Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 6 - Is AppleCare worth the cost??

This is a continuation of a blog series I started back on April 2013. You may want to start reading there if you're new to this blog series.  Part 1

Part 6 ... Mac Repairs and Extended AppleCare
This week marks the 1st time, since early 2011, we've had to pay for a mac repair.  Though this particular air was still under it's 3yr applecare, it had water damage.  $800 later and Apple replaced virtually all the components...so it's kinda like a new refurb LOL.  We've also had very few instances where we've actually needed applecare...11 times in almost 3 1/2 years. 
So this has raised the question:
Is it worth buying the 3yr applecare warranty at $199/air and $279/mbp15???

Let's look at the data...

2011 - 25 Macs purchased
1st year repairs = 2 (1 was an accidental screen break miraculously fixed at no cost!)
2nd year repairs = 2
3rd year repairs = 3
** All Macs from 2011 are now outside their 3yr applecare **
2012 - 29 Macs purchased
1st year repairs = 0
2nd year repairs = 3 (1 was the accidental water damage at $800 repair cost)
3rd year repairs = 0
2013 - 9 Macs purchased
1st year repairs = 0
2nd year repairs = 0
2014 - 9 Macs purchased so far
1st year repairs = 1

Leaving out accidental damages our totals are
1st year repairs = 2
2nd year repairs = 4
3rd year repairs = 3

So as you might expect, especially for laptops, we're seeing more repairs AFTER year 1.  2 repairs were covered under the included applecare that comes with each Mac, and 7 repairs covered by the extended 3yr applecare we purchased.  Now let's do some rough math. 

We've purchased 72 macs (mostly refurbs) since March 2011 (Production Arts purchased their own Macs prior to 2011).  They were not all airs, but for easy math we'll say they were.  72 macs times $200 for 3yr applecare = $14400
Let's say our 7 extended warranty repair jobs would have been $800 each (they were usually much lower) ... 7 x $800 = $5600. 
$14400 - $5600 = $8800 = at minimum 12 more repairs before matching what we've spent on applecare.
Granted, we didn't buy all 72 Macs at the same time so a chunk of them can still fail inside their 3yr window and incure no cost to us, but how many more will likely fail?
Since the macs bought in 2011 are now outside of their 3yr applecare, we can make some predictions.  Out of those 25 Macs, 5 required repair after year 1.
25 Macs times $200 3yr applecare = $7500
5 repairs at $800/ea could have cost us at most = $4000 (Again, this number is an overestimation)
In other words, we spent about twice as much for applecare than what repairs would have cost us.  Boo!  Of course that's a risk you have to weigh.  We had no data to go off of at the time, so we err'd on the side of caution and bought the 3yr warranty.  Now that we have over 3yrs of data to go off of, we can make some much better decisions ... meaning the data is telling us we should no longer be purchasing 3yr applecare :-)
However, there is a slight catch.  In 2011, had we NOT purchased applecare we would have saved $7500, BUT you have to accurately budget for future unknown repairs ... which for those 2011 purchases we estimated the repair costs (see above math) to be $4000 2-3 years after their purchase.
Again assuming a repair would cost $800 and had we NOT purchased 3yr applecare for any Mac
2011 repair costs = $0
2012 repair costs = $0
2013 repair costs = 3x$800 = $2400
2014 repair costs = 4x$800 = $3200 ... and 2014 isn't over yet
Moving forward I should probably keep a $4000 budget line for mac repairs each year, especially since we now have 25 Macs with expired 3yr applecare.

Another factor in the equation - self repairs.  I keep using a high estimate of $800 for our local Apple Store to do repair jobs.  The reality is that we could do many of these repairs ourselves for much less $.  For instance, I have an estimate from the Genius bar for $567 to replace a 256GB SSD.  WHA?  We can buy several SSD's for that cost and it's pretty simple to swap them.  Now for stuff like screens and logic boards, we'd probably let Apple take care of those and just bite our tongue at the premium they'd charge.  The easy stuff we'd handle in house.

Apple does have a self service program which we signed up for years ago, but we've yet to actually DO anything useful with it.  Guess it's time to dig back into that and see how we can leverage it :-)

Summary?  So far, for our environment, our data is telling us to STOP buying 3yr applecare.  Instead we need to budget about $3000-4000/yr to cover repairs.  This will save us several thousand dollars each year, which if our purchasing and repair trends stay the same, we'll end up saving $10,000-15,000 in 3yrs time.  Yeah, that's a lot of dollars we can invest in other projects!

I'm very curious who else has done a similar exercise and do your results match up with what we're seeing?

That's it for Part 6.  I'll plan to do one more final post to wrap up this blog series.  Stay tuned :-)

** I decided to close comments on this blog post and direct folks to comment over here.

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 5

This is a continuation of a blog series I started back on April 2013. You may want to start reading there if you're new to this blog series.  Part 1

Part 5 - Mac Hardware and Software

Wow, it's hard to believe we're into year 4 of this transition to Macs and mobility ... time flys!!  Surprisingly, we've made only a few edits to our mac hardware and software standards since we started this journey.  Also to note, after 3 years, the macs are still going strong giving us no reason to believe they won't give us 5 years of service.  We do see some reduced battery longevity, but so far it's not newsworthy.  It will be interesting to see how the batts are holding up this time next year.  We also see folks originally lobbying for a 15" or 17" macbookpro now asking to trade in for a 13" air or 13" retina mbpro.  Heh, told 'em so ;-)

Hardware
On the hardware side we still use the 13" air as our default ... still i5, we've bumped ram to 8GB, and in 2014 we up'd to the 512GB SSD.  Yes, we're still mainly buying Apple refurbs when possible.  I predict we'll see more interest in the 13" retina mbpro unless Apple releases a 13" retina air (yes please!).  I've been using a 13" retina mbpro for over a year and really love it!  The extra pixels are worth the slight weight and thickness tradeoff.

