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'Joint Venture' Small Business Program Officially Launched

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Apr 12, 2001
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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.
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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.

Article Link: 'Joint Venture' Small Business Program Officially Launched
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/03/joint-venture-small-business-program-officially-launched/
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?
 
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:
 
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.
 
how on earth are they going to get anything done with there hands in there pockets
 
Wow, you can *pay* to have Pages and Numbers marketed to you!

And X-Servers! Oh, wait. Too soon?
 
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.
 
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.
 
G4DP said:
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.
Click to expand...

such as??
I read through them and haven't seen anything odd pup-up as an excusable reason.

Thanks
 
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.
 
Apple has two briefing rooms in the country as well, one in their Chicago store and one somewhere else. These rooms were built to house company execs or other large groups to teach them how to use a mac in a business setting. The room contains 5-6 flat panel monitors for keynote projection, a few iMacs, some iPad displays and a few iPhones. In the center of the room is a large wooden table with a bunch of leather executive chairs.

I think this is probably what the "unprecedented" access and features entails.
 
Grouchy Bob said:
I wonder if those kids in that pic will mow my lawn after school hours?

LOL!
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Hysterical! Yeah, they could have put in some pictures of people who actually look like they graduated college and have EXPERIENCE in the field of COMPUTER SCIENCE and appear OLDER. Businesses don't exactly hire Tommy to support their infrastructure when Tommy appears to be 19 and just got his first credit card.

customer:"how's it going with the problem?"
techie:"I think I am close. But I have to leave to go home for dinner. See you Monday!"

:)
 
ericinboston said:
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.
Click to expand...

I run a research group and we're Apple only (about 12 of us). I've easily made the money back in time savings. It's costs me roughly 6k€/mo for a scientist and 3k€/mo for a student (or 300€/day and 150€/day OR roughly 40€/hr and 20€/hr). All I need to have is 10 lost hours of productivity from the scientist or 20 lost hours of productivity from the student to make up the price difference.

Everyone gets a new machine every third year, so if I lose 3 hours/year (or 6 hours/year for the student), then I've lost money. And, this only includes salary ... not the money brought in with their productivity.

I'm willing to bet that I've saved money by being Apple only (less software updates and no virus scans.) Plus, although I have no statistical evidence, I think that people work harder/longer with a new Mac rather than a new PC because it feels like a luxury item.
 
Hi, I'm 19 and whiny and I just found the internet! I don't think small business deserves any benefits from their computer suppliers because I'm going to go on Facebook today. **** Apple and small businesses!!

:rolleyes:
 
acidfast7 said:
I run a research group and we're Apple only (about 12 of us). I've easily made the money back in time savings. .
Click to expand...


My guess was about right...I stated around 10 employees and buy whatever machines you wish...but...as the business grows, there are certainly things to think about such as network management, VPN stuff, and more advanced software apps as well as # of machines, the costs of those machines, and the # of options of machines (so in the Mac world there are 3 laptops and 3 iMacs and 1 Mini...in the Dell or HP world, there are many more options as an example). The machines will always rock (PC or Mac), it's what you need outside of the computer hardware to actually keep productivity going.

Again...and I should have said in my post..."your mileage will vary." :) I certainly love Macs, but I've also worked in IT for a long time so I have my experiences, facts, and opinions. :)

And of course there's nothing stopping a small biz from buying all Macs as the front end and using PC or Unix/Linux in the back office for deeper application breadth.
 
On-site hardware support? People who need on-site support still have to rely on third-party support.
 
Did anyone use their brains today?

Wow, really people? Did anyone actually take the time to look at the details of this service? This is extremely useful for SMALL business! It's not meant to be used for businesses with 100 employees, and it's not meant to teach people how to use unix to control OS X, I mean come on, this is for your SMALL business that's run by average NORMAL people!!

And by normal, I mean people who are mostly computer illiterate. Most people on macrumors have a decent understanding of computers (arguably), but go take a look at average joe or jane... they usually don't have a clue!

