The technically able people at TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, do not long for hype, but for reliable workhorses as their office computers. In fact, TEKES seeks long life cycles for its laptops and other devices.

- We want business laptops, true workhorses, no hyped models or discount versions with solutions that will be out of date soon. We have been pleased with the maintenance contract with Lenovo and with IBM administrative software, and we hope to see them in the future under the Lenovo brand as well, Mikko Määttä from the IT department says.

- The longer you use the same model, the easier it is to maintain, and the cheaper it therefore becomes, Määttä points out.

The buyers at TEKES do not constantly surf the web checking prices and switch from one supplier to another based on who is the cheapest.

- We have surely tried out all manufacturers of work stations, for example, and we know that everyone has good and bad qualities. When making purchase decisions and choosing partners, price, delivery channel, speed of delivery, life cycle management, and reliability of maintenance all play a role.

Määttä purchases servers for projects based on different agreements, the most significant of which is the Hansel framework agreement.

- Businessforum became our partner through its deal with Hansel. It happened to represent those manufacturers that we were using, and it serves our needs in the best possible way. In addition, Businessforum is a partner of a suitable size from our point of view. It has clear operating methods and plenty of good experience from its own field.

The Hansel agreement makes Määttä's job easier as well.

- We can be sure that the framework agreements have been drafted according to the letter of the law. Otherwise, the procurement projects would mean plenty of more work for us, he observes.

Määttä is pleased with the Businessforum website, and feels plenty of work has gone into developing it.

- We browse the site quite a bit especially when we are pondering what to buy.

TEKES recently upgraded the room where its machinery is housed. This meant buying HP switches through Businessforum, and new cabinets for servers. TEKES already had blade servers, and now the plan is to expand the environment in that direction, and continue with a virtualisation process in general. The centralisation and security of information will also be developed; to this end, TEKES has just acquired the HP EVA 4000 solution and expanded its back-up library.