[vox] [OT] Budget Surplus - How Do I Spend It?

[Mark K. Kim]

Wow... what a happy problem you have...

With so much money, I'd go through a entire software catalog and buy
everything you might possibly want in it -- stock up on any software you
may need in the future, like several copies of MS Project Professional,
Visual Studio Professional, MS Office Professional, ZoneAlarm Pro, VMWare,
antivirus software, antispyware, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, lots and
lots of computer books, and whatever else you wouldn't normally buy
because of cost.  Have them available for anyone to try out and sample to
see if it'll increase their productivity or the company's.  If anything
does, you can get some more if you have time.  Even if they become
obsolete by the time you need them, you'll have a pile of software you can
get upgrade pricing on in the future.

You can probably also hire some people to do office efficiency and
security analysis.  I'm sure there are people that do that and you may get
some benefit that'll last for a long time.

And! Some employees can take some computer classes, apply for
certificates, etc. and the company can pay for everything, including the
tests, study materials, study courses, etc.  MSCE, all those network/CISCO
certificate tests, Linux certificate tests, etc.  The company may be
interested in having lots of certified people in the company to show off
to clients, and it's something they can show off to their potential future
employees ("hey, we pay for all this education whenever we can!")  Also,
if there's any conferences or exhibits in the country that may be relevant
to your company, offer to fly anyone interested over, pay for all their
food, lodging, classes, etc.  That should be pretty fruitful for the
employees' experiences.

Just some ideas...

-Mark


On Fri, 14 May 2004, Marc Elliot Hall wrote:

> So, My boss's boss called me into a meeting yesterday to announce that
> our organization has found $200k remaining in the fiscal year budget.
> That means it must be spent before June 30, or we lose it. The funds
> must be spent on training, software, or consulting - No hardware or
> other capital equipment.
>
> As a consequence, I have until Monday morning to compile a wishlist of
> all the stuff I think we ought to acquire. The list must include cost
> estimates; and all costs must be incurred and goods delivered by June
> 30.
>
> Our organization (unfortunately) develops Windows-based software for
> medical recordkeeping. Our front-end client is built in Delphi with a
> back-end using either MS JET or MS SQL Server, depending on the
> customer's needs.
>
> We have a development staff of six (located in Berkeley) and a help
> desk staff of eight, three of whom share office space in Sacramento
> with the rest distributed geographically around the US. Currently, the
> help desk staff is using Act! to manage its operations - non-optimal.
> Organization policy is to use MS SQL Server for all data storage,
> wherever possible. However, there has been some recent interest on the
> part of our development manager, web designer, and other staff in
> using Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP for some internal operations.
>
> This brings me to my question: given these facts and criteria, what
> recommendations for training, software, and consulting (with an emphasis
> on open source and Free software, wherever possible) would you have for
> our organization? Suggestions of specific vendors and programs are
> welcome, although direct sales inquiries are *NOT*.
>
>
> --
> Marc Elliot Hall
> P.O. Box 435
> Shingle Springs, CA 95682
> www.hallmarc.net
> _______________________________________________
> vox mailing list
> vox@lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox
>

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Mark K. Kim
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