Viglen checks out Sainsbury's schools deal

Viglen has netted a contract to be sole supplier of PCs for Sainsbury's School Scheme for 2000. The London-based systems builder, yesterday named one of the government's chosen few for its Computers for Teachers programme, will be part of Sainsbury's scheme to give free kit to schools. It poached the deal - which has given away over £24 million of PC equipment since its start in 1996 - from rival company RM, according to Viglen. Viglen will swap its PCs and servers for Sainsbury's tokens collected by pupils and teachers. The supermarket chain claims to have so far supplied 380,000 items of IT kit to more than 20,000 UK schools. "The whole issue of IT in education is so important now," said a Viglen representative. "With the government putting more money into the area, let s hope the general enthusiasm keeps rubbing off onto this scheme." ® See also: School's out for Viglen as results show healthy growth Net uptake in schools fuels market growth