Budgeting
and planning are important parts of running a successful
business, but how to you get a handle on what your computer
related expenses are likely to be?
To answer
that question you need to take several things into account: The first is the lifespan of your computer hardware.
Depending
on what you buy, a PC will have a useful life of
around four years (less for "budget" models). The factors that impact this life
span are the quality of the hardware, the availability of
parts, and the overall power of the PC. Simply put, a
higher quality PC with the most available horsepower
will last the longest time.
This is
true because as operating systems and applications evolve
they require more horsepower (some would argue that with the
advent of application servers this is no longer true, but at
the present time this is not a settled issue) so a PC
that has the most available horsepower at the time of
purchase will be able to run the more powerful applications
that will arrive in the future and will therefore have a
longer life. The same logic applies to servers.
We
recommend that our clients plan to replace 25 percent of
their workstations each year which gives them a budget for
workstations. A properly sized server will typically last
five years, so we recommend that they budget for that as
well.
But what
about support, how do you know what will break and how much
it will cost?
The
answer lies in proactive
support. Depending on the size of the customers
network and the self sufficiency level of that company a
number of hours per week or month can be determined for how
much support is needed. The support can then be applied
proactively by creating regularly scheduled visits where
technicians can resolve the issues that have accumulated
since the last visit.
Regular
visits of a fixed length result in predictable support
expenses. They also result in a smoothly running network and
improved productivity from your employees.
But what
is the right amount? At The Computer Guys we right size the
support. For new clients we use our experience, a
detailed site evaluation, and in depth discussions with the
our clients to determine a best guess as to what will be needed. We
then, after a reasonable period, adjust that amount up or
down as needed.
Things
change, businesses expand and contract. At The Computer
Guys, we adjust our contracts based on what the client
needs. If a client isn’t using all the scheduled time we
don’t bill for it and suggest adjusting it to a lesser
amount. Similarly if a customer is regularly using more than
the scheduled time we suggest adding time (please note that
we never go over the scheduled time without the express
permission of the authorized person).
The end
result is a predictable budget figure that can be easily
modified as business conditions change.
