Conference 7.286::digital

From:	SMAUG::GARROD "An Englishman's mind works best when it is almost too late  05-Jan-1994 1423 -0500"  5-JAN-1994 14:30:40.82
To:	DELNI::KARABATSOS
CC:	GARROD
Subj:	Why is this necessary

Susan,

I just received the attached. Quite frankly receiving this makes me very
sad. Especially:

>You may ask why we are doing this since we completed an inventory 
>recently. The reason for this is that some items you use in your office 
>are not capital so we have no listing of them. We would like to get a feel for 
>what people use daily. Do you use a VT220 or do you have a PC?  Do you have 
>both?

For the life of me I can't see for good it does to know who has what
terminals in their offices. If they're not capital they don't need to be 
tracked. I can tell you what you'll find:

    - Most engineers will have a workstation and maybe a VT terminal
    - Others will have a terminal or a PC. Most have terminals.

But the important thing is that what people have is not what need or would like.
I'm sure everybody would like (and most need) a PC in their office.

My question is how much will this "survey" cost DEC. To me it just seems like
a waste of money. How many PCs could be bought with the labour time expended
to do this? I'm really surprised that in this day and age in DEC we can afford 
having people wandering around surveying non capital equipment. Surely there
are much more important things to do.

The cynic in me says that this is a real case of "activity for activities sake".
I hope this isn't the case.

Dave Garrod

From:	DELNI::KARABATSOS   "SUSAN C. KARABATSOS, NACTS INTERNAL CONTROLS, LKG2-2/P09, DTN 226-5241"  5-JAN-1994 11:03:04.51
To:	MARYLOU
CC:	
Subj:	Marylou, would you please send this to the LKG site secretaries?  We would like people to be informed before we start.

During the week  of January 3 - 7, members of the Technical Services 
organization will be doing a desktop equipment listing.  

What this means is that a member of our team will stop by your office and 
list what equipment you use in your office.  We will NOT be checking serial 
number, asset numbers, etc. as this is not an inventory. It should not cause
any disruption in your work.

You may ask why we are doing this since we completed an inventory 
recently. The reason for this is that some items you use in your office 
are not capital so we have no listing of them. We would like to get a feel for 
what people use daily. Do you use a VT220 or do you have a PC?  Do you have 
both?

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you.

Susan Karabatsos - 6-5241

	What can I say.......I can see a use........


	If you know what people have, then you can do a much better job of
	working out a strategy and investment to move forwards.


	Heather

I would have thought such a survey would have been used to estimate I.S. 
costs and apportion them across functions. Capital or not, equipment needs 
maintenance and support.

Dave.

    I really can't believe that a Digital site has VT terminals and PCs
    sitting around which haven't been categorized as capital equipment,
    assetized, serial numbered and otherwise identified as to whom it
    belongs.  Especially if Digital is the owner.  Now, some may choose
    to bring their own personal laptops or whatever to work for whatever
    reason.  Now that's really partnering with your employees.