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

[Marc Elliot Hall]

On Fri, May 14, 2004 at 11:08:49AM -0700, Marianne Waage wrote:
> 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.

We've got a designer on full time now. She's currently cranking out a
completely redesigned website with all the color and typography
guidelines implemented. I only had to nudge her a little bit to use
standards-compliant HTML, too. Bobby and W3C validated!	
> 
> 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.

Yep. Got that already.
> 
> 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.

MSDN, Borland, etc. already in place. And, again, 'cause the money has
to be spent and goods delivered by June 30, we can't spend for anything
that's got non-trivial monthly or annual costs. 
> 
> -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*.
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-- 
Marc Elliot Hall		
P.O. Box 435
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
www.hallmarc.net