Cabinet Office paying £3,664 per desktop computer

Running costs always more than purchase price

I'm not surprised at this cost being so high; running costs always add up to a lot more than purchase price. My running costs fell by about half when I switched platforms to Apple Macs and needed far less support or maintenance. The cost saving would have been much bigger if I had costed for downtime of staff waiting even just an hour for a fix/replacement to be in place.

But the last Labour Government had no real clue about IT so probably got ripped off by one of the big IT consultancies too. I'm not sure the problem will be fixed soon either because both Labour and Coalition use the same Civil Servants... and they probably still prefer hand written notes!

By SwissMac on 14 May 2011

It is only your Taxes

Why worry the government will cut more services to pay for it!

It is a pity we can’t declare the Civil Service bankrupt and start a fresh. They could never survive as a business.

By M_Hamer on 15 May 2011

Bespoke software...

As well as the cost of the computer and peripherals, you have software costs.

Office and Exchange Server may make up a couple of hundred quid per user, but the "workflow" software usually costs much more per user, because it is often custom written.

Custom written software can quickly run into 5 or 6 figures. If that is done for small user bases, then the costs per user are relatively high.

And @SwissMac, custom software isn't any cheaper on the Mac. ;-)

By big_D on 15 May 2011

TCO

The article states that this figure includes the 'core instructure costs'.
This should mean that the cost of purchase of software and hardware for all enduser workstations PLUS the cost of infrastructure server software, hardware and operating costs (server/network management, etc) across the organisation have been calculated then divided by the number of users in the organisation to derive a 'total cost of ownership' (or TCO) figure per head. Naturally, the total per head would be a good deal higher than the simple cost of providing a PC and software for each worker.

That said, it is ominous that 'internal' staff costs have been excluded as all IT staffing costs should be part of a TCO calculation. Still, from the wording of the article, I would infer that 3rd-party external staffing costs (e.g. contractors, consultants) have been included.

By alvin on 15 May 2011

Power costs?

How much of that total cost is electricity for PC, monitor and peripherals (printers, scanners etc)?

By jbarnett on 15 May 2011

Typical of local government

The costs above almost certainly didn't include software.
Years ago computer departments were renamed and rehoused and turned into Quango's to sell their services back to the councils at highly inflated prices. Value for money, service and common sense went out the window.
It's now common to see "IT" and "Systems" with two different companies, meaning to install a simple .Net 2.0 application on a PC requires liason with the council IT plus two outside agencies at enormous cost, frequently strewn with problems caused the lack of control and autonomy.

I would like to see all local government IT run by a single internal department operated as a service, rather than a bunch of clueless quango's fighting a turf war for who can bill the most.

By cheysuli on 15 May 2011

@Cheysuli

The article refers to CABINET OFFICE computers, not local government; you may have a point, but it's not relevant to the article. I appreciate that the Cabinet Office didn't provide a breakdown of costs, but the firgure quoted isn't very meaningful without context. Core infrastructure and applications are probably going to include a volume OS license, volume productivity software license, CALs for file, mail, database and collaborative packages, cabling and per-port networking costs, security software and hardware... It's like I tell our guys; yes, you can have a PC put on your desk that'll cost £300. Wait, you actually wanted to DO something with it? That'll cost a little more...

By nichomach0 on 16 May 2011

@nichomach0

And you think the cabinet office operates any different to councils or the NHS?
I've seen (in the NHS) £12,500 spent on a single "brand name" computer rather that £1,000 because the NHS manager had "heard of" the branded computer. Back in 1994 when that little doozy happened, that would have been a year's salary for a nurse.
It is relevant when clueless people are making IT decisions based on brand awareness and misinformation.
I would also like to see a breakdown of that cost, but we won't see it, because it would clearly show just how badly managed their IT has become.

By cheysuli on 16 May 2011

@cheysuli

That figure will include operational costs.

I work for a Local Authority whose ICT is run by a single internal department.
We work hard to ensure the best value for the authority.
Best value does not always mean cheapest!

That figure will include
Hardware,
Software,
Additional warranties, Infrastructure costs etc...
As that is how we possible handle a request.

Please also consider that we don't know what actual question was asked!
I'm sure the FOI question was not
"How much do you pay for your desktops"
It was much more likely
"What is the overall operating costs including hardware/software and infrastructure of the desktops PC's you use".
Almost sounds like I have dealt with FOI requests like that before doesn't it?

Regards.

By wake1976 on 16 May 2011

You'll probably find "core infrastructure" covers other stuff like air conditioning for server rooms and all sorts of other ancillary gubbins.

Saying that, government are not renowned for getting excellent value on anything so why should IT be different?

By SirRoderickSpode on 16 May 2011