discounted rate.

REMC (Regional Educational Media Center) Association of Michigan is a 501(c)(3) organization that is made up of 28 local REMCs operated through the Intermediate School Districts in Michigan.

REMC 1 serves the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, specifically the Copper Country and Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School Districts. As an educational service agency, REMC works with local schools and entities in the public sector to leverage technology, increase efficiency, and create collaborations for the benefit of teaching and learning.

“Basically, our goal is to improve learning, empower teachers, (and) provide savings, so the 28 centers work collaboratively,” said Kass.

The Device Personal Purchase Program offers chromebooks, desktop computers, laptops and similar devices, Kass said.

The vendors listed in the REMC flyer are:

People Driven Technology, which offers Dell devices; Presidio, which also offers Dell products; and Sehi, which offers HP devices.

“It’s just an opportunity for (school) staff or family needing to buy a computer, potentially can do that while saving a little bit of money, too.”

Kass said the flyer contains links to each of the three vendors. Once connected, it is necessary to create an account with the vendor. Once registered, the vendor website has a dedicated page showing what is available.

“For the Dell ones,” said Kass, “Presidio and People Driven Technology, I believe, their links just bring you over to the Dell site, where this is a more of customized page for devices.”

REMC SAVE is one of the elements of the DPPP of the REMC Association.

“It is a contract made with vendors,” said Kass, “where we forecast technology needs for schools across Michigan, then we work with vendors to get volume pricing discounts.”

REMC is not purchasing the products, Kass said, but negotiates between the vendors . Once items get approved for the bid, schools can then purchase off of them. Whether they buy one item or 1,000, they get that volume pricing for the state level, so it is a huge savings he said.

“Our schools locally have saved millions of dollars through the program,” said Kass.

According to the REMC website, REMC SAVE is provided as a service of the REMC Association of Michigan for all Michigan schools. The Project provides large volume contracts for a variety of educational resources. By using REMC SAVE contracts, Michigan schools have saved more than $1 billion since 1990. Kass said that in addition to REMC SAVE, there is also SPOT Connect.

SPOT Connect is a new service of REMC SAVE that allows schools to collaborate and communicate to aggregate purchases through the SPOT website, states the REMC SAVE website (https://help.remcbids.org/spot-connect).

The SPOT bid came about a few years back, said Kass, when there was some additional funding and other resources, which provided opportunities to get better pricing.

SPOT originated from the 22i TRIG (Technology Readiness Infrastructure) Grant.

“Basically, that was designed to help prepare schools for online assessment, which is the MI-STEP tests now that schools do.”

There was a component of that grant that was called SPOT, through which additional funding was available to help schools purchase mobile devices. They were able work further with the vendors and obtain still better pricing.

While the 22i TRIG grant is no longer available, the SPOT bid remains, which Kass said has enable REMC to negotiate rock-bottom prices with the vendors for a volume-level, from which the schools can purchase from them.

“This Personal Device Purchasing program is an off-shoot from the SPOT bid,” said Kass. “Some of the vendors that have devices on the SPOT bid came back and said ‘we will honor these prices for people to make personal purchases.”

In some cases, he said, pricing may differ, but part of the discount remains available.

Three REMC-awarded vendors are offering discounted devices for staff, students, and families. These purchases are for individuals, not districts. Use the contact information on the flyer for questions about specific devices, delivery times, etc.

Kass emphasized that the program is available until Sept. 30.