'Joint Venture' Small Business Program Officially Launched
Earlier this week, we noted that Apple had prepped its employees for a rollout of a new support program known as "Joint Venture" targeting small businesses. The program has now officially launched and is essentially in line with what had been reported earlier based on retail store briefings.
Joint Venture is a program designed to help you use Mac, iPhone, and iPad to improve the way your business runs. We'll set up your new Apple products, train your employees to get the most out of them, and make sure everything stays working with dedicated support.
Coverage starts at $499 per year for up to five systems, with coverage for additional systems available for $99 per year each.Apple advertises that the program offers a number of features, including setup of new systems with software installation and data transfer, as well as initial training to make sure users are ready to go. Ongoing training is also a key part of the program, with companies able to schedule up to three two-hour training sessions per year for their employees, working with Apple staff to customize the hands-on workshops to improve productivity. New employees can also take advantage of "Getting Started" workshops to make sure they're up to speed.
On the support side of things, Joint Venture offers "unprecedented access" to Genius Bar support, with telephone consultations, priority access to in-store appointments, and loaner notebooks (MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs) to keep things moving while machines are in for repair. Finally, businesses will have their own Joint Venture portal where they can access information on their systems and their employees can schedule support services.
Top Rated Comments
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16 months ago
Sounds good. Hope it works in practice and each business solution is tailored enough to actually be of use to the business. How about business app development from a dedicated team of developers too?
16 months ago
I wonder if those kids in that pic will mow my lawn after school hours?
LOL!
Apple retail employees fixing my biz machines indeed. What's next... going to Wal-Mart for tires, fried chicken and a colonoscopy? :eek:
LOL!
Apple retail employees fixing my biz machines indeed. What's next... going to Wal-Mart for tires, fried chicken and a colonoscopy? :eek:
16 months ago
Congratulations.
We've just screed you out of even more money. All for a replacement laptop service.
Please read the term and conditions.
There are 1000's of excuses we will use.
We've just screed you out of even more money. All for a replacement laptop service.
Please read the term and conditions.
There are 1000's of excuses we will use.
16 months ago
how on earth are they going to get anything done with there hands in there pockets
16 months ago
Wow, you can *pay* to have Pages and Numbers marketed to you!
And X-Servers! Oh, wait. Too soon?
And X-Servers! Oh, wait. Too soon?
16 months ago
What's next... going to Wal-Mart for tires, fried chicken and a colonoscopy? :eek:
:eek: Shh! Don't give them ideas.
16 months ago
Sounds ok...but it's SOFTWARE that runs a business...not the hardware.
Small businesses (define "small"...under 10? under 50? under 100?) certainly need basics like MS Office type software, basic accounting software, email, and other stuff depending on their business.
But as the small business grows to 50 or 100 folks, Quickbooks ain't gonna cut it...ditto for Sales software and other needs depending on your business.
Macs are nice...but at the end of the day it's the software that powers your business. If the software isn't available on Mac (or a good choice), you won't be buying Macs. It's also well known that for personal computing tasks (web surfing, email, MS Office, photos, music, etc) it doesn't matter if you use a PC or Mac so why spend more? Let's also admit that buying Mac hardware is much more expensive than buying PC hardware...usually about 2x as much. Please don't reply with the "but not if you competitively price them!" garbage. There are plenty of reasons why Macs are in 1% of businesses...and price is definitely near the top of that list. I'm not hating, I'm just stating. And what about that support contract as your small business grows?...there are far fewer Mac technicians out there than PC folks (queue the "but Macs never break!" comments) if you want to shop around for Mac support at the business level.
For the small business under 10 that never intends to grow larger (for numerous reasons), sure, buy Macs or whatever you want. But if you plan to grow above 50, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a Mac vs. PC.
Small businesses (define "small"...under 10? under 50? under 100?) certainly need basics like MS Office type software, basic accounting software, email, and other stuff depending on their business.
But as the small business grows to 50 or 100 folks, Quickbooks ain't gonna cut it...ditto for Sales software and other needs depending on your business.
Macs are nice...but at the end of the day it's the software that powers your business. If the software isn't available on Mac (or a good choice), you won't be buying Macs. It's also well known that for personal computing tasks (web surfing, email, MS Office, photos, music, etc) it doesn't matter if you use a PC or Mac so why spend more? Let's also admit that buying Mac hardware is much more expensive than buying PC hardware...usually about 2x as much. Please don't reply with the "but not if you competitively price them!" garbage. There are plenty of reasons why Macs are in 1% of businesses...and price is definitely near the top of that list. I'm not hating, I'm just stating. And what about that support contract as your small business grows?...there are far fewer Mac technicians out there than PC folks (queue the "but Macs never break!" comments) if you want to shop around for Mac support at the business level.
For the small business under 10 that never intends to grow larger (for numerous reasons), sure, buy Macs or whatever you want. But if you plan to grow above 50, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a Mac vs. PC.
16 months ago
Oohhhh workshops :rolleyes:
Will they cache supplies for on-site repairs (e.g. spare hard drives) ? Doubtful
Are they open 24 hours and on weekends for questions? No
Will they teach anything past the most basic of task, such as the use of XSAN or how to use UNIX to control OS X? Doubtful. More likely they will wax on about how to use the ':apple:' menu or the virtues of The Inspector.
Will they cache supplies for on-site repairs (e.g. spare hard drives) ? Doubtful
Are they open 24 hours and on weekends for questions? No
Will they teach anything past the most basic of task, such as the use of XSAN or how to use UNIX to control OS X? Doubtful. More likely they will wax on about how to use the ':apple:' menu or the virtues of The Inspector.
16 months ago
Congratulations.
We've just screed you out of even more money. All for a replacement laptop service.
Please read the term and conditions.
There are 1000's of excuses we will use.
such as??
I read through them and haven't seen anything odd pup-up as an excusable reason.
Thanks
16 months ago
If I was running a small business I wouldn't be looking at purchasing all in one computers. A separate monitor makes much more sense. Why replace the whole thing if only the monitor is bad?
Sounds like Apple really needs to get that xMac built if they want small businesses to consider Apple. A small business doesn't need the horsepower of the Mac Pro but the ability to replace a bad hard drive using a screwdriver instead of suction cups and putty knives is something a small business would want.
Sounds like Apple really needs to get that xMac built if they want small businesses to consider Apple. A small business doesn't need the horsepower of the Mac Pro but the ability to replace a bad hard drive using a screwdriver instead of suction cups and putty knives is something a small business would want.
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