External Monitors - most staff, especially air users, have an external monitor, which is typically purchased by their dept (through IT of course).  Some are using old 17" LCD's we left in place when we removed a desktop PC, some are using Dell 24" LCD's, and some are using the really slick 27" Apple Cinema display.  While the Apple display is a whoppin' $799, it really is worth it when you consider everything it provides: amazing resolution, charges your laptop, provides a Gig network port, thunderbolt and usb ports, webcam and audio.

Software
We don't use any imaging software for mac deployment.  That could change someday, but so far we've not had enough pain to make us head down that road. Here's essentially what happens when we get in a new mac:

New mac comes in ...

• record the serial number off the box into inventory (we use smartsheet) and write end users name on box as another form of initial record keeping.  Yes, we have a GIANT stack of boxes in storage!
• power on (duh!)
• join to public wifi
• enter our TechOps info and user/pass
• UNCHECK NATURAL SCROLLING!!!!
• run software updates
• name computer (jpowellair, jpowellmbp13r, jpowellmbp15, etc)
• enable remote management and remote login
• create another admin user account matching the end users AD user/pass
• enable guest account ... uncheck parental controls (we want a theif to be able to easily log in so we can hopefully have time to track their location)
• login as the end user
• uncheck natural scrolling
• join to private wifi via ruckus zero-IT portal (uses end users AD creds)
• require password from sleep
• keyboard > shortcuts > change to all controls (allows you to tab between all fields)
• finder preferences ... check all
• shared drive and media drive shortcuts
• add needed printers (we use a mac mini running OSX server as our mac print server)
• install our custom LogMeIn free client (part of LogMeIn Central)
• Office 2011 install and run updates
• Outlook 2011 setup
• CrashplanProE install (our backup software)
• ESET NOD32 install (our antivirus softare)
• print and attach a label of the machinename to underside (silver label tape)
• For some users like Finance, we install and setup the free Microsoft Remote Desktop app. This app combined with a Remote Desktop Gateway config gives users one-click access to a terminal session desktop or published app, like Great Plains, from on or offsite.  Bye bye VPN!
• handoff to happy end user with training as needed

Sounds like a lot of steps, but it's really a quick process.  We could script some of it, but again there's not been enough pain to warrant the effort to figure out scripting ;-)'

If end user needs a paid app from the appstore installed we ask them to create an apple ID with their church email address.  Their dept pays for any additional apps.  For stuff like Adobe CreativeCloud we manage licenses and charge depts for new users and renewals.

What about iPads?
If a user needs an iPad we will make the purchase for them (again usually a refurb), but their Department is on the hook to pay for it.

So that'll wrap up part 5 of this series that now spans 2 years (facepalm).  Part 6 will be about Applecare and is almost ready to publish.  It's got some pretty revealing information that I think you'll want to check out :-)

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 4

Here in part 4 I'll talk about our initial test phase and staff rollout.

One of our big unknowns surrounded staff wanting to switch from Windows to Mac ... many having never touched a mac prior. What kind of intial training would they require? How long would it take the average user to be proficient on a mac?  Could we find other mac savvy staff that would be 1st level support for newbies so IT wasn't flooded with basic questions?

I personally had tried switching to mac only a few years prior and ended up back on a Dell, but I knew I had to dive back into it 100% so mid Feb 2010 I ordered our 1st 13" Air for myself and got a 15" macbookpro for Justin (he was using a dog old 1st gen intel macbookpro).  You learn a lot when you're forced to give up familiarity :-)

Our beta test group comprised of Tim Stevens (Exec Pastor, Windows power user, no mac experience), Kem Meyer (my boss and Comm Director, Windows power user, no mac experience), Jami Ruth (Comm Coordinator and long time mac user at her prior job and at home).  They all got their new macs right at the end of March giving them time to play over Spring Break (1st week of April).  Part of being in the test group was required feedback to the entire group about questions, fun findings, frustrations, etc.  Our Tech Director at the time was also invited to join the feedback loop since he was a very savvy OSX user.  As questions and frustrations surfaced, Justin and I would make notes into a make shift FAQ list.  By the end of June we felt we had address all the main issues and our newbie mac users were doing great!  Time to start the rollout to the rest of the staff!

Recall from Part 1, that for 3 years prior we had ZERO computer purchases or upgrades because the economy tanked.  This meant EVERYONE was running on old hardware and would LOVE to get something new.  Problem was I had a limited budget. This meant only about 1/3 of our staff would get upgraded in 2011 and it was my task to figure out who that would be (gulp!). 

