Maintenance plans

[caffrey]

Has anyone got a good template for cyclic maintenance plans ? I've been asked to come up with one with 3 year cycles. I normally run a reactive replacement strategy as budgets vary from year to year so a plan can never be stuck to, but now I'm being asked to be more transparent with my budget.

Not saying that this one will be stuck to either... I've been running reactive for so long I'd basically have to start from scratch

[Sibrows]

We've got a waterfall type plan for our desktops with different years planning on filtering into different areas:

Every year we replace 30(wish) machines in our IT suite which filter down into other areas

Year 1

> Classroom Desktops

> DT

Year 2

> Classroom Desktops

> Other IT suites

Year 3

> Classroom Desktops

> Offices

Our Macs are replaced 30 at a time into one of our teaching spaces in Media (as they have the need for the greatest processing power).

Year 1

> Art & Photography

Year 2

> Music

Year 3

> VI Form

 

We're currently running around 500 PC desktops 120 Macs. Very few laptops outside of a few in SLT and staff doing outreach/working multiple sites. All teaching staff and students have iPads so enough to keep us busy.

[caffrey]

Thanks,

 

That's probably the way I'm going to have to do it. I've never done a maintenance plan in all the years I've been at this school - I just know when certain areas need to be done and I just used to use my budget to do it or I was just asked to put a project price together to replace ICT Suites etc.

[steve]

A long time ago (2006) I posted a total cost of ownership spreadsheet that might help you plan regular replacements and have a transparent budget:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/1478-total-cost-ownership.html#post15138

[DrBeaker]

Thanks,

 

That's probably the way I'm going to have to do it. I've never done a maintenance plan in all the years I've been at this school - I just know when certain areas need to be done and I just used to use my budget to do it or I was just asked to put a project price together to replace ICT Suites etc.

 

I don't think anywhere I've worked it was ever documented down, it was in our heads based on when we knew we'd installed the kit and when IMHO/IOHO it needed to be replaced. Even in previous jobs when they had "asset management" none of that ever fed into any kind of maintenance plan, there was no communication between the two departments.

[Sibrows]

I don't think anywhere I've worked it was ever documented down

 

We've documented it as part of our policies and we're now starting to look at this across our 11 school MAT.

[DrBeaker]

We've documented it as part of our policies and we're now starting to look at this across our 11 school MAT.

 

I'll say that this wasn't actually anything to do with me as part of my roles, I had no responsibility for any of that. One job (nothing to do with schools) the finance team supposedly audited the whole IT equipment and had it in a database - when we asked for it, it was an outright lie, they hadn't done any of the work they said they'd done! So clearly the people who should have - didn't want the responsibility either. I can only advise, if they don't want my help, that's up to them. Not my circus, not my monkey

[AlanD]

While I'm keen to have a rolling program and an idea of TCO, I am totally against some policy of - replacing those PCs because we have had them 5 years. Sometimes things can stretch a little further...and yes, sometimes what you have needs to be replaced earlier. So there will always be a negotiation to be had for each financial year. Sometimes adding a couple of extra GB of ram or replacing the HD with an SSD can extend the life of a PC for a 2 or 3 years...but its not a strategy that can solve all shortcomings.

[FN-GM]

While I'm keen to have a rolling program and an idea of TCO, I am totally against some policy of - replacing those PCs because we have had them 5 years. Sometimes things can stretch a little further...and yes, sometimes what you have needs to be replaced earlier. So there will always be a negotiation to be had for each financial year. Sometimes adding a couple of extra GB of ram or replacing the HD with an SSD can extend the life of a PC for a 2 or 3 years...but its not a strategy that can solve all shortcomings.

 

We resell our equipment so we have to consider the loss of value as well. We sometimes find it works better to sell something and buy new than keep equipment until there is little to no value left.

 

We do both. We buy new equipment and we have refurbished a number of AIO machines.

[jthompson]

We try to purchase a new batch of PCs and laptops each year that are roughly the same sort of quantity each year. New PCs go to higher requirement deployments (ICT suites, staff desktops, technology suites). This then feeds mid-age machines down into regular rooms, with older age machiness in turn going into locations that are lower use or where machines generally have a harder time (less well looked after etc). That usually means that we have some of those older machines in storage, which are used for parts and replacements to keep those older ones going until they're replaced.

New laptops go to staff, with oldest freed up staff laptops then going for student use.

[matt40k]

Basic school finance policy should have computers\servers\etc down as an asset that has a depreciation. First year the value will drop the most then it will continue to drop until it's worthless. You can't work this out without a knowing how long the device is expected to last. Of course, you'll have some that fail that aren't covered by warranty, such as malicious damage - but these are reasons you can explain. You should have at least a high-level idea that non-IT staff can understand that the governors can discuss. For example:

We have 500 desktops, 100 laptops and 5 servers.

Desktops have a lifecycle of 4 years, laptops of 2 years and servers 5 years.

 

(Desktops\servers have a longer lifespan as they are more serviceable and are fixed and therefore less prone to damage)

It doesn't mean you actually replace laptops after 2 years, just in an ideal world you would.

You can then say we have, say, 200 desktops that are over 4 years, but you've managed to fit SSD to extend their life. This is a positive thing as it has saved them money, but acknowledging in an ideal world, they would have been replaced. It helps deal with that situation when they need to be replaced and you've exhausted all the upgrade options it doesn't come as a shock.

 

(The governer meetings should have discussed this sort of high level IT spending which should be in the meetings notes - which is a OfSted requirement to have\keep\publish)

Edited December 9, 2018 by matt40k

[DrBeaker]

We resell our equipment so we have to consider the loss of value as well. We sometimes find it works better to sell something and buy new than keep equipment until there is little to no value left.

 

We do both. We buy new equipment and we have refurbished a number of AIO machines.

 

What suppliers do you use for the new equipment and what did you refurbish the AIO's yourselves or buy in some refurbished units? How did you find them for quality, reliability etc?

[FN-GM]

What suppliers do you use for the new equipment and what did you refurbish the AIO's yourselves or buy in some refurbished units? How did you find them for quality, reliability etc?

 

We use Nviron for new computers (Dell). We refurbished our older machines. They are 4th Gen I5, We doubled the RAM to 8GB, installed an SSD and gave them a good clean inside and out.

[DrBeaker]

We use Nviron for new computers (Dell). We refurbished our older machines. They are 4th Gen I5, We doubled the RAM to 8GB, installed an SSD and gave them a good clean inside and out.

 

Thanks. How do you find the 4th Gen i5 kit? Still up to the job?

[FN-GM]

Thanks. How do you find the 4th Gen i5 kit? Still up to the job?

 

Yep they are fine. We do plan to replace them in the next 18 months or so.

[caffrey]

I buy refurbs now, the original plan was to turn them around every 3 years but budget decreases put paid to that. I don't class refurb PCs as assets as the majority of the depreciation has already gone on them