The problem with coming up with the numbers before hand (or, at least presenting them beforehand) is that it puts you into the role of obstructionist.
Simply start off the meeting with the statement that you're eager to bring in anything to the organization that improves productivity, reduces cost or overhead, or otherwise helps the bottom-line. Double kudos if it improves the top-line in some way. That should set the appropriate tone. Be prepared with a few questions of integration, but don't ask them all at once. Don't ask security questions, though, unless you're looking for a whole load of FUD that you will not have a way of refuting. Deal with the more tangible issues of management, application licenses, admin and end-user retraining, and integration costs, all of which undermine productivity. Ask for a business use case that highlights the anticipated value for the organization, and what the associated ROI will be for that investment. This will help you understand if any research has been done by the rep, and if anyone higher up in your organization is actually in support of this move. If none of this has an impact, then ask about training options for both parties (admin/end-user) and factor it into the costs of support. *ASB *(My XeeSM Profile) <http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker> *Providing Competitive Advantage through Effective IT Leadership* On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 9:02 AM, Christopher Bodnar < [email protected]> wrote: > Not sure how much time you have to prepare, but if you can go into the > meeting with some initial numbers on the ongoing costs it will take to > support the Macs in your environment, that might help. For example, say you > now have to spend 3 hours per week dealing with Mac specific user issues > that you didn't have before, add that to the list with a cost estimate. > Patching? AV? Security issues? All of them should be quantified and > presented to management when talking about the ROI for the new machines. > > YMMV, > > Chris > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