I looked at many many variables, had lots of discussions, and ultimately ended up with a list that I shared with my boss and our Exec Pastor to get approval.  Next step was discussing upgrades with dept heads to get their input based on possible staffing role changes, needs, etc.  Then finally, we got to "surprise" selected staff with their upgrade news :-)  I was not surprised when everyone on the list chose a mac vs PC even after explaining there's a learning curve jumping platforms and some limitations with Outlook 2011 for Mac.  Of course some of them were already mac users, or had macs at home...and if so they were tagged as being part of our go-to team for the other Mac newbies around them.  Also recall from Part1 that we required anyone switching to mac to get supervisor signoff that they could do their job on a mac with mac software.  Publisher was the biggest hurdle a few switches had to workaround.  Most of them just ended up using Pages.

Finally, in August 2011 we made a large purchase of mostly 13" Airs and thus began GCC's transition to 'chose your platform' and mobility.

Naturally, before we got to August, Justin and I had been pondering how we were going to deploy and manage all these new macs.  We talked to other Church IT peers, researched enterprise and academic solutions, and looked at what had and had not been done over the years with the 30ish macs already on the GCC network that were not under the IT umbrella.  In Dec 2010 we dropped from a 3 man IT shop down to 2 and knew we'd remain at 2 for a long time to come.  What we couldn't afford to do was create a headache for ourselves OR our end users.  We decided on the KISS (keep-it-stupid-simple) approach.  We would NOT join the macs to Active Directory, instead they would be what I'd call "free range" devices...which is what the macs already on our network had been for years.

To "manage" our macs we landed on using LogMeIn Central ($300/yr) with the free LogMeIn client and Apple's Remote Desktop ($79).  LogMeInCentral with the free LMI client turned out to be such a big win that we started putting the free client on every machine ... and today it's part of our software build for both Mac and PC.  LMI Central creates a special client installer package for your org so install is super quick and easy.  If you're not using LMI Central with the free client you really should check it out...especially if you are multisite.  Apple's Remote Desktop app is a sweet solution

In Part 5 I'll list out how we config our macs for end users along with software we include.  I plan to then wrap everything up in Part 6 sharing what we've learned and changes we've made since rolling out this transition in 2011.

 

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 3

Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 ...

Well, this is really a continuation from part1 since part 2 went in a different direction than I planned :-)

To quickly refresh ... Part1 was the proposal I made to my boss and our Exec Pastor to A) go mobile and B) give OS platform choice.  For this blog series I asked Tim and Kem to think back about the proposal, why they said yes, and any quick thoughts 2 years later...

From Tim Stevens (Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church):

I'm a huge proponent of technology. I consider myself a technology champion. Maybe it's because I was one of the volunteer audio engineers at GCC for 11 years. Or maybe it's because I got my first home computer before MS-DOS or Windows or Mac were household names (yeah, it actually ran on the CP/M operating system). I've always been somewhat of a geek. And that's why, in my role as Executive Pastor, it's really easy to get behind technology.

But even more than that, I'm a huge champion of finding and resourcing the right leaders. When I have an impassioned, skilled and aligned leader who loves Jesus, loves the church and is the best in their field—I want nothing more than to equip them to be successful. And that's why it was so frustrating in the recession era when we weren't able to replace ailing equipment or invest in new technology. Not only could I not see us implement the best technology to serve the church—I also couldn't equip Jason and his team to soar with the right tools. Every month was just hanging on and riding out the storm. And yet I never heard one complaint or negative comment. Rather, I heard comments like "We'll make it work" and "We will figure it out" and "We'll get creative".

I never questioned Jason when, after the recession, he came with the proposal to A) go mostly mobile and B) provide a path for supported Mac OS machines. I didn't question it because of his long track record of well reasoned and researched decisions. And it turned out to be a huge win for the church. Yes, a bit more costly on the front end, but the tangible and intangible wins with higher productivity, greater employee satisfaction, and reduced operational costs more than made up for the higher price tag.

It was exactly the right decision.

From Kem Meyer (my boss and Communications Director at Granger Community Church)

Here's the thing—the question isn't about whether or not we are on a mac or PC environment. It's about whether or not we are stewarding our resources well and helping staff do what they want to do. I appreciate how our tech ops team elevates people as the value over technology and keeps learning about the various options available to us. Instead of reacting to the increasing questions about people wanting MACs with a "that's not what we do" posture, they sincerely investigated options. They worked through and had answers to these questions before they came to us with a proposal.

• How did we get here?
• What has changed?  What has stayed the same? (Both inside our environment as well as the overall technology industry.)
• Can we afford it?
• Can we support it?
• Can we grow with it?
• Is our environment secure with this solution?
• What will we gain? What will we lose?
• Will this make work harder or easier for our team?
• What are the pros of this approach? What are the cons of this approach?

With the answers to these questions before us, it made the decision pretty easy. We were "eyes wide open", as they say, and knew what we were getting into. It made the change easy to communicate. We were able to set expectations and get everyone on the same page with a shared definition of the win.

For me personally, I was uber productive on my PC for years and I'm just as productive on my MAC in different ways. If you forced me to choose, I would choose a MAC because it's just more fun to use. Our tech ops team is smart enough to recognize that a work force that is having fun with their technology is a happy work force. A happy work force makes the support load a little easier to carry.

