Mike,
Read in an article (CIO Dec 98) that Intel's TCO (total cost of ownership) for PC's went down from $9,300 in 1995 to an estimated $5k per PC this year. Aside from the cost of the box, TCO includes the training, network costs, maintenance, support, and a number of other things. Do you think the largest percentage of that 5k savings derives from reduced PC acquisition costs, and perhaps the fact that fewer new PC's per employee will be needed, or would you be inclined to believe as the article stated that standardization of IT procedures (eg tech support and maintenance) is responsible?
I guess I have a hard time believing that such a dramatic reduction in PC cost in uch a short time can be attributed to process improvements. Either you are buying fewer PC's because the old ones work fine, or you are buying fewer PC's because you don't have much new headcount. Either way, it's fewer PC's and that would seem to be fundamentally negative.
Yes?
Doug |
