Heh... so I've heard.  Well, thankfully (thankfully... hehe..... how ironic) the wheels turn slowly in the gov, and we've still not moved to our card system yet.   It's like the Exchange migration we were supposed to be well under way with.... 3 years ago.  Heh. 

chrisj,

It was fairly easy to have my recommendation approved by the owners as I fill two roles, being the IT manager and the Practice Manager. I don’t have to answer to another level of management.

But as Ketchup said, concentrate on the ROI. To be successful in your recommendation, try and identify the reason behind your management’s previous knockbacks and address that. Also, give your management two choices, one being thin clients and the other being standard PC's. This way you can show the benefits of the thin clients over the PCs.

Break down the differences (benefits) of the report up into sections:

Hardware Costs
What are the outright costs of both thin clients and PCs.

Power Consumption
Do a comparison between the running costs of thin clients and PCs. The larger the installation, the larger the saving, generally.

Maintenance
This might include the costs associated in hardware repairs of PC's over a straight swap out of a thin client. Give a few examples of this including remote locations. For example, a PC at a remote location may require someone to go onsite, whereas a thin client only needs to be shipped down and the user can plug it in them selves, perhaps with instruction over the phone.

Ongoing
Look towards the next upgrade. Give examples how the investment in thin clients now, will save in the future. I.e, want more speed? We only have to upgrade the server, having no need to touch the thin clients.

At the end of your report be sure to specify the bottom line for both thin clients and new PCs. Also include the ongoing savings in running costs and maintenance, if you make your recommendation not only from a technical point of view, but also include a ROI detailing all the costs and savings you will be talking to them in terms they can’t ignore.

I have found that if you make the report unbiased for the most part, and then include your recommendations at the end, you will find that they will make up their own mind and be in agreement with you before they get to your recommendations. But make sure that your report contains the two solutions to compare otherwise you will find it a hard push to get them to change. If they still choose PCs over thin clients regardless of the information, then it will not be because of anything lacking in your report.

Good luck!

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