Hopefully that's helpful to those that were wondering why leadership agreed to move forward with the proposal.  Naturally, there were clarifying discussions and I believe it went before our Board of Directors, each time being given a green light.

In Part 4, I'll share the process we went through and insight we gained from a small beta test team before annoucing to staff and starting the transition with our 1st batch of users.

There's been some great discussions about this blog series here. So I suggest reading/leaving comments there vs here on my blog.

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 2

Continuing from Part 1 ...

One of the questions that arose from the Part 1 post was how we arrived at the $2100 figure.  It actually ended up being $2300.  This amount would cover the purchase of a 15" macbook pro with 4GB ram, 7200rpm 750GB drive, 3yr applecare, and extra power adapter (for home), which at the time totalled $2300.  While we would actually recommend the 13" air to end users, we knew some would want/need a larger screen so we made sure to accomodate a need for a 15" mac laptop.  Our 13" air config included 4GB ram, 256GB SSD, 3yr applecare, extra power adapter, external super drive (if needed) and rounded up to $1800...another reason we pushed the air over mbp :-)  Again, anything beyond $2300 and another dept would have to pick up the overage.  We had a few staff that went a little over due to job role needing the highest proc and additional ram (which we buy from OWC and install ourselves) or opting for the 17" macbookpro, but the majority of staff have went with the 13" air. 

Today we still recommend and default to the 13" air for our staff.  We've bumped the ram up to 8GB on the standard i5 model which is still under $1800 ($1720) with our config.  AND today we'd also recommend the 13" retina macbook pro ... with our config it comes to $1904.  I used a macbook air for about 2 years and even ran some Fusion win7 vm's on it.  With 4GB ram it was tight running VM's on it, the 8GB air I tested handled VM's much better.  I figured if an air worked great for me, it should work well for the majority of our staff :-)

I switched to a 13" retina macbookpro in Feburary for testing and have REALLY liked the increased screen real estate over the air.  It's a tad heavier and gets warmer, but I'll take that for the extra pixels.  I should also note that while at work I jack into a 27" apple display.  So yes, the air and 13" macbookpro can drive a 27" display with no problems.

Another thing we've discovered over the past 2 years ... spinning hard drives and macbooks don't do well together...even 7200rpm drives give way more spinning beach balls than they should and don't even bother with the 5400rpm drives.  We have had good success by upgrading 15" macbookpros with 750GB hybrid drives, but we strongly recommend going SSD on new mac purchases.

We usually buy our macs/apple gear from our local apple store where they match WCA's discounted Apple pricing which is roughly 10% on most items.  Having their store 1 mile from GCC is a VERY nice plus!  It took some work to create a good relationship with the local store business team, but today they really seem to go to bat for us.  We've also had success getting even better pricing on large volume purchases from ITSavvy, mostly due to their ability to heavily discount applecare.  Another option is buying refurb gear from Apple.  We've gotten several refurb 13" airs for $900-1200 and had no problems with them.  I know some churches get their Apple gear from CDW as well.

What do we do when a user wants a windows laptop?  So far it's been rare, but it has happened.  For instance one of our graphics arts designers is a windows power user and she had no interest in switching to a mac.  No problem!  Except we did have a problem ... what to recommend to her.  The Dell Latitude lineup at that time was franky quite ugly.  True, being ugly shouldn't dismiss a technology decision, but that goofy orange on the Latitudes was bleh!  After much looking around and stalling our recommendation, Dell introduced their "air" competitor in the XPS13.  It was sexy looking and had very similar specs to our 13" air config...except for a lamer rez screen.  Probably the biggest disappointment was that this Dell was MORE than our air config coming out to $1967+shipping!  Here's the invoice :-)  But, as you can see, we did purchase it and she's been very happy with the XPS13 and that's a win.

We've still not landed on what I'd call the perfect PC version of the air.  We thought the nicely priced $800 14" Vizio ultrabook would be a win, but the keyboard on it stinks. We had a couple staff test it and all of them turned it back in saying the keyboard was a deal breaker.  Rats!  We still have a couple more ultrabook options we'd like to try ... and we need hurry up as we have a couple users on the refresh list this year that have already requested to stay PC vs switch to mac.  We've also had a couple staff test windows8...so far nobody liked it, and my personal experience with it was pretty frustrating as well.  This stinks since many of the newest ultrabooks have no option for coming with win7 vs win8 installed.
[edit 4/16/13: Just ordered a refurb Dell 6430u. Hope it works well in testing]

I didn't mean this next blog post to be all about the hardware costs, but that's how it turned out.  Hope it was helpful :-)

I'll get back to the transition process in Part 3 ...

Addressing The Consumerization of IT aka GCC's Transition to Macs and Mobility - Part 1

Hard to believe it's been 2 years since the below email was written which put into motion perhaps the most significant IT transition at GCC to date.  Up to this point, TechOps didn't officially support macs.  Sure we'd help the few mac users on staff as best we could, but it was best effort only and you were not assigned a mac unless your job/software required it.

Fast forward two years later and we've watched the number of staff using the mac platform increase to almost 70% and our overall computer ratio shift to 52% macs (out of 150ish machines).  And we've not started any computer refreshes yet in 2013, so the above stats will shift soon to reflect even higher ratios of fruit :-)

As people have heard about our transition, I often get asked what started the wheel rolling?  Well, it's a culmination of many variables and discussions around how to address the consumerization of IT for our organization...which lead to the email you'll find below.  This email is thus the actual catalyst that got us to where we are today.

