The Laptop Company partners with Microsoft to bring device solutions to its customers

 |   Microsoft NZ News Centre

New Microsoft Surface Pro laptop.

In order to deliver that almost-perfect solution to customers, it takes more than just hardware – as we see with The Laptop Company’s (TLC) partnership with Microsoft.

Boasting decades of expertise, the device and deployment specialists complement the exceptional user experience of Microsoft devices with dedicated support and services. This helps to provide ideal solutions to meet the needs of various customers throughout New Zealand – from enterprise to government, and high performance computing teams to educational organisations.

They are also an All-of-Government (AoG) panel partner, working particularly closely with the public sector. The AoG is a contract that establishes agreements with approved suppliers for selected common goods or services purchased across New Zealand government agencies.

TLC, which was founded in 1986, also works with other industry-leading technology partners, including Toshiba, HP, Lenovo and Apple. They emphasise personal service and customer satisfaction, monitoring the “long-term functionality and usefulness of every solution and work to optimise these for the benefit of customers and their users” and engaging with partners for years, according to Mark Mayo, Chief Executive of TLC.

Indeed, long-term engagement is key, for TLC ensures that it works closely with its partners to bring the best possible solutions.

“We don’t do things in isolation – it takes a coordinated effort by our suppliers, our customers and our own personnel to achieve real user-satisfaction and to achieve business outcomes for our customers. We continue to push the envelope for IT in business and government and our partnership with Microsoft is key to our ongoing success,” Mayo explained.

The quest for a suitable solution

Against the backdrop of the ever-changing modern workplace and rapid digitisation, organisations face the challenge of assessing, choosing, and introducing new tech that’s reliable.

As such, TLC has committed to helping their customers to navigate this changing landscape, pairing their expertise and dedicated support service with the exceptional user experience provided by the devices they supply.

“Our approach is to research customer needs, then shape our processes and resources in a way that best meets these,” Mayo noted.

Following extensive testing, which included setting up desktop environments to simulate user experience, they found that the Microsoft Surface Pro was a device suited to some of its potential clients.

Sharing more about the decision to recommend Microsoft Surface Pro to some of its customers, Mayo said: “In a combined mixed brand and hot-desking environment, one of the biggest hurdles was creating an on-desk docking solution that could cater for two device brands, but without negatively impacting the user experience.”

Winning over public sector clients

Of late, TLC have successfully secured a couple of significant wins within its AoG contract, and have been supplying Microsoft Surface Pro devices to the Department of Internal Affairs and Inland Revenue since 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Presented with a range of devices and solutions, each incorporating usability, serviceability, deploy-ability, and manageability, these customers deliberated and eventually selected Microsoft Surface Pro as a device of choice.

As Mayo remarked: “Surface is a complementary solution, a solution that can work alongside other brands within a customer environment. It was also a natural fit between the outcomes the customers wanted to achieve in terms of user experience and mobility.”

The pros of using the Surface Pro

A sophisticated, highly mobile business tool, the Microsoft Surface Pro provides the best possible experience with Windows 10, also integrating well with Office 365 and Microsoft’s online platforms.

“Surface Pro was a step-change in how computers were perceived in the market. The leadership Microsoft provided with a slim pen and touch-enabled tablet that also promised the utility of a laptop was revolutionary – and many others have followed. The concept has been refined generation over generation to the point where the Surface Pro is suitable for almost any user in business or education,” Mayo elaborated.

“It goes beyond providing high quality hardware to achieve a seamless user (and management) experience. This includes native support for pen and touch across much of the gamut of user experiences, while still providing native support for enterprise Windows applications.”

Tender loving care from TLC

Beyond the device itself, TLC have continuously strived to amplify customer satisfaction by delivering dedicated service, committing to supporting the device for its entire life and establishing a strong relationship with customers beyond the sale.

For instance, the Surface Hot Swap warranty support service provided involves swapping out units for customers in their service centres while their own devices were being assessed and serviced.

“It is our focus and investment in other key areas including warranty support and supply chain logistics that have helped Surface find more and more success in our key markets,” Mayo said.

Furthering the partnership

Having partnered Microsoft to supply Surface Pro devices over the past three years, and being a Microsoft Gold Partner, TLC has been named Microsoft Surface Partner of the Year – a key indicator of their expertise in the field, as well as an assurance to customers that they take genuine pride in delivering the best possible solutions.

They have significant expertise in Microsoft Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM), Intune and Autopilot, providing a complete software and hardware managed solution for customers.

Mayo concluded: “Our partnership with Microsoft continues to grow from strength to strength and the future looks bright for achieving more growth together. The key is always people, and the quality of people we get to work with at Microsoft is exceptional. They have taken the time to understand our business and the way to engage with our customers, identifying where they can add value to the solutions.”

“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to grow from strength to strength and the future looks bright for achieving more growth together. The key is always people, and the quality of people we get to work with at Microsoft is exceptional.”
——Mark Mayo, Chief Executive of TLC

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