I've sold computers (PC and Mac) for years, and most people don't even understand the difference between memory when it comes to ram and a hard drive. And many of these people have a small business, and this service is an excellent support system for them. And keep in mind, this is being offered by a retail store, not a business specific IT company. What other retail store can you get services like this? Best Buy? Futureshop? Walmart?

This isn't some perfect or (to borrow Apple's words) magical service, but half the comments on this thread are irrelevant, because you have to look at this service for what it actually is, and what's it's INTENDED purpose is. And for it's specific purpose, it's great. And that's my mini-rant :)
 
G4er? said:
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.
Click to expand...

Perhaps Apple may already be on that.

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...hint-at-a-mini-tower-desktop-with-usb-30.html
 
having read through the the terms and conditions, it seems like this service is aimed to help companies who do not have someone to do the IT work. If a company replaces a bunch of computers, it isn't difficult to move everything to the new one, but someone still has to do it.... and install all the software, etc. For that company, they could go to the apple store, buy new computers, drop off a hard drive of data and puck it all up.

Since for many (if not all) companies, time is money, if working with computers isn't your forte, then this could be a huge help. Think about it like this, if someone is buying 5 complete systems or more (you can add additional systems for a fee which i am assuming to be $100 each) how long would it take to set up? Apple quantifies a system to be:

One (1) Mac Computer,
Two (2) Apple Cinema Displays,
One (1) iPhone,
One (1) iPod,
One (1) iPad, and
The following Apple-branded hardware peripherals associated with the System: mouse, keyboard, trackpad and storage device.

Someone could easily spend a few hours getting that all setup. And if computers isn't what you do, you can double or triple that time.

Having done IT consulting for years, I can say that I would charge a lot more then $100 to set up one of five computers. Then some of the other services are sprinkles on top.

@ericinboston - yes software runs the business. yes additional hardware isn't factored into this (like networking or printers). But for what this is, it isn't a bad price. If someone needs a whole office setup with hardware, software, network, etc..... $500 isn't even a starting point.

But if someone just needs some help getting started or doesn't have the time to set up 5 computers (including moving the data, which can take a bunch of time in and of itself) it is an affordable way for a business to get this done, while they focus on the things that bring in the income.


All this said, I think that this offering is not geared up for the tech savvy company, or a company that has IT staff. It is designed for small companies with limited computer needs. If you need more, then you should be calling a Apple Consultant (or one who specialized in your platform of choice/needs).
 
Those don't look like the Apple employees that work in my area...They don't have weird things pierced and tattoos everywhere:D
 
I think this type of thing is a total waste in terms of the marketing effort, and the end user value.
Tag this as useless as the genius bar for all the but the most clueless users. I guess PT Barnum was right!
 
Sackvillenb said:
Wow, really people? Did anyone actually take the time to look at the details of this service? This is extremely useful for SMALL business! It's not meant to be used for businesses with 100 employees, and it's not meant to teach people how to use unix to control OS X, I mean come on, this is for your SMALL business that's run by average NORMAL people!!

And by normal, I mean people who are mostly computer illiterate. Most people on macrumors have a decent understanding of computers (arguably), but go take a look at average joe or jane... they usually don't have a clue!

I've sold computers (PC and Mac) for years, and most people don't even understand the difference between memory when it comes to ram and a hard drive. And many of these people have a small business, and this service is an excellent support system for them. And keep in mind, this is being offered by a retail store, not a business specific IT company. What other retail store can you get services like this? Best Buy? Futureshop? Walmart?

This isn't some perfect or (to borrow Apple's words) magical service, but half the comments on this thread are irrelevant, because you have to look at this service for what it actually is, and what's it's INTENDED purpose is. And for it's specific purpose, it's great. And that's my mini-rant :)
Click to expand...

It could be argued that anyone that clueless should stick to being an employee, and let the big people handle running business.
 
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