Definition of Frustration

[marc at getty.net (Marc Getty)]

I manage IT at the largest college in the 28th largest university in the
USA. We buy *A LOT* of computers and typically have ~1300 machines in
production at any given time. As a comparison, here is roughly what we pay
for a laptop per year.

Laptops last us 4 years and desktops of late have been lasting just shy of 6
years. A laptop is typically $2000 (i.e. a Dell D610 like I am typing on
right, now which is actually on my lap and connected via WiFi) and with it's
4 year warranty and accidental damage coverage it actually does wind up
lasting 4+ years. We pirate absolutely nothing and thanks to university
discounts and aggressive use of concurrent usage monitoring we probably
average ~$150/machine for all of the software on it. Bandwidth is ~$15/mo
for access it both I2 and a 105 Mbit SMDS uplink. Our in house staff wind up
costing ~$275/machine/year to deliver, maintain, support, service, and
remove it. We pay $50/machine to properly recycle it at the end of it's
life. All that adds up to $1005/laptop/year for us. This includes great
desk-side support but does not count training, development of administrative
systems, call-in help desk, e-mail, etc.

Desktops have a lifespan of 5 years and cost $745/year.

It is a little known fact that the US Federal Government can pirate software
legally all-the-live-long-day completely legally. There are actually
provisions in copyright law to permit this. Do they pirate? Nooooooo! They
absolutely *MUST* spend taxpayer money on big business!

Scirocco content: I'm going out in a few minutes to change the oil in the
Cali. Must do it in the dark so the neighbors will not complain to
management. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I should care, my
rent has only gone up by over 20% this year alone!

-Marc


 
-----Original Message-----
From: scirocco-l-bounces+marc=getty.net@scirocco.org
[mailto:scirocco-l-bounces+marc=getty.net@scirocco.org] On Behalf Of
Bennett, Christopher P ET1 MARMC 1230B
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 10:07 AM
To: Scirocco List
Subject: OT: Definition of Frustration

Hypothetical Situation;

Frustration.

     Working for an organization that is willing to pay an OBSCENE amount of
money for leasing a laptop, and then keeps some of them locked up. 

Lets do a little math.

-A decent laptop will cost you about $1800.  Sure there are cheaper and more
expensive ones but I am talking about a medium level office laptop.
-This decent laptop will be useful for a max of three years.  I mean
really... you may be able to do stuff with it after three years but for the
most part it is useful for about three years.

So lets divide $1800 by three to get the ownership cost per year= $600 a
year.  Now lets say that you have a business broadband connection with tech
support.  It's going to cost you say for the sake of arguement that you pay
$100 a month for that.  So now your ownership and operating costs are
something like $1800 a year.  I know if I don't get my email I can call Cox
and get results damn near immediately.  More often than not it wasn't their
fault anyway. ;)

So $1800 a year for three years, ($5400 total) and at the end of that three
year period, you can re-use it, recycle it, give it to your kid, sell it on
ebay, recoup a little money, whatever...

Most laptops come with what you need... but if you REALLY want to split
hairs you can add some costs for software but for the most part I haven't
seen this "organization" be legit with licenses yet.  So make it an even
$6000 if you like.

My "organization" pays $4800 to LEASE a substandard laptop, the same ones
that have been known to catch FIRE... but that's ok because there's a
contract with Dell.  Now this is $4800 per year mind you, for a total of:
$14,400 and at the end of that lease we have the option to "buy" them for
our use for about $2000 each.  With that you get pretty bad customer
service.  I know one gentleman that has submitted 34 troublecalls in 6
months on the same computer and they won't replace it.  WTF is all that
about?!?  

So $432,000... that is how much my organization pays for 30 laptops for a
year... 30 that if I remember correctly are locked up to keep them from
being stolen.  

Now I can't speak on this subject officially but in the above hypothetical
situation...

Well you do the math.  


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