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by Deborah Radcliff (IDG) -- When Jason Foster took over systems development atASD Catalogs this past year, he inherited a mishmash more than200 clone PCs. Since then, he's hassled with inconsistentcomponentry, poor serviceability and frequent systemcrashes, all of which have a serious toll on productivity. "Order fulfillment and payment verification locked up at leastonce each day," says Foster, director of systems development atthe Garland, Texas-based order-fulfillment company, whichprocesses 2,000 orders daily for retail catalog and Webmerchandisers. "Anytime developers doing Internet multimediaand high-end database work have to deal with the network,we're locking up 3 to 5 times each day." Next month, Foster will replace the business's 230 PCs andsix developer workstations. Should you multiply theprice differential from a typical corporate configuration anda dirt-cheap consumer box by hundreds or a large number of endusers, pretty soon you're talking about real money. Butshorter product life cycles, inconsistent componentry anddifficulties in upgrades are common in such machines. Chris Goodhue, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based GartnerGroup Inc., comes with an unequivocal answer for Foster: "Anyorganization seeking to improve manageability and containtotal price of ownership his or her business grows should notconsider the customer PC." Foster is still mulling his options. But he admits that he worries that inthe long run, choosing the consumer machines could landhim right back where he soon started. Strict dietFoster and other IT buyers have discovered from mistakes madeduring the first days of client/server, when unwieldycombinations of brand-name and unbranded PCs werecommon. Nowadays, they're demanding life-cyclestandardization to allow them to swap computers andcomponentry without changing the look and feel of the userinterfaces. "I want consistency with time -- the same processor, diskdrive assemblies, BIOS, memory modules, graphics cards,"says Al Hershey, a partner and buyer for that Office ofArchitecture and Standards at Ernst Young LLP in New York. Hershey oversees the acquisition every month around 2,000IBM and Dell Computer Corp. desktops and notebooks as partof an ongoing replenishment of the organization's 65,000computers. He admits that that 4 years ago, he haggled with Delluntil it agreed to build its business line with standardizedcomponents with Ernst Young's custom softwareinstalled. In exchange, they agree to"make fewer, or no,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], changes that would modify the softwareimage and much more consistent componentry," he admits that. Withoutoffering any guarantees, Dell attempts to stay with standardcomponentry for 12 to 14 months -- and also at customerrequest, may lengthen that point, says Dell spokesman KenBissel. "Does it cost you a a bit more? Yes. However the cost to possess themachine is really much less because my service costs,problem resolution, help desk costs and spares are allmuch lower," Hershey says. Life-cycle standardization makes repairs very simple, adds DaveKozlowski, assistant vice president of technical operations atAmerican Credit Indemnity (ACI), a Baltimore-based businesscapital insurance agency. He talked Dell into stocking standardcomponents long enough to last through ACI'stwo-and-a-half-year machine life cycle. "I can stock standardsupplies and parts. And that i don't have to worry about specializedskills or who's mucking around with what kind of system," hesays. Sub-$1,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 consumer PCs are a different story. Makersusually buy processors, hard disk drives,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], modems, sound cardsand other components based on availability or cost, notconsistency from system to system. Even larger vendors suchas Dell, Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. andIBM swap components on the consumer lines all too often forcomfort, Hershey says. The Dell Dimension consumer line, which ships using the biggesthard drive, fastest video card and other hot new components,is suitable only for environments that do not requireconsistency, Bissel says. Also, since Compaq's consumerPresario and Prosignia lines for promising small to midsize businesses arebuilt on the latest componentry, "an XYZ graphics card boughttoday might not be inside our computers in 6 weeks,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," saysCompaq spokesman Arch Currid. When it comes to clones, you will not even recognize the name onmany of those components. Name-brand vendors also usenon-Intel Corp. Foster says he believesthe utilization of components from small or lesser-known vendorscontributed towards the frequent lockups on his consumer PCs. Late this past year, Kozlowski took a good take a look at consumer PCswhen preparing to replace ACI's 300 desktops. He decidedagainst buying consumer machines because he foresawproblems with parts replacement, repairs and upgrades. "If Ibuy a home-use machine, I may get a better deal. But threemonths later, the vendor may switch what's inside inorder to maintain pricing to a minimum," he admits that. "For another $1,000, you receive a [400-MHz Pentium] that'supgradable," he explains. "For the cheaper machines, you getsmaller processors and less memory. What exactly are you going todo using the machine each year? Upgrade? Most likely not." Consumer PCs also are packed with hardware -- sound cards,speakers, CD-ROMS, video cards and modems -- that mostbusinesses don't want. "If you're buying 2,500 PCs for the business,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you'll put apremium on componentry and a single software image butless premium on performance or features,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," Goodhue says. Suitable for some Sometimes, however, strong multimedia capabilities are amust. Think about the needs of a Web design or graphicaldesign shop. "We've got graphics departments that do video production,"Hershey says. "I want to increase the productivity of thosepeople, therefore it makes sense to purchase a machine with the fancymultimedia capabilities." Jay Thornton, sales supervisor at CompuSmart,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a Nepean,Ontario, computer store, says half of his consumer PC buyerscome from small businesses with less than 12 machines. "It's easier and faster for them to enter our shop and pickup a few $1,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],200 PCs and slap some network cards in,"he says. Network cards tack only $85 onto each consumermachine, he says, and also the computers are prepared that day. But just adding a network card doesn't necessarily make acomputer network-ready. "There's other things vendors need to do to make sure productreadiness for commercial applications: quality assurance,network testing and developing the very best service, support andwarranty programs," Goodhue says. "This is what businessusers search for." Two key reasons ACI decided on Dell's OptiFlex business line isa single point of contact for repairs and also the product'sextended, three-year warranty, which cost $20 per machine."It's worth every cent,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," Kozlowski says. Most business machines ship with built-in network cards andplug-ins to leading network management consoles such asIBM/Tivoli, HP OpenView or Computer Associates InternationalInc.'s Unicenter. "We're not sure you want to opt for aconsumer PC that's not network-ready [even though] thedirection in our systems development effort is browser-basedcomputing, which would operate on a fairly limited-client footprint,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],"Foster says. Not only are IT departments avoiding the temptation ofcheaper PCs, they're also pushing vendors to stabilize theirbusiness lines, grant longer warranties and provide betterservice. "Don't skimp about the hardware. Buy for the business need,not what you can afford," Kozlowski says.
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