Recommended Suppliers

Why have Recommended Suppliers?

The first point to make is that this is a recommended supplier only, it is not a mandatory supplier. There is no requirement that computers are purchased from the Computing Support Unit’s recommended supplier. The recommended supplier is only for the purchase of PCs, Macintoshes must be purchased from Apple On Campus Randwick (9385 2377).

When purchasing a computer in a large organisation there are three main areas to consider:

The initial purchase price of the computer is often considered as the most important factor when choosing a computer. This however should not be the case. The initial cost of the computer is only one part of the equation. What should be considered for an organisation with a substantial computer and computing support base is the total cost of ownership of the computer. The total cost of ownership of a computer includes not only the purchase price, but also the labour cost of the support staff and the lost time of the user when the computer is not working. Thus, when working out the total cost of ownership of a computer you need to factor in the labour costs and the cost of lost time. In many situations this cost can be very significant compared to the computer's purchase price. It is however common for support costs to not be considered when purchasing a computer as this cost is not charged against an individual's budget unit. It is a real cost to the Faculty though, and the more we can save on basic support the more development and progress that can be made in other areas.

The importance of quality of the service and support of the product goes without saying. The more helpful and consistent the support from the supplier, the less work that is required by both the user and the support staff. Things to look for in the service and support areas are whether the support is onsite or not, how long it lasts, how long after the call is placed before service technicians are required to arrive, where will the technicians travel to for onsite support, is there phone support and what are the hours for the phone support. Another important consideration is if the company keeps replacement parts in stock for the life of the warranty. If not, what tends to happen is that when a component breaks the supplier will not be able to replace it with an exact copy. This then can lead to several components needing to be replaced to be compatible with the new one and also for time to be spent reconfiguring the operating system to deal with the new hardware.

The continuity and quality of the product is important for two different reasons. The quality relates to how often the computer's hardware breaks down and how often a new computer is delivered that doesn't work. These are both important in relation to the computers down time and the amount of help needed from the Faculty's support staff. The continuity of the product relates to how often the components used in the computer change. If the main components, such as the motherboard, video card, sound card etc don't change often, then an image can be used to set up new computers. A generic computer with all of the generally required software such and Windows, Office, Notes, Netscape etc can be setup once. After this has been done, the hard drive from this computer can be imaged and that image can be quickly transferred to a new computers. This can easily save 4-5 hours of support time per computer. The speed of the processor, size of the hard drive and amount of memory in a computer do not affect the image so they can be options that are selected by the individual when purchasing. The bigger international computer suppliers can negotiate directly with hardware manufacturers to supply components that won't change for 12-18 months. This allows the same image to be used for all computers purchased during this time and reduces the total number of images needed across the Faculty.

Why one recommended computer supplier? This is another question that leads on from what was just said. If there are multiple suppliers then there will be many configurations all that need to be supported and looked after individually. Drivers will need to be kept, or looked up on the web, for each computer when it needs to be set up or serviced. Support staff will have to learn the functionality, compatibility and little quirks for each of the different configurations - all of which cost time and therefore money. Relationships with a single company can be developed so that the level of support is maintained and the supplier is held accountable.

With a recommended supplier there can be several configurations that are setup specifically for the Faculty. Thus when somebody wants to purchase a computer that individual does not need to be expert in choosing the right computer but can chose one of the configurations for Medicine and be confident that it will work on our network and with our applications. Standard configurations also save the time required to get several quotes and protects individuals from being ripped off.

The main idea of a recommended supplier is to get the Faculty moving in the same direction so that we can reduce the support costs for our computer infrastructure. Thus allowing us to shift our resources into other areas such Web based teaching development, support and the other areas of IT that are becoming increasingly more important to the Faculty.