Keep in mind this is now a hair over 2 years old and what works in our environment may not work in yours...

==========================================

Date: Friday, March 25, 2011 2:54 PM
To: Tim Stevens, Kem Meyer
Subject: GCC laptop proposal draft

Tim/Kem  [For those that don't know. Tim Stevens is our Executive Pastor, Kem Meyer is my boss...both of them were long time windows power users with zero mac experience]

Here's my working draft for upcoming computer refreshes at GCC … it's a work in progress.  Kem suggested I get what I've got so far in front of you both to help field any questions that may pop up as new test computers get rolled out.
Also note I'm leaving out whatever macs that have been bought buy Arts, GSM, etc since those were not TechOps purchases.

As you probably are aware, we have not purchased any new desktop computers in 5+ years nor any new laptops in 3+ years.  This means everything is now outside of warranty support.  If there's a hardware issue, we have limited options for repair, which usually includes buying parts of ebay and doing surgery to attempt extended life for the device.  It works, but is not optimal :)

So taking the above into account, along with an emphasis on anywhere/anytime access from The New Normal project and our own CommWebTechOps 2011 vision and of course other variables, here's what I'm proposing over the next 2 years…

Transitioning to an all-mobile hardware platform for end users.  No more desktops unless it makes sense for a specific job role/function.

PROS:

• Laptops require far less power than desktops plus they'll be traveling home with users instead of being left on in the office overnight.  This saves GCC not only electrical costs, but also cooling. 
• Staff office moves will be no biggie if TechOps doesn't have to move everyone's computers around! w00t!
• Studies show increased worker productivity for mobile workers.  You guys already get this since I bet you'd rather die than give up your laptops for a desktop ;-)
• The lines between work and personal continue to blur. Staff keep buying personal laptops and bringing them to us asking to make them able to do basic office/email functions.  Might as well provide them with something that can serve their needs for work and personal while allowing TechOps to keep things standardized which helps everyone in the long run.

CONS:

• Laptops are more much more expensive to purchase than desktops
• Laptops require battery replacements over time
• Laptops are more prone to accidents
• Laptops see significantly more wear-n-tear

In my mind there's no doubt moving to laptops makes sense for the staff culture at GCC and the Pros far outweigh the cons.

I've been thinking about moving this direction for more than a year. Just haven't had any $ to do so until this year. I've also talked with other churches that have made the transition toward all mobile…most notably my pals over at LifeChurch.tv so this isn't really a new idea for me.  It's been simmering for a long while :)

Perhaps the more radical shift is giving users the option of mac or windows.  We're finally in a place where we have necessary tools and know-how to adequately support mac users, helped in huge part by the latest mac Outlook2011 client.  It's still not as good as Outlook2010 for windows, but it's finally a viable solution.  We also now have software (CrashplanProE), which will allow enterprise class backups for macs – another huge stumbling block for us supporting macs in the past, as timemachine is NOT an enterprise solution.

PROS:

• In talking with other churches supporting dual platform most indicate a far lower % of support needs from their mac users.  For sure many variables are hidden in that data as to why, but data still shows that macs typically require less load on IT staff.  Of course we don't see a lot of support needs from our windows users either.
• Over 40 of our staff have iPhones and thus use iTunes and apps.  iTunes works much better on the mac OS (I'm sure by design).  Keeping all devices under one 'ecosystem' simplifies life for the end user as well as IT.
• Apple is 'sexy' and I think our younger staff gravitates toward that.  Plus I guess it could be seen as lending some credibility to our staff being in tune with the culture? 
• More freedom/flexibility with OSX operation system fueled further by the recent addition of the app store for macs. 
• So far mac OS isn't a big enough target for virus/malware writers.

CONS:

• All the fanatic apple users making cracks about "oh, you finally seen the light?" and other such fanboi comments that make me wanna hurl then PUNCH them with my fist.
• Macs are more expensive than similar equipped Dell…it's gotten closer over the past few years, but still there's a gap.
• Apple has no "real" enterprise class support nor accidental damage coverage.  I am looking at 3rd party options for accidental coverage.
• Troubleshooting issues on mac is much harder. 
• When it becomes financially beneficial, virus writers will go after macs.  When that happens we'll have to find ways to best protect macs.

Transition plan of attack
Current laptop users would be first in line to get replacements.  Then their current hardware would be trickled down to staff currently w/o laptops with hopefully enough spares to take care of break-fix needs until next year when they'd get option of something new.

I have $X earmarked in my budget for laptops.  Currently proposing each staff be "earmarked" up to $2100 for purchase of a new Dell Latitude E series or Macbook when their time for refresh comes due.  Anything additional they'd like (higher rez screen, faster/bigger hard drive, accessories, etc) above $2100 would be charged to their dept.  The plan is also that this will be their laptop for at least 3 years and more likely 5 depending on role.

