| If you've been in the computer consulting | | | | |
| business for a while, you know that | | | | IT Spending: Shielding Your Clients from |
| influencing product selection is one of the | | | | Early Adopter Risks |
| more valuable services that your firm | | | | |
| performs for its client base. | | | | As the PC industry continues to experience |
| | | | unprecedented financial pressures, a lot more |
| Your clients depend on your firm to guide | | | | products are being rushed to market |
| them toward reliable, cost-effective | | | | prematurely.In early 2001, leading IT market |
| technology solutions. Along the same lines, | | | | research firm Gartner Dataquest, announced |
| your clients count on your firm to help them | | | | that the U.S. PC market shrank by 3.5 |
| steer clear of "lemons", or IT support | | | | percent, compared to the same period a year |
| "quicksand" in their IT spending. | | | | earlier. This was the first industry |
| | | | contraction in seven years. |
| IT Spending: Newly Released Technology is | | | | |
| Often Not a Smart Purchase | | | | One only can wonder if as the hardware giants |
| | | | reduce headcount, expenses and R&D, will |
| If the first year's depreciation cost of IT | | | | consumers become their extended R&D facility? |
| spending on the latest and greatest PC | | | | This revelation is really nothing new to the |
| hardware doesn't deter your clients, this | | | | PC industry. |
| might. If your clients purchase PCs with | | | | |
| processors that have just been released, new | | | | IT Spending: It Takes Time to Fully Test New |
| kind of motherboards, revolutionary kinds of | | | | Products |
| graphics accelerators or updated chipsets, | | | | |
| they may get some very unpleasant surprises. | | | | For at least a decade, PC owners and small |
| | | | businesses have had to consider their IT |
| IT Spending: Your Clients May Blame You | | | | spending with a continuous stream of updated |
| | | | hardware device driver software and |
| Clients generally don't like unreliable PC | | | | reprogrammable firmware updates. |
| hardware. Many clients will even blame you, | | | | |
| the highly paid computer consultant. Peeved | | | | The trouble is, from the time problems are |
| clients with major hardware headaches can be | | | | first reported, analyzed, diagnosed and |
| huge threat to your firm's survival. | | | | ultimately fixed through updates, your |
| | | | clients have to suffer with unreliable |
| Protect your clients' IT spending plan and | | | | hardware products. If you're looking to help |
| your company's future by being very careful | | | | clients control their IT spending, you don't |
| when it comes to being an early adopter with | | | | want your clients to be a hardware vendor's |
| bleeding-edge PC hardware. | | | | guinea pig. |