Latest and Greatest

to add: or is the hype of "latest and greatest" to get small and medium businesses to buy, just as the computer gamer "has to have" the fastest, latest, greatest computer gear soas to be the best?

The last 2 places where I have worked, nothing was upgraded unless it was broken.

I presently work for an aerospace firm.
We are still using DOS and W95 on many systems.

The previous place was an automotive supplier.
They are still using 486's and Pentiums for many tasks.
What happens there is trickle down.
As the engineers need more powerful systems for design work, the older engineering systems are passed down to replace other systems as needed.
No system ever got a new OS or updated application software.

So, from my experiance, the upgrade cycle for corporate systems is a myth.

Chas

I agree with TheChas. I have worked at various companies with 5000+ employees in the past and even those companies did not regularly upgrade systems and software. For the last few years I run my own consulting business targeted at small businesses and home computer users. I have never seen any of my clients who regularly upgraded anything except accounting software.

Let's face it. Money is tight and most small to medium size businesses target their resources toward what is absolutely essential. If something is working then don't replace it. Many of theses places, if they do purchase new pc's have me wipe the hard drive and install Windows 98 because that is what is on the rest of the pc's in their building and they don't wish to have multiple os's confusing employees (either that or they are scared of what is new).

If you want to discuss this further drop me an email.

Enjoy,

DrBob:>)

When to upgrade:

Software:
I upgrade our company software under one of two (or both) possible circumstances. First, I will upgrade when there is a new release that will significantly help up improve the process, the product, or the profit. In other words, when it will help us do things better and/or faster. Of course, vendors always make this claim, but I never bite. I take the "don't tell me about it" approach, but always the "show me" approach. This involves going to seminars and presentations, and possibly buying one (if a demo is not available) copy of the upgrade for my own evaluation. Our primary software, AutoCAD, almost always has a demo product, which they provide free of charge for our evaluation. (Which is good, because it's so danged expensive.) This also applies to any additional software we consider.

Second, we will upgrade our software when we are "forced" to do so. "Forced", in this context, will mean, for example, when our clients upgrade and there are either additional features that we must use simply because they do, or there are file compatibility issues that necessitate the upgrade. (We commonly share files with clients.) And, if the circumstance dictate, there have been times when we would buy one copy of a particular software (loaded on one accessible machine or a networked version with one license) simply to accommodate our clients needs.

Hardware:
We will upgrade our hardware also under one of two (or both) possible circumstances. First, of course, we will replace something when it's broken. And if a 6.0 GB hard drive fails, it will be replaced with a 40-75 GB drive. Second, when the new software features necessitate a hardware upgrade. Our upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional, for example, was the reason we phased out all pre-Pentium II workstations. (Our "minimum" requirements were slightly higher than the ones recommended by Microsoft.)

It just really matters on what company or which part of the company your are looking at. In a large company they will not uograde users that do typical office work, and are not really using the pc as a workhorse. But in that same company you might have groups that really need a lot of horsepower to run their apps...Like graphic designers or Engineers that are being paid 50 bucks an hour, is not going to be the type of person you want waiting on an 400 MHZ computer. With small companies they will only use the basic if at all possible like dos or 3.11 with a 486 running. You need to stay up to date on hardware, but I would not try to learn about all the latest and greatest stuff unless you are always try to get peak performace out of a system that you know a user is going to utilize.

At the company I work for we upgrade only when necessary or when the benefits are greater than the work and time needed to upgrade. Usually the upgrades are just simple service pack upgrades, software updates or security upgrades.

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