Rolling Replacement Plan

[witch]

I have been tasked with setting up a rolling replacement plan for one of the schools I work in, but I don't really know how to go about it.

My problem is that the whole IT suite (30 machines) was replaced a year ago, and of the 15 teachers' laptops, 12 are the same age, and other than that we have a couple of Tesco Voucher machines and a staffroom machine that isn't used much.

We couldn't change the whole IT suite in one go, nor the teachers' laptops, so what sort of percentage would I do at a time over what time period?

Sorry to sound dim, but I have never done anything like this in the 7 years I have been in Education, although I have been suggesting it for, ohh, about 7 years

[teejay]

If you want an even budget price for each year, you total up each type of machine you have, ie desktops, laptops etc and divide by the number of years that you expect the kit to last, then multiply by the replacement cost.
For instance, if you have 40 desktops and want them to be replaced every 4 years, you need to replace 10 per year at however much you spend on PC's.

In your situation, where you have recently replaced all the kit it seems daft to replace kit when its so new. What the school can do is speak to the LEA to have an amount of there budget put into a reserved fund which they can carry over for say 4 years and then buy a whole new suite. This makes it much easier to support the suite as all the machines would be the same.

If you want to get really complicated, you can always spend a few days figuring out the Becta Total Cost of Ownership spreadsheet.

[steve]

If the school can't afford to replace everything in one go, look into leasing the kit.

They can then benefit from having the PCs / laptops replaced together to ensure only having 1 type of each, while spreading the cost over the lifetime of the machines.

[teejay]

If the school can't afford to replace everything in one go, look into leasing the kit.

They can then benefit from having the PCs / laptops replaced together to ensure only having 1 type of each, while spreading the cost over the lifetime of the machines.

Problem is, and I don't know if this is the same in all LEA's, is that the budget which ICT equipment comes out of can no longer be used for leasing or rental. Complete PITA

[somabc]

We replace our equipment every 3 years. You could try and keep "spares" as well to allow for hardware failure. Or get the longest warranty and replace when it expires.

[witch]

Leasing isn't really an option. The 30 machines have a 3 year warranty but the school would rather not replace them all at once. I like the idea of a fund but I'm not sure the LEA would let us do it. So, if not, would it be sensible to replace say, 10 after the three years and then 10 the following year etc? I would hope they would last -our last lot were about 7 years old and most were still working.
What is the sensible age for a laptop? I have just replaced some that were 7 years old but my feeling is that 5 would be fine - given that we are a first school with no money and a deficit budget?

[steve]

I plan on replacing PCs every 5 years, laptops every 3

But this will depend on how much you spend on them initially.

For a £400 PC - 5 years
For a £400 Laptop - 3 years

If you think you can eek an extra bit out of the laptops how about:

Year 1 - 10 PCs (£4K)
Year 2 - 10 PCs (£4K)
Year 3 - 10 PCs (£4K)
Year 4 - 7 Laptops (£2.8K) + Printer? / Projector? / A few bits to stretch kit to 5 years
Year 5 - 8 Laptops (£3.2K) + A few bits to stretch kit to 5 years

Or perhaps better:

Year 1 - 15 PCs (£4K)
Year 2 - 15 PCs (£4K)
Year 3 - 30 Monitors (£4K)
Year 4 - 7 Laptops (£2.8K) + Printer? / Projector? / A few bits to stretch kit to 5 years
Year 5 - 8 Laptops (£3.2K) + A few bits to stretch kit to 5 years

Speak to the suppliers - companies like Dell tend to keep the same chipset for 15/18 months, so if you buy at the right times you can cut it to 1 or 2 types of PC and 1 type of laptop.

[witch]

Thanks - that looks just the thing to give to the head.