A quick message on saving money on support from HP.

I took over the IS Mgr position at a company that had annual
hardware/software maint. expences of over $60,000/year.  I removed all of
the software upgrade, manuals, and other unnecessary items.  We had
determined that we would be upgrading the machine in a year, so they were
not needed.  Second, I reduced all hardware maintenance to bare minimum.
Only left CPU and harddrives for repair, but no PMs.  Memory and other
periferals I removed completely, since they rarely failed, and if they did,
were not critical to operations.

This lowered our costs to $15,000/yr.  But the best thing I learned was to
change our 4-hour response time to next-day.  Now, before you start
cringing, let me finish.  I found that with 4-hour response, our monthly
costs were $1245/month.  But if I changed to next-day, they went down to
$610/month.  Now I was worried about waiting a day for help, so I asked the
rep if there is a way I could get boosted up to 4-hour in an "emergency".
She said "Yes, but it would cost $300 to do a one-time bump to 4-hour
repsonse time".  I thought "Hmmmmm.  I save $600/month, and if I need 4-
hour response, I just have to give them a P.O. number for $300."  So, I
went to next-day response, and had my acctg dept give me a standing P.O. #
that I could use if I needed to bump up to 4-hour.

With these savings, I'd have to need two upgrades to 4-hours EVERY MONTH,
just to break even.  Heck, I barely need a 4-hour call once a year.

So, don't be afraid.  Go to next-day, and have a PO at the ready to upgrade
your service, when needed.  You might be surprised at the savings.

Randy Keefer

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