Consider life cycle when sourcing PCs
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 9/16/2004 2:00:00 AM
Patrick A. Bohnenkamp and Brad A. Simpson are strong advocates of PC asset management.
As founding partners of Corporate Contracts, Urbandale, Iowa, along with Randy Roth and David Arvizu, the company provides procurement-related contract negotiation for hardware, software and services buys on behalf of businesses and other organizations. They have extensive IT procurement experience, having worked in the strategic sourcing operation of The Principal Financial Group and other Fortune 500 companies.
When approaching the PC buy, Bohnenkamp recommends procurement professionals work closely with colleagues in IT to develop a technology plan. This plan provides the basis for sourcing decisions. Once the plan is set, procurement, working with peers in finance, can decide whether to lease or buy.
From the plan, procurement and IT can settle on a standard and determine the life cycle of each model involved, says Simpson. A typical life cycle is about three years. "Once you draw up the plan and set up a process for bringing the PCs into your shop, you have to decide how you're going to service them. Some companies do this internally. Others ship them out. Still others have manufacturer reps on site. You have to balance life cycle with warranty." Many organizations today purchase PCs direct from the manufacturer.
IT procurement may assign some users a "dumb" terminal. For these users, it may not matter that there's a warranty on the machine. On the other hand, sales reps that can't be without their laptops may need 24-hour replacement, and a warranty to cover that.
"Once you figure out how you are going to fix the PCs and the length of the planned life cycle, you have to plan for disposal," says Bohnenkamp. You need to think about reallocating or redeploying the assets where it makes sense. Donating the PCs to charity is nice idea, but make sure the data is entirely scrubbed from the machine and that the title is no longer in your company's name."
If the IT procurement group chooses to redeploy the PCs internally, it needs to check licenses for software installed on the machines, he says. Just because the PCs are moving around the company doesn't necessarily mean the licenses are transferable. "Responding to these issues strongly supports an asset management program, from purchasing talking with IT about planning a buy to properly disposing the PCs," says Simpson.
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