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

[Marianne Waage]

Mark has a lot of good ideas. With that much money, you could also hire
a designer to make a logo, redesign the entire website (you could use
Zope :) ), design corporate t-shirts, make posters, flyers, or other
handouts for marketing.

Even if you already have a logo, it's nice to have clear specifications
delineating use, what fonts to use, exactly what the colors are, etc.

You may even want to look into buying support for software you already
use, because a lot of software has some kind of maintenance cost which
gives you upgrades for the next year and support if you need it.

-yams, top posting for the hell of it.

On Fri, May 14, 2004 at 10:54:28AM -0700, Mark K. Kim wrote:
> 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, [...]
>
> 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.  [...]
> 
> 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.
> > [...]
> >
> > 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*.