Staff interested in switching to a mac would need their supervisor to sign off that their job role doesn't require windows specific software.  We will not allow nor support the loading of bootcamp, parallels, or vmware on a mac so user can run a virtual windows session.  If you need windows to do your job then you need a Dell.  Again, thanks to my friends at other churches I have copies of the paperwork they have staff/supervisors sign that spells all this out :)

My guess is that, given the choice, most staff will opt for a mac and that in 2 years GCC will be mostly mac laptops.  Windows servers and such will still be at the core of the server infrastructure, but clients will be predominately mac. 

I've spent a lot of brain cycles over the past year trying to navigate this "consumerization of IT" trend that continues to grow and I strongly feel the above proposal will help our staff be more productive and happy in the long run.  Because this is such a radical shift for us I'm planning to do a big blog post to point people to that have questions.

And Tim, although your laptop isn't super old, I'd be more than happy to put you in our coming mac Guinea Pig testing group if that would help you.  I think you're very much like me in that I very much dislike being labeled as a "mac user" just because of all the baggage/crap it carries.

So there ya have draft proposal version 1.
Look forward to your feedback and questions.
Jason
=======================================

Stay tuned for Part 2 ... Guinea Pig testing begins

I've also started a discussion thread for this blog series here over on the Church IT Network forum

=======================================

update: Part 2 added

update: Part 3 added

update: Part 4 added

update: Part 5 added

update: Part 6 added

Apple Quietly Introduces Accidental Damage Coverage: AppleCare+

Like most geeks I was eager to see what the "real" final price of "The New iPad" announced yesterday would be after you added all the various options and such. As I clicked through said options in the apple store something caught my eye. There was an option for something called AppleCare+ … hmmm, never seen that before.  

I did a double take when reading through the description it talked about accidental damage coverage. Wha?? That's new!! … and something many of us have wished for!

Description reads:  

Every iPad comes with one year of hardware repair coverage and 90 days of telephone technical support. AppleCare+ for iPad gives you two years of repair coverage and technical support from the original purchase date of your iPad. And it adds coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage due to handling of your iPad, each subject to a $49 service fee. With AppleCare+ for iPad, Apple experts can help troubleshoot issues over the phone, at an Apple Retail Store, or at other Apple Authorized Service Providers. They'll answer questions on a wide range of topics, including iOS, iCloud, wireless network connections, FaceTime, iBooks, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and other Apple-branded iPad apps. And if your iPad needs service under the plan, Apple technical support representatives can even set up a repair during the same call.

How to get AppleCare+

• Pre-order the new iPad and add AppleCare+ to your cart during the checkout process.
• Buy it within 30 days of your iPad purchase (available March 16):
  • At an Apple Retail Store (requires a Genius Bar appointment, inspection of the iPad, and proof of purchase).
  • By calling 1-800-275-2273 (requires proof of purchase)

So essentially it's $100 for 2yrs of coverage and $50/incident. That's pretty good insurance in my opinion.
A little more digging and I noticed a similar option now available for the iPhone as well [apparently this was introduced with the iPhone 4s, but it's news to me]. Cool! This is a GREAT option for the iPhone especially. I know in my family alone we've had 3 busted screens … 2 of which went to the genius bar for $199 replacements … ouch! That's several years back before I knew how to replace iPhone screens cheap and easy (iPhone 4/4s are not in the cheap/easy fix category BTW).

I asked our local Apple Business Team today about any accidental damage coverage being rumored for laptops. They said nothing yet, but this is likely a first step towards that.

If Apple were to offer accidental coverage for laptops that would be HUGE! As we've been transitioning more and more staff to mac laptops this has been a point of concern. With Dell we could get Complete Care and not worry if someone accidentally busted a screen, not so with our macbooks. We've already seen one busted 13" Air screen. Luckily apple replaced it at no charge, but the bill would have been $800.

Still not sure why Apple has made a big deal about this … it's pretty big news!

So what about you? If you're buying a new iPad or iPhone will you likely purchase this new AppleCare+??

Apple Non-profit Discounts? Yup!

I periodically get asked, “Can you get Apple non-profits discounts?” Short answer: Yes! Here are some options to save $ on your Apple purchases.

Willow Creek Association – If you/your church is a member of the WCA you have access to special Apple pricing via the WCA Apple store.  Discount has been 10% across the board.

Apple Account Rep – If you do enough volume, Apple will assign an account rep to your organization.  I don’t know what the volume level is, but it’s worth checking into.  Sadly the Apple Worship Team was axed last year that catered to us churches … so it’s now harder to find out who your rep is if you don’t already know.  These reps are able to offer some very aggressive pricing as well as financing options you won’t find elsewhere.  To get hooked up with a rep at Apple contact Brian O'Neal boneal at apple dot com and he'll get you to the right person.

Your own Apple Store – If you have an Apple Account rep you can have them create an Apple store just for your organization.  Nifty eh?  Like the WCA store, we've been getting a 10% discount via our GCC Apple Store.

CDW – At times we’ve been able to get some good discounts from CDW when purchasing a quantity of Apple gear.  I’m sure other vendors that sell Apple could do similar if you push them :-)

Apple Store Refurbs/Clearance – This is not really a “special discount”, but it’s certainly a good option to pursue.  I know several churches that buy all their Apple gear off the refurb site with no regrets. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals?mco=MTM3NDkyNzc 

What options have you found to shave $ off your Apple purchases?

ProPresenter4 to Add Windows Support!? Yes!!

