With 15 offices around the world Creata's Michael Ashby vice president of information systems and technology takes a global approach to managing some 450 desktops.
Creata is a global marketing promotions and manufacturing company whose client list includes brands like McDonald's, Kellogg's, Disney, and Nestle.
Ashby, who oversees some 75 desktops in Sydney, has standardized on Windows 2000 as the client operating system.
"All of the desktops are HP with the exception of Sydney where they are 'no name' clones and the laptops are Dell Inspirons or Latitudes," Ashby said. "About 80 percent of the desktops are less than two years old, therefore the typical specs would be a 1GHz+ processor, 256 to 512MB of RAM and 40 to 80GB of disk."
This year Creata plans to upgrade about one-third of its desktops in the Sydney and Hong Kong offices which have the oldest machines. The fact that Microsoft's support for Windows 98 has an uncertain future does not concern Ashby who is more worried about the availability of Windows 2000.
"In terms of operating systems we would like to hold on to Windows 2000 for another couple of years, although it is getting harder to get hardware with Windows 2000 as OEM," he said. "While we are using alternative OS on some of our servers we are not considering them for desktops. We are reluctant to be pushed along in the relentless cycle of Microsoft upgrades but do not see any alternatives at the moment."
Ashby sees open source operating systems as having "great potential once the perceived issues of consistencies, compatibility and support have been addressed".
As for planned desktop "cycles", Ashby said the company tries to get a desktop to last three years throughout which time it may have its memory and hard disk upgraded.
"A desktop will likely be handed down through the departments to less computer-intensive operations," he said. "Once it has been on a desk for three years the IT department may get it for a test machine or parts. By the time we are finished with a computer it is not much use for anything."
During the last refresh two years ago, Creata was going through a rapid growth period and a lot of desktops were purchased then.
"This will mean that in the next year or so we will be able to go to the supplier and negotiate a good deal on a significant number of desktops, rather than on just a couple," Ashby said. "We look for warranties and after sales service, (HP has been very good with this), and like to build a relationship with our vendors.
"It is a difficult balancing act between loyalty to a particular vendor and not 'putting all your eggs in one basket' and between accepting that a vendor needs a margin to stay in business and ensuring that we get the best price."
The financial burden of a desktop refresh is loosening, according to Ashby who is seeing a longer cycle evolve.
"It has been said a number of times and we are seeing it in our organisation - the software we are using is no longer driving the need to upgrade hardware," he said. "We are now seeing longer lifetimes on computers; [what] was once two years now we are aiming for three years. The cost of hardware has dropped significantly in the last few years. I was cleaning out some old invoices and was stunned at what we were paying for equipment three years ago.
Ashby said the upgrade cycle will never end but "we are currently experiencing a slight lull".
"Maybe it is a lull before the next Microsoft-driven storm," he said.