Planning to buy PCs?
Purchasing pros share best practices
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 9/16/2004 2:00:00 AM
For the first time in a long time, nearly half of corporate buyers responding to a Purchasing magazine survey earlier this year are working with bigger IT budgets; they're spending 10% more on desktop and laptop PCs in 2004.
A recent report by Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn., seems to confirm these results: Worldwide PC shipments totaled 43 million units in second quarter 2004, a 13.3% increase from second quarter 2003. Analysts attribute PC industry growth in the U.S. to healthy sales in the professional market.
Most of the sales are for replacement PCs. Corporate buyers will purchase almost 100 million PCs as replacements in 2004, say the Gartner analysts. They will buy another 120 million as replacements in 2005 as well. The volume of replacements this year and next will surpass the number of systems replaced in the runup to Y2K in 1998 and 1999.
"More than 30% of installed PCs are now at least three years old," says George Shiffler, principal analyst for Gartner's client platforms research. "Many, if not most of these PCs, are using older Windows operating systems that are no longer supported or are about to lose full technical support. Expiring OS support will play a significant role in driving PC replacements going forward." Healthy global economic growth is also expected to boost new PC sales.
As purchasing professionals who have worked with Gartner well know, the analysts recommend buyers take a total cost of ownership (TCO) approach to the PC buy. Other consultants advise purchasers to use a similar tack. Ed Bullen, manager, Strategic Consulting, IBM, suggests that buyers charged with responsibility for desktop and laptop purchases at their companies manage PC lifecycle costs [PUR: Feb. 5, 2004; p. 16].
Such an approach pushes buyers to think more about other cost components of the PC buy such as service and support, warranty and repair—even disposal—and less about prices, which continue to decline. Buyers with responsibility for the PC buy at such companies as Xerox Office Group and Biogen Idec all look beyond price when purchasing new fleets of desktops and laptops. They work closely with end users to clearly understand their requirements, and, perhaps most important, they have good working relationships with their peers in the information technology operation. They are strong proponents of asset management.
In stories that follow, these buyers share PC purchasing best practices they've perfected over the years. A sidebar story provides recommendations from two consultants at Corporate Contracts. One thing these purchasing pros all agree on: Sourcing strategies that may have proven successful in 1998 or 1999 may not work as well in 2004. One case in point: as PC prices continue to drop, using leasing as a tool to manage costs is far less prevalent than in years past.
Now Playing: 