This was easily the biggest Church Tech news of the day Thursday.  ProPresenter v4 will break from it’s 10 year tradition of Mac only support and now offer a Windows version!

Here’s the pertinent info from their webpage…

ProPresenter for Windows... Seriously...

For 10 years, we've developed ProPresenter for Mac only, and have been asked repeatedly if there was going to be a version for Windows. Our answers were always the same:

• The tools that enable us to do what we do on the Mac aren't as robust on the Windows platform.
• We have nothing against Windows, but felt we could make a more powerful and reliable product on the Mac.
• We'd rather focus on making the best software for any platform, rather than divide our efforts by supporting two platforms.

All of these answers were valid, and as the marketshare of the Mac has increased over the last several years, the question has become a lot less frequent. At the same time, however, we've been troubled by some things:

• There are a lot of churches that don't have Macs, particularly overseas
• There is a great variety of Windows-based machines on the market that are seemingly very capable.
• A new computer purchase is often difficult in today's economy.
• Many PC users get excited about our product only to be let down when learning it's Mac only.
• Some organizations will not purchase a Mac just to run ProPresenter.
• If we can improve the worship experience on the Mac, why not use our expertise to do the same for Windows?

Through the years, a lot has changed. Computers have become far more powerful and technologies have evolved. We've kept our eye on Windows technologies that would enable us to create a quality ProPresenter experience for Windows users, and we now believe we have found the right tool set, and assembled the right team of people to make ProPresenter for Windows a reality!

So, the cat's out of the bag. We'll be keeping you updated via our website as this story unfolds.

But wait! There’s MORE!!  A site license is cross platform!

Site License: $799 (Concurrent use) … $399 for Site License Upgrade

Our Site License allows you to run it in multiple environments on one campus simultaneously (each campus requires it's own license). This license works on both Mac and Windows versions.

At lunch our Tech Arts Director was eager to make the purchase for v4 :-)  Our main auditorium uses ProPresenter on Macs, but all our classroom’s use Media Shout on PC’s.  The ability to standardize down to one software application is huge from a training and troubleshooting standpoint.  To date there’s not been enough ROI to justify replacing all the Media Shout PC’s with Macs running ProPresenter … and this would mean we won’t have to :-)

Of course this all HINGES on the windows version of ProPresenter4 being a solid app.  It WILL BE a 1.0 windows release which makes me slightly nervous coming from a company not experienced in writing windows code.  The upside is that I already know many churches that are eager to try out this windows version.  So if there are bugs they’ll be found quickly and hopefully addressed in similar fashion.  Start crossing your fingers now ;-)

So who else out there will be testing this windows version with us?

Standardization is KING! What IT can learn from Southwest Airlines...

This blog post started out small then turned into a giant brain dump on standardization.  Hope it's helpful ... Enjoy! :-)

IT can glean valuable lessons about hardware standardization from an unlikely source: Southwest Airlines, one of the most consistently successful and profitable airlines in an otherwise struggling industry. Unlike some of its troubled competitors, Southwest only buys one kind of plane (the Boeing 737), which means that Southwest’s planes are interchangeable when problems occur. Pilots and mechanics need to be trained for only one kind of “hardware,” and tools and spare parts are transferable across all the planes in the fleet. I bet some of the pilots might prefer to fly an Airbus A320, but the benefits of standardization for Southwest as a company outweigh the personal preferences of individual employees. The same logic applies to standardizing end-user hardware in corporate IT.  read entire article

Anyone that knows me probably knows I’m a huge proponent of standardization.  It was my 1st and main objective when I started at GCC in 2003, I’ve blogged about it, and talked it up any chance I get.  It was also one of the main topics I landed on in my all staff presentation in 2008 that received great feedback ... even from our exec pastor Tim Stevens.

I was reminded of just how sweet standardization is again last Monday night…

I got a text message from my boss, Kem Meyer, around 9pm that her laptop wouldn’t power on.  I texted back a couple things for her to try (remove batts, unplug power, press power button, plug in power, press power button) and then report back results.  She reported back same results.  I could tell she was stressing about this, while in my head I figured it was most likely a dead motherboard…"no biggie" I'm thinking.

Since we were working late Monday night and she lives very close, I asked her to bring her laptop over to GCC and we’d fix it up quickly.  She brought the laptop to us, we quickly pulled her hard drive and swapped it into another Dell Latitude D830 (we always keep at least 1 spare around for just this reason).  Powered the spare laptop on and taa daa she was back in business!  Had we not had a spare D830 one of my team would have donated our D830 to the cause … we’re nice like that :-)

I have many other stories about how standardization “saved the day” over the past 6 years like …

… Minutes before a presentation someone spilled a 32oz Mt. Dew on their Dell D600 laptop which of course fried it.  I quickly put their hard drive in my D600 and the presentation went off as scheduled.

… A staff member was at a multi-day conference in CA when their laptop hard drive died.  We took a fully functioning spare laptop, copied their files to that hard drive off the network file server and overnighted it to her along with a small screw driver (Our Dells have 2 screws to remove the hard drive).  She easily swapped drives and was back in business.

Not only does standardization give us rapid repair ability, it also greatly aids in troubleshooting issues.  You can quickly narrow an issue down to hardware or software by swapping hard drives into a known good laptop or desktop.  That can save a LOT of time!

