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Will your customers pay $129 a month for a notebook computer? Larry Keating is betting they will, if the terms of buying the laptop include complete security and data management for the life of the device.
That’s the premise behind No Panic Computing, launching Tuesday from the veteran manufacturer’s rep executive, along with partners HP, Intel and Iron Mountain, and an investment from Compugen boss Harry Zarek.
The notebook-as-a-service business is targeted at small businesses, and professionals in particular with a message of simplicity. As the company’s name suggests, Keating said the company is focused on taking worries out of the process of owning a computer, particularly for small businesses without the luxury of an IT staff.
“Our motto is ‘Get back to work,’” Keating said with a chuckle. “It’s bold, but I think it captures what we’re trying to do.”
The company offers selected HP laptops on a three-year lease, with the price including a stack of security and system-management software creating what the company calls a “stable platform.” That platform includes lightweight antivirus and anti-spam from ESET, automatic online backup from Iron Mountain, and 24/7 remote support and management assistance from No Panic. Other security features include 256-bit encryption of all data on the machine, and the ability to remotely wipe a computer that’s been lost or stolen.
It also includes insurance against theft, lost, damage or destruction. If a No Panic-purchased machine goes down, Keating said, the company will ship the customer a new model, with the user’s data pre-populated right down to the desktop icons.
“It’s not just keeping data from prying eyes, it’s protecting the business continuity too,” Keating said. “This is a tool for anybody who needs a fully managed, backed-up and secured computer and doesn’t want to do it themselves.”
To take the No Panic message to the SMB market, the company is looking to build a channel of what it calls NPC Champions, resellers who focus on the small-business market and likely have specialties in the areas where it focuses – key professional verticals.
The company has gone with a simple program that it hopes will prove attractive to resellers. Sell a three-year lease on an NPC unit, and make $300.
“The reseller doesn’t have to take inventory, there’s no receivable, there’s no support or technical calls,” said Tom Ward, NPC’s vice president of marketing. “They just handle the relationship and all their own expertise and support.”
And when the customer renews in three years, the VAR stands to make an additional $300.
Ward, a channel veteran and former reseller chief at ATI, said the company hopes its go-to-market strategy will both bring hardware purchases back to the channel and away from retail, and make it attractive for VARs to participate.
“These are people who are buying through Best Buy and they’re do-it-yourselfers, but you can’t do-it-yourself a secure notebook,” Ward said. “It hasn’t been a profitable experience selling notebooks of late. The margins are just not very good.”
But with a $300 commission cheque for a laptop sale, the promise of more if a customer renews later, and the ability to focus on value-added services specific to a customer’s business rather than security and break-fix, Ward said selling an NPC machine is a more interesting proposition for resellers.
“We’re looking for VARs with skills and experience with business professionals,” he said. “They’ve got applications they want to sell, and a lot of times, the hardware gets in the way of that.”
The company offers a choice of two HP laptops, the choice is a 15.4- or 14.1-inch display, and is looking at adding a more-mobile 12.1-inch model and a tablet in the near future. Keating said the lack of choice isn’t a problem, and said that in many ways, the company was taking ideas from Apple’s playbook. Fewer choices and the promise that the experience will be good, he said, makes up for any limitations when it comes to configuration.
“These aren’t people who care what size of hard drive is in their laptop,” he said. “They just want to know it’s going to work.”
Keating said that No Panic’s goal is nothing short of changing the way people buy their computers, shifting the discussion away from the machine and towards the data. He acknowledged it’s a goal that may take some time.
“It’s going to take some time for it to stick, for people to really get what we’ve done here,” he said. “But in the end, we’re going to take enterprise-class technology down to SMB customers.”