Framework Laptop Enterprise Question

[TerpMike28]

Hi all! Longtime viewer first time forum visitor. I work with an IT dept. (in cyber law/compliance) for the system office of a major university system and was talking with my direct manager about e-waste over lunch today and had a thought. We use standard OEM laptops/desktops and the individual universities have their own contracts with groups like HP/Lenovo/Dell etc. During our talk I mentioned Framework and how the laptop was designed to be modular and repairable. He did not think it was really something that was scalable to a large org. Figured I'd put it to the community and see what y'alls thoughts were and if you could come up with any valid arguments that I could bring to his attention. I love the idea of telling Dell and the other OEM's to piss off with their soldered RAM and be able to reduce e-waste at the schools. Thanks LTT fam!

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!
The thing that large orgs seem to like about the service contracts is that they don't have to train staff on how to service computers. Something's broken? Just ship it to them and get a replacement. Going Framework would require that the IT staff be trained in replacing all the parts and that's always gonna be a hard sell, especially at a uni IT department where there are a ton of student workers who will turn over with surprising rapidity.
Additionally, whatever inventory tracking system you have might not be able to associate each of the (not inexpensive) modules to the specific laptop that it was checked out to.
Finally, money. Those are *huge* contracts. The decision makers will often be woo'd, wined and dined. Framework simply will not do that, not at their scale. And even with a bulk order, FW laptops will cost more up front with unknown/variable upkeep costs. Accounting *hates* that. The value of a service contract is that, while it may be an outsized cost, it is at least a *known* value.

The only avenue I can see is that, given it's a uni, it probably cares about its image. If you really wanna sell it, you'd have to get either the administration (unlikely) or the student body (takes a lot of time and they're a fickle bunch) behind a push to reduce ewaste. 

[seanondemand]

Framework is not set to support organizations like a Dell or HP - not to mention, the business-oriented machines that are sold to organizations actually tend to be pretty modular and repairable specifically for IT departments to be able to do so. Framework would have to do a BIG push in the next five years to both support organizations (same-day on-site repair/support, security certification/validation, business sales) AND have parts availability across the board for next-day shipping in the thousands. Don’t hold your breath - they’re definitely still a consumer brand. 

[risk]

Look at your inventory, send them an email and introduce yourself and say how many devices you manage and say you're new to procurement and you'd like some help coming up with a proposal to steer your organization towards more sustainable Framework, and you'd appreciate if they can spare a short 20-30 minutes introductory call to maybe help you out and help you structure the pitch.

(beware Dell, Lenovo, HP sales reps are brutally empowered to slash prices like there's no tomorrow, pitching them against each other works well if you have enough budget to throw around, Framework might not have the scale to do this).