Standardization also helps greatly with software builds and deployment … of course we’ve found this to be almost a non-issue when deploying windows7 on different hardware.

Naturally, standardization doesn’t happen overnight.  It took a good 3 years before I got GCC to where I was happy.  You just have to keep it elevated as one of your main goals.  In fact, when I started at GCC we had 60ish PC's of all size, age, and flavors ... models from 1997-2003 ... Gateway, Dell, Compaq, IBM, Sony, E-Machines (shudder!) ... Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP ... Office 97, 2000, XP … uggh!

A tool to help achieve quicker standardization is leasing.  Say you’ve got 50 computers that need replacing.  Rather than purchasing say 10 computers each year over 5 years, why not lease 25 each year over 2 years?  Yes, you’ll pay a little extra for them over the life of the lease (always do 3yr $1 buyout) but the ROI is easily justified.  Another option is get a bunch of the same units from http://dfsdirectsales.com  You’ll find LOTS of off lease Dell gear for a great price.  For instance our standard desktop model (Optiplex 745) is only $267 and they have many of them.  They usually will have little to no warranty, so just buy a couple extra as parts donors and you’ll be fine.  The beauty of Dell Optiplex line is that the hardware is very consistent across a model line.  So I can buy an off lease 745 and know it'll be compatible with our current 745’s.

Keeping a spare of each model of laptop/desktop you have in your org is uber helpful, but obviously not always possible. So as long as IT uses the same hardware as your end users then at least you can swap your parts with there’s. Better for IT to be inconvenienced by a computer issue than our end users, right?

What about Macs?  One of the great benefits of Macs is that standardization is already part of the equation since Apple controls 100% of the core hardware sold and there are very few options available.  So since Apple controls both hardware and the operating system you’re in good shape when deploying new OSX versions and updates provided you’re not dealing with both intel and non-intel models.  Hardware swaps are similar to PC’s, but replacing a Mac laptop drive is NOT simple/easy/quick in anything prior to the new uni-body design.  So shouldn’t you just standardize on all Macs?  Umm, there are several big reasons I’d say no from experience, but that’ll have to be another blog post.  I don’t have the time/energy to deal with all the fanboi comments I’m sure that’ll receive ;-)

[update: I failed to mentioned that we DO standardize on Macs for most everything related to audio/video creation and production.  Macs and mac software easily own this niche]

GCC standard Windows hardware since 2004
Desktops
Dell Optiplex GX270 (phased out)
Dell Optiplex GX280 (most of these are now in non-staff non-critical roles)
Dell Optiplex 745 (bought 8/07 to replace all staff GX280 desktops)

Laptops
Dell Latitude D600/610 (phased out)
Dell Latitude D810/830 (810’s mainly phased out)

Due to budget restraints we’ve not ordered any new desktops or laptops since late ‘07 early ‘08.

How long before you replace hardware (aka Lifecycle)?  When talking about standardization the question of lifecycle always comes up.  Several years ago you needed to upgrade hardware often to keep pace with new software versions.  For the most part that is no longer the case.  We’ve found that our 3 and 4 year old desktop hardware will run win7 quite speedy.  So I don’t plan to replace our current Dell 745 desktops anytime soon.  Laptops are another story due to the wear and tear they experience and their lower performance specs.  Our 2+ year old D830 laptops run win7 fine, but they could be more peppy.  The vid cards in older laptops just weren’t made for speed.  That said I’m hopeful we can maintain a 3 year laptop lifecycle.  That’s the end of our warranty period and after 3 years our users have usually thrashed them pretty well :-)  For desktop lifecycle, it’s looking like we can go 4+ years with our current 745’s maybe more…time will be the judge.

Future standardization at GCC?  I’m seriously considering moving all our staff to laptops down the road.  Research shows increased productivity when staff have laptop vs desktop, plus there’s a measurable power savings by not having desktops drawing power when nobody’s around (even if you ask people to power down nightly, often they forget).  So they question is … is the substantial increase in cost and maintenance of laptop vs desktop worth the hoped for increase in staff productivity/efficiency?  And how would you every truly measure that?  Many pros and cons to consider, but I really like the concept :-)

What about standardizing software?  Yup, same logic applies to core software (operating system, version of office productivity suite, etc).  However, all our users are local admin so they have the ability to install additional software which typically IT doesn’t support.  We’re currently running Windows Vista and Office 2007 site wide, however our migration to Windows7 has just started and we’ll do same with Office 2010 once it’s released.

And finally, I leave you again with this snippet from an old article I refer back to anytime this topic comes up … It’s a strong non-IT example that will resonate with upper management if they baulk at the value of standardization ;-)

IT can glean valuable lessons about hardware standardization from an unlikely source: Southwest Airlines, one of the most consistently successful and profitable airlines in an otherwise struggling industry. Unlike some of its troubled competitors, Southwest only buys one kind of plane (the Boeing 737), which means that Southwest’s planes are interchangeable when problems occur. Pilots and mechanics need to be trained for only one kind of “hardware,” and tools and spare parts are transferable across all the planes in the fleet. I bet some of the pilots might prefer to fly an Airbus A320, but the benefits of standardization for Southwest as a company outweigh the personal preferences of individual employees. The same logic applies to standardizing end-user hardware in corporate IT.  read entire article