Small and Medium Business

We run into the statement “I’ve got a guy…” a lot.* (gals, see note below)    The corollary is “I am using someone I’ve used for a long time…”.  Both of these are understandable.  We are in an service area that is very customer intimacy centric.  Customers have to trust us even if they really don’t know what we do or how to really measure success.   So here is what I tell my sales staff when they run into that question.

1.  So you have someone you trust, that’s great. They are there when you need them night or day, quickly to fix things?

2.  Can I ask you a question?   How often are they the hero?  It shouldn’t be that often

3.  If they have to be the hero more than twice a year or so might it make sense to at least have a second opinion on your network architecture?  It may be just right but you may be paying for heroics that are not really necessary.

* Sorry gal’s I’m just the messenger here and I’ve never actually heard “I’ve got a gal…” although we’ve hired some pretty terrific network engineers who happened to be women.

We had the wife of an important employee of an important client call us today and let the receptionist know that this was an emergency.  It was mid day Friday and they were leaving for 2 weeks vacation in the morning and the laptop they would use to connect to the company Citrix was set up with two profiles, the wife’s and the husbands.  The husbands profile would not connect to the internet ever since he installed a wireless headset.  Our engineers were very stressed about how to handle this because the persons house was a good 40 miles from the office and being this was a new client we were not sure if they expected to pay for us to go there and fix a private computer in a persons house.  The wife had said it was an “emergency” so we spent some time finding the decision maker at our client and the answer was, if he wants it fixed he will be responsible for the trip or for bringing it to us.   But it was an Emergency right?  Of course they would want us to come up.  Of course they did not.  What the wife had really meant was it was an “urgency” because they were leaving the next day.  Once we said that he would have to bring it down in order to get it fixed the work around was clearly the better option for them.  The work around was simply to use “her profile” on the laptop and he could get on the company Citrix.  Easy work around, no harm no foul and no need for 40 mile one way trip on the spur of the moment.

Some people might scoff at this as “oh sure the client wanted us to come to Cameron Park but it wasn’t important enough for THEM to actually make that trip”.  I say the real answer is communication.  The customer was sharing the need to have an answer quickly if a reasonable answer was to be found.  Our helpful guys heard this as “gotta have it fast” and translated “it” into fixed and “fast” into all costs, which came out to “Got to have it fast at all costs”.  The wife/customer was not out of bounds agreeing to allow our guys to come to make the drive.  In her  mind if that’s what the expert said was the right thing to do then that’s what they are paid to do is make those kinds of decisions, they are the expert.  But once the decision was made to toss that effort back to the customer, the customer correctly made the decision that the trip wasn’t worth it.  Problem solved in the best way possible given the circumstances.

The greatest impediment to communication is the illusion that it is actually happening.  Make sure when you hear important or urgent that you don’t decide to hear important AND urgent.  It’s the easiest thing to do but it’s also the easiest thing to validate.  Make sure your client understands what you are hearing so they have an opportunity to confirm it.

What is the effective lifespan of the computers in a business?  How do I know when I should replace one?

While there are no hard and fast ways to know how often you’ll have to replace computers, there are some guidelines that should make it easier to feel good about the decision when someone recommends a new machine.  Some of the factors to consider are how many people depend on the equipment for their productivity.  Servers are a particular concern because many, if not all of the computer users in your organization depend on the services provided by the server.  A workstation used by a book keeper is terribly important since the book keepers job is so clearly dependent on the computerized accounting system.   Laptops are vulnerable to repair more often than workstations because of their mobility.  Laptops also suffer from technical obsolescence more quickly than workstations as vendors become better at putting more power into smaller, lighter space. This makes it more valuable more quickly to invest in the newer laptop for the new features.
So what are the guidelines we have seen over the years?

1. Servers; 5 years

Servers are utilized by everyone in the company who are dependent upon computer services.  This frequently includes employees who never even use the computer. Payroll for instance, is typically dependent on services that stop if the servers do not function.  Most computer manufactures will call out 5 years as the “end of life” of server hardware and make it prohibitively expensive or possibly impossible to renew the warranty after that time.   Technology changes over a 5 year period frequently are such, that a new hardware refresh due to age, can also provide high levels of productivity improvement.  We recommend beginning to engineer the next 5 year solution starting 4 years after your last refresh.  You should recognize that for those companies using several servers the 5 year cycle may or may not be synchronized.

Desktop Computers; 5+ years

Desktop computers are, in many cases, made of a subset of the same parts as servers.  These parts, just like servers, tend to wear starting in the 5th year.  The difference here is that you can make a decision based on the cost of downtime that a particular computer-user can stand. The bookkeeper needs a reliable machine; unless of course you can send them home for a day or so anytime, even payroll, with limited detrimental results.  But many people who need a computer for their job often have a handful of things they can do while there computer is being replaced.  Our guideline for desktops is to expect them to last 5 years before you consider replacement, and then as long as it works after that, call it good.  You will likely get an average of 7 years, especially if you move the older machines downscale to the less dependent users.

Laptops; 3+ years

Laptops are mobile. Therefore, they take more of a beating than a stationary computer at a desk.  The laptop is typically an integral part of a user’s job as well or they wouldn’t need the mobility.  We recommend considering replacing your laptops anytime there is a new requirement and/or the laptop has a problem after 3 years.  We don’t believe you have to instantly throw it out at 3 years, many times particular laptops in particular jobs will last much longer, sometimes as long as 5 or 6 years.  But if anything happens requiring any real money to be invested in a laptop over 3 years old it is time to strongly consider replacement instead.

Printers; 7 to 10 years

The good news is that a good printer should last a very long time.  I have seen original HP Laserjet II printers still in service after 15 years.  If it’s working, keep it.