Pixion offers distance learning/remote collaboration solutions to meet the needs of 21st century education. The FCC's mandated educational taxes assure a steady stream of E-rate funding for schoolsí telecom services, and Pixionís bundles of scalable E-rate-ready packages are poised to fill the need. Pixionís PictureTalk's Web conferencing solutions set new standards in simple, reliable, cross platform remote conferencing. See how PictureTalk solutions for K-12 education can translate into additional revenue streams for you. What schools are looking for How the E-rate system works How to become a Pixion reseller Call us at 925-467-5300 or email us at partners@pixion.com for more information on how you can become a PictureTalk partner today.   What are schools looking for? Schools are looking at new ways to retain or build student populations, improving the quality of their education and spending less doing it. PictureTalk can help with all of those and more. Below outlines many of the questions school administrators like to know before buying a telecommunications system. Pixion's PictureTalk web conferencing system allows schools to present, demonstrate, and share control of information in real-time on the Internet. Teachers or administrators can share any document, spreadsheet, presentation, software application, Web page, or desktop with all Web-conferenced students or collaborating administrators. Participants can take control of software applications or desktops with just a mouse click, free of platform limitations or firewall constraints. This environment enables secure, crossplatform collaboration while providing predictable pricing for every Web conference. Primarily, a school is interested in the most results for the least amount of money. As a truly open-platform system, Pixion offers an opportunity for almost any school to upgrade its instruction content and teaching skills, collaborate beyond the immediate area throughout the district, and save between 20% and 90% of the up-front costs in doing it. Specifically, a school will want to know if Pixion's web conferencing systems and services are "E-Rateable." PictureTalk falls under one of the highest priority categories: telecommunications. So, funding for this category of services is not only preferential, its flexible hardware compatibility fits extremely well with the diverse computing equipment schools are likely to have in place. Schools are interested in services that do NOT require expensive equipment purchases. Pixion installs on existing computer systems on both Macintosh and Windows platforms, and takes advantage of conventional broadband systems most schools have already installed. And Pixion's usage-dependent pricing assures a school will pay only for what it uses. Schools are among the most cost-conscious institutions anywhere. A continuing shortage of qualified and experienced teachers, especially in rural locations, has moved Distance Learning to the forefront. From a purely operational standpoint, the need for state and district administrators to communicate and collaborate among widely spread-out schools, makes Pixion's systems enormously attractive as an expense reducer. They are ideal for sharing information, explaining new programs, collaborating over submissions, and more. The E-Rate program encourages schools to aggregate their needs among multiple institutions, to receive beneficial pricing. This provides additional opportunities for resellers to leverage purchases with one school across additional opportunities. Keep that in mind as you begin to generate interest in PictureTalk among different schools. Back to top   How the E-rate system works In May of 1997 the FCC added an amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that recognized that nonprofit schools and libraries should have access to telecommunications services for educational purposes at discounted rates, including the purchase of all commercially available telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections. For maximum flexibility, it is up to each school to determine the most appropriate options. These discounts are funded by a tax levied on all telecommunication end-users. The level of discount funding ranges from 20% to 90% on all commercially available telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections, based on a school's or library's level of economic disadvantage and its location in an urban or rural area. To receive funds, each school prepares a technology plan for integrating the telecom technology into the curriculum, both near term and into the future. Upon approval by a governing state agency, the school enter into a competitive bidding process for discounted services by application submission. Once the application is submitted to the universal service administrator, it is posted online for bid by competing providers. After a four-week waiting period, the institution may contract with the chosen service provider. To procure the actual services, the school pays its portion of the discounted expenses (as determined by published standards). The service provider, in this case, Pixion, applies for reimbursement of the remaining percentage, from the universal service administrator. Back to top   How to become a Pixion reseller PictureTalk creates new revenue streams and adds value to existing ones. Its scalable desktop-to-desktop visual communication is the perfect complement to audio conferencing. Pixion makes it easy to sell, with flexible reseller agreements that offer: Faster return on your investment Higher margins Distinct market differentiation Flexible options You can have your choice of a fully purchased option where you host the services you sell, or a shared revenue one where we provide the server environment. In both cases we provide: Technical support Sales training Marketing assistance Ongoing client assistance For more information on becoming a PictureTalk Reseller, call us at 925-467-5300 or email us at partners@pixion.com Back to top