End-to-end PC Lifecycle Cost Management

A new white paper has been posted on the SECG web site.  The topic addressed is End-to-End PC Lifecyle Cost Management.  This topic, of course, is a subset of the larger concepts of Lifecycle Cost Management within IT.  This topic will be addressed in a future paper.

According to surveys, the three dominant issues facing CIO’s today are 1) Cost management and/or cost reduction,  2) Maintaining or improving service levels to end users, and 3) Risk Mitigation.  These issues seem to be in conflict with one another.  That is, it would seem to be impossible to improve service levels while reducing costs and without increased risk.  This is especially true when implementing PCs in a business environment, where many costs are hidden and the complexity of the infrastructure makes support difficult.  Consulting studies have shown that, in addition to the key issues of cost reduction and service level enhancement, corporations are also increasingly concerned about risks associated with PC-related lifecycle activities (i.e. vendor relationship management, contract management, supply, and so forth).   This paper discusses specific “best practices,” that, when implemented result in significant structural cost reduction, better management decisions, and lower risk.