retirement schedule

Install terminal servers.
you can manage them remotely, all servers on a central location, can deploy programs instantly (only install the program once) scalabitity, only administrators can install the programs.

for information check citrix.com, www.thethin.net,thinplanet.com, http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/business/termsrv.asp

You can use even 486's as clients, or thinclient device for under $300.

Leopold

(if that doesn't work you can always sent the "old" pc's to me :) )

Generally, we buy the best server we can afford for a particular application, and only replace it when absolutely necessary. They are basically on their own schedules.

For the workstations, we try to replace about 1/3 each year. We, as I suspect most would, start the rotation with the money makers of the firm, and the officers. They can determine otherwise, of course.

Management gets to decide which departments go a what time, or they get to allow 1/3 of each department to go each year. [I prefer the latter, but there is always politics to consider, so we leave the ultimate decision to the people with the money...]

Should this be an across the board [each department gets to replace 1/3 each year] we give them a certain amount of credits they can use to pick out different types of packages; a desktop with a PDA, a laptop, two desktops, etc.

Basically, we offer to guide their use of technology, but leave the decision to who gets what to each director/manager. With everyone involved, things seem to be generally happier.

Good luck.

Several things to take into account:

Obviously the biggest is budget. What budget is available for replacement of capital equipment?

Next is depreciation - In the US there are strict rules that govern how a company can depreciate capital equipment. Does it make finanacial sense to replace equipment the hasn't been fully depreciated? Rules for office equipment (to include computers) state a 5-year depreciation period.

Obsolescence/recovery of costs - With the rate that technology changes, most computers are considered obsolete after about 3 years. Also unless you have en extremely high-end system, resale value after 3 years is usually not worth the effort involved in trying to recover costs.

However, just because a computer is considered obsolete and has no resale value doesn't mean it isn't still useful. Your actual replacement schedule will probably depend on whether you must make use of your computers throughout a specified depreciation period or whether you have the luxury of replacing computers based solely on obsolescence. Your plan should be such that at the end of a replacement cycle (3 yrs, 5 yrs, or whatever makes sense), all computers have been replaced once. Then you start over again. This is the easy part.

The next part of the plan is harder and usually involves office politics. Once you have determined your schedule, you now need to determine WHO gets the newest computers. Is the Boss going to insist that he have the latest, greatest every year? Do you have have engineers whose work requires that they have the latest, greatest every year? Will you have users squawk loudly and continuously because their computers get changed every year (especially when it is only changed for a "newer" computer, but not the newest)? Will the same computers stay with the same users throughout the computer's lifecycle? That is something you will have to figure out with your management's input.
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