boomer

Does anyone have any links to sites (or references) that detail PC support costs for organisations or corporations?

There are fixed costs such as buying the client PCs, servers, network, operatings systems and core applications - but i am not too worried about these.

But what i do want to understand are the on-going costs of keeping the PCs working (including the capital costs of setting up the things to provide the support).

For example, a big corporation may decide to implement SMS - so first the "support" software must be bought (plus essential underlying software such as SQL). Then money has to be spent (usually on trained and expensive consultants) to design the SQL architecture and presumably there is an annual maintenance cost.

Said corporation may also use tools like Symantec Ghost to perform imaging, so that is an added per-seat cost.

Then there is the "on the ground" support, so how much does fixing software problems on individual PCs and coping with a large virus infection cost? Visiting a PC with a problem must have a certain cost per hour (or visit)?

Oh, and we mustn't forget the cost of running the helpdesk as well (have you turned it off and on again ).

There are probably also many other support components that i have missed!


I probably haven't explained myself too well - but has anyone got any initial thoughts for starters?

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

mb

David_Wallis

What are you wanting to work out?

If you are going to implement SMS you normally tend to go on the course (or send 3 or 4 people on it) and then take it from there.

You need to factor training and development budget in.

You tend to have a common pc you deploy such as the HP deskpro SFF which comes in at around £350 - 400 inc. windows XP Cal.

You then factor in costs for a the required CAL's per new purchase with support or maintainence.. some of these can be tied in to be a yearly rolling purchase..

but my old place added:

Ghost
Mcafee AVD
SMS
LotusNotes

And lots of others depending on deployment (MS Office wasnt bought for every pc!)

Servers You had

BaseOS
AV
Ghost (just incase)
Backup Agent
NetIQ Appmanager Licences
Any HP stuff such as HP ILO Advanced Pack etc.

Then Such things to cost in, which can be split between servers, but all add up and can sting you PDU's, 3 Network connections per server, Rack Space, KVM Port, AirCon, Power requirements.

Very hard to say costs, it all depends on existing infastructure, staff etc..

Helpdesk software such as Goldmine Heat, or Remedy.
Servers, Desks, Staff, Phones, Training, ITIL Framework, DataProtection Act / Regs?

My old companies help desk probably employed 25+ and the IT Department was in the 100's and there were about 20 desktop / server people.

David