Help convincing the boss!

[Deity]

I'm currently the Systems Administrator for a small collections agency in the northwest. We run about seven offices across the state, with a network that has been pieced together over the years. However, since I was hired I've been trying to streamline some of the operations.

For example...the computer systems. Every PC purchased by the company is of a different brand, sytle, model, etc. About the only similarity in the systems is the fact that they all have NICs installed. The CEO is CHEAP! Anything that is purchased must be of the lowest cost. Which explains the purchase of about 25 eMachines over the past two years. *reaching for aspirin* I'm wanting to implement several policies in the company, especially since we are at the point of needing a dedicated IT department, consisting of me. I want a budget allocated to the IT so that I don't have to get corporate approval for a CPU fan replacement. I want to be consistant with purchases...one manufacturer, one company to deal with, NOT random eMachine purchases from Costco! We recently acquired two Minolta QMS 2560 lazer printers to use in the corporate office. These were purchased without my knowledge or consent and I am expected to support them. Just so you know, don't ever buy them. Cartridges alone cost twice as much as HP with half the volume. *reaching for another aspirin* I want control of system and equipment purchases or at least to be consulted.
So here's the question:

How do I convince the CEO (tightwad) to do things MY way!

I've tried explaining TCO and that the time and effort I've put into the QMS printers more than doubles what they paid for them. It was useless. The response was that he heard great reviews about the printers, from the manufacturer. *sigh* I figure my only shot is a formal proposal to the corporate execs, but how do I go about doing this? Any advice?

I think I ranted more than explained my situation, but I know many of you experience the same thing.

Thanks

[Stanley_Kubrick]

No real-world advice, but I feel your pain dude. Good luck.

[thirdfey]

How long have you been at the company? It took a year for my company to start listening to what I said and another year to actually get them to do what I want them to do. Its hard to com into a company as the new guy/gal and start making policies and asking for a budget. Everytime I ask what the budget is on a project its always the same response, "we don't have a set budget for that." Well? WHat would you like me to do then? I have a cheap *** owner with two bosses in between that spend company money on themselves personally (monitors, ram, computers) while I'm being denied the ability to purchase a $500 computer to be used as our web server for our soon to be released web application. Than I have to get a legal copy of Win2k Server because no one wants to learn Linux.

Whats the moral of the story? A tightwad is always going to be a tightwad, the only thing that will change is that they start paying attention to you. Their the same people that pull up to a computer shop in a brand new BMW 5-series but want the cheapest computer you got at half the price. Enjoy hunting for a new job.

[Deity]

I've been employed for this company for about a year now, but I've been doing contract work and consulting for them for about three years. Long enough for them to know I'm not an idiot.

[IT Len]

I've always found when you're confronted with "clueless bosses," that the only thing they may understand is a chart, on paper, showing dollars lost/gained, hours of your time used...

Your point about the printers is perfect. Make a graph. [Bearing in mind that he seems to feel he knows this stuff better than you do *he's a bonehead*, and you don't want to document how he's been a boob about his purchasing!]

Hit points like the ability to deploy over the network with ghosting/imaging options that are available if you have similar PC's.

He may not agree with turning over an IT budget to you, but he'd be even more of a fool to continue IT purchases w/o your consulting him on them. So, I'd work into that gradually...consult first, budgetary control next.

Along the same lines as earlier, if you can show on paper how hdwe or sftwe purchases have lost money because they weren't thought out, and have become useless....[Keeping in mind yet again, he may take it personally, and resent your calling attention to his mistakes. If he's that type, you might have to either bite the bullet, or quit!]

Good luck, I sincerely hope you win him over to your viewpoint. If you know what you're doing, he'd be nuts to ignore your input!

[Deity]

Well, my total lack of faith in him was just blown away yesterday. The man's tight a$$ finally came up with a good find. There's a Compaq server/power workstation (SP750, also mentioned in the Hot Deals Forum) that normally runs for $4500 that TigerDirect has for $1299! It looks like a nice system and at a sweet price, but even though it is a terrific deal we don't need the computer. We have a server room that has two computers more than we need already (flashing light syndrome). He'll probably buy the thing just because it's a great deal and it will sit on a shelf for the next year.

[KINGofBLEH]

TCO is the right approach to take here. Don't be deterred by the CEO blowing you off about the two Minolta printers. Meticulously document your trouble calls on all equipment. Document the amount of hours spent on each call and any parts that were purchased. Make sure that you emphasize that broken equipment not only costs the company money to fix, but there are other costs such as down-time, lost sales, reduced customer service, etc. Hopefully your CEO is already taking these things into account, but he may not fully understand the impact of these effects.

My experience has been that corporate execs, bean-counters and CEO-types do not really understand modern technology, especially when it comes to desktop and server hardware and tech support. I have had to become the bean-counter for them and show them step-by-step why using same hadware and software platform is the most cost-effective way to go.

Best of luck to you.

[Deity]

Well I've talked with most of the office staff and we have banded together on this. We're going to start small and send an email to the VP about the QMS printers. Everybody in the office hates these things, so finding support wasn't hard. Hopefully this will lead them to consulting me in the future.

I also spoke with the VP about the eMachines and that I don't recommend purchasing any more. He gave me a look that just screamed, "What's wrong with eMachines?". I explained the poor reputation, track record, bad service/support, typical faulty parts....then I pointed to the four dead ones sitting on my bench. Even after that I don't think he fully understood. I was half tempted to tell him to look at <a href="http://www.emachinessuck.com." target="_blank">www.emachinessuck.com.</a>

I guess only time will tell if my words have fallen on deaf ears.

[Wayward Clam]

I can never understand why a company can hire someone for their intelligence and knowledge, and then discount the very same person's advice without even looking at it...

[Cleetus]

I agree with most of the people. Document everything, the more the merrier. Make pretty flashing slides and graphs, sounds stupid but it is what these people live for. You are going to have to put your self on their level to deal with them, talk like a CIO rather than a Network Admin. Speak in terms of business and finances rather than this printer sucks or EMachines are the work of the devil. It took me a long time to learn to use two completly different levels of communication, one for top level execs and the other for the rest of the world.

[PitaBred]

Exactly. "Normal" people don't understand technology at ALL. Much less budgeting many times. So you have to make pretty pictures showing them why the printers eat up your time (take a pie chart of your day, and show them how much time you spend repairing the printers. Use a long day if you have to, if an average isn't too impressive a figure ) Things like that. You have to basically lead them by the hand to what you know is right.