SYNNEX Resellers Get Hands on Google Play for Education

**Editor’s Note: Click here for Channel Partners’ complete coverage of the April 2014 SYNNEX Varnex event in Orlando.**

SYNNEX Corp. now offers Google Play for Education on certain Android tablets.

The distributor says it is the first to do so, and that Google Play for Education joins its other Google education platforms including Google Chrome Management Console.

Google Play for Education stores educational, teacher-approved apps and videos. Teachers may filter content by subject matter, grade and other criteria, and buy an app or video in bulk. On the reseller side, Google Play for Education provides the chance to manage tablets and content, including apps, videos and books, in the same console. Similar to the Google Chrome environment, a large number of devices can be set up and deployed in a matter of minutes or hours.

The following Android tablets are compatible with Google Play for Education: Google Nexus 7, ASUS Transformer Pad, HP Slate8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab for Education, all available through SYNNEX.

Eddie Franklin, vice president, sales, public sector and vertical markets for SYNNEX, told Channel Partners earlier this week that Google Play for Education reduces the need for IT intervention by 50-70 percent. That’s due in large part to the way Google Play for Education is integrated and deployed, thanks to pre-sales support where SYNNEX consults with a school district alongside the VAR, MSP or integrator.

So far, 170 SYNNEX VARs are trained on the distributor’s Chrome Community. Those solutions providers not only can make money on sales of the Google Chromebook to schools, they can generate recurring revenue by offering a professional services practice whereby they help a district set up the management console, for example, or train teachers, deploy the technology oversee network optimization and more.