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By OGCbuying.solutions

Feedback on "A change is as good as a rest"

From: Adam

This article is disappointing. A number of statements are made without providing the underlying reasoning.

Particularly contentious is the comment "Well they might but the actual increase could easily be off-set by the reduction in the purchase price". This opinion is unsound - the cost of supporting a desktop is significantly higher than the initial hardware cost and the more important metric is the total cost of ownership over the expected life of the hardware.

From: Ian

The claims made by David Parker in your new eZine about the savings to be made from regularly retesting the market for PCs and laptops are of great interest to me. We in DfT are currently in the group of purchasers mentioned in the article who believe that the additional support costs arising from regularly changing suppliers, or even worse from having more than one supplier, outweigh the savings to be had from lower PC costs. In deed I wonder whether the procurement experts who make such claims fully understand the costs of producing a new PC or laptop build and of supporting multiple builds. I also believe that any savings made in the cost of hardware are simply passed on to the customer through reduced quality of support. I've asked OGC for the evidence of the TCO which support David Parker's claims but no one's provided it to date. I plan to attend the IT Hardware Procurement Network group in April, so would it be possible to provide some evidence for that meeting?

The paper then goes on to recommend "Great Deals" but does not explain that the prices for equipment offered through this is lower because of the high incidence of near end-of-life equipment available. The article could also be strengthened by making reference to e-Auctions.

Editor's Response:

Thank you for all the comments received, your feedback is really valuable. The article was written to stimulate debate regarding the purchase of hardware (and it has certainly done that!). A couple of notable replies were received and we thought we would continue the debate with an Editor's reply. Please keep on contacting us and let us know if there any features you would like us to raise.

The thrust of the article was that a business case should be made periodically based on TCO principles and then market tested at regular intervals. We are not advocating the purchase of hardware based on purchase price alone. Our evidence suggests that customers do make regular business case assessments to arrive at the best value for money decision but assume in many cases that 'standardisation' is the best answer.

The cost of support for a PC is normally higher than the initial purchase price or the potential individual purchase price saving and it will vary considerably from customer to customer. But with a price differential on a like for like basis (Great Deals PC's for example) being around £200 each on desktops, it is worth doing the maths. For example, if your desktop environment called for say 250 new PC's a purchase cost saving of around £50,000 (i.e. 250 x £200) could be made. Any increase in support costs would therefore have to exceed this amount before this option could be ruled out entirely.

Low cost PC supply does not always suggest that support will be poor. Again, this assumption should be tested and costed in the Department's TCO model. One notable company that hitherto had a good reputation for service, suffered a good deal of criticism from customers last year for its falling service levels. So again, any assumption regarding the benefits of standardisation needs to be tested.

From: Steve

I have to say that I don't totally agree with this article, having looked at the 'Great Deals' closely the cheaper ones are below the specification of machines we buy, and the majority have only one years warranty. As the prices get higher then you get to the specification we buy but still without 3 year next business Gold support on-site and the price we pay is around the price of these models, so I believe that we are getting a good deal.

Editor's Response:

Having listened to comments from customers, a number of changes have been made to the IT Great Deals. All products are provided with a three year warranty as standard, and customers have the option to customize the support and services to suit their needs. Great Deals III has recently been launched with a wide range of products, upgrades and options that should provide something for everyone. This includes entry level, mid range and high end offerings with options such as varying monitor sizes, processors and drive configurations (for desktop computers). There are also enhanced offerings for laptops, monitors and printers.

Examples of the products available through the latest IT Great Deals offering include Vista ready (or pre-installed) dual processor machines from as little as £309 and Pentium 4 systems from £239.

Have your say!

If you would like to post your own letter or have any feedback regarding these letters please email us at itfw@ogcbs.gsi.gov.uk

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