10 – Workstation Fleet Logistics John Beckett CPTE 433

What People See New Employees Existing Employees Workstation Prepared and waiting Workstations being delivered (and removed) Workstations are replaced on some sort of schedule

What Employees Don’t See Shouldn’t Designation of what model will be delivered Purchasing of workstation & accessores Installation Network connection OS loading Applications loading …and so on

Processes in Fleet Management Purchasing: Acquiring from vendors Prep: All the steps needed to transform a purchased machine into a useful workation Delivery: Take it to user location and set up Platform: Determine what hw/sw will be used, automate installs Network: Configure jacks, plan capacity, connect Tools: Program the “glue” that makes it all work together Project Management: Coordinate all these efforts

Purchasing Team Acquire machines in bulk Based on business plans: projects, hiring Control the inventory of purchased-but-not-installed machines so we can implement quickly but waste is minimized Tracking orders Contract negotiation

Prep Team Labeling OS installation Application installation Localization Keyboards, power plugs If prep is failing on one machine out of many, set it aside and deal with it separately

Delivery Team Physical placement of machines Laptops may merit a sign-off process Consider alternating people between prep and delivery, to increase synergy and relieve monotony Avoid the “those idiots” trap This is an opportunity to connect with users – walking them through an intro document

Platform Team Defines the final product: all technical aspects Define and create prep room Work with purchasing to select new, deprecate old Tech support to prep team Different platform teams for each major OS? Shared infrastructure Meet together often

Network team Defines how computers connect Major tool is DHCP NAC: Network Access Control If a machine isn’t in your network config, it shouldn’t work – major tool is DHCP Special relationship with prep and delivery team so that a machine works properly when it is plugged in the first time

Tools Team Automation of tasks in fleet management New-hire delivery Refresh Forecasting & ordering Project Management Dashboards Remote Logistics Smaller sites may “get by” using spreadsheets

Project Management A project is defined in terms of outcome E.g. “Deliver 12 machines for new hires in Marketing by this Friday” Project may have milestones to track Workstations each week When each application is made available

Program Office Houses the Project Management teams Probably have a PM team for each ongoing project Creates standards for how projects are to be managed Defines how workstations should look to users Represents all these teams to management Creates and monitors metrics for end-to-end quality “Continuous improvement” is a major goal Beware of local optimizations that merely deflect a challenge from one team to another Coordinates cross-training

Configuration Management Database All configuration information should be in a central database All configuration files and scripts should be automatically derived from this central database When a new machine is configured, the process should be controlled by the CMDB The CMDB is a major tool for researching: Network capacity needs Refresh cycle

Small-Scale Fleet Logistics In a small company, this may not be enough work for even one person. You should still have: Vendor list: contact names & numbers, history Installation procedures: Bullet list of steps Delivery checklist: What to take with you when delivering a machine Welcome letter

Full-Time Fleet Coordinators Hopefully you’ll need to scale up Perhaps you’ll have it run by a power user instead of an SA

Refresh Costs Exercise Months Hires People Latops Laptops For New Refresh 100 150000 3 20 120 30000 6 140 9 160 12 180 15 200 18 220 21 240 24 260 27 280 30 300 33 320 36 340 Totals 510000 390000 Grand Total 900000

Beyond the Text: Real Cost of Workstations Purchase cost Integrating into your environment Problems each design has Employee non-productive time Installation Training Updating One company estimated this at $14,000 per year – study done decades ago

Beyond the Text: Refresh Costs Not Refreshing Enough Refreshing Too Often High rate of malfunctions New functions simply won’t work Slow performance High employee costs Lost business to competition Excessive capital costs Excessive installation costs Can’t keep track of all the types of computers and their unique needs Excessive training costs What to do with discarded equipment? You are aiming for some sort of “sweet spot” on the curve