Help convince my boss

I work at a creative firm cutting video with two other guys. We're cutting on Dell Vostro 200 machines. These are $299 desktops that have more ram and hard drives added by our it department. We've been having all kinds of issues. But yet our boss is too cheap to want to buy macs, or thinks they are a rip off. But at the same time is expecting us to do quick turn around on these video projects. We're not a small company either. We've got about 60 employees and do work for some of the biggest companies in the world.

How can we convince him we could really use some Mac Pros? Is there any statistical numbers I can throw his way, like how many creative firms use macs, how many studios cut on Final Cut Pro? Anything you can give me to help our chances? We're pulling our hair out over here trying to deal with glitchy software and our bosses answer is "add more ram".

If you want a serious answer to this, you need to put forward a business case for replacing $300 machines with $2500 machines (that's $2200 per machine/user investment).

Start by outlining what the issues are now. Is it slow processing, poor workflow for the user, buggy software, conversion times because you cannot work in the native Codec etc.

Then look at how many of those issues would be resolved by investing in a Mac Pro and calculate the estimated time saved by resolving the issues. Be realistic, because if you spend the money and it ends up taking longer, guess who gets fired?

For example, a 3.0ghz Quad Core 2 Duo is probaby 3x faster than a Pentium D (probably what your Dell has). Final Cut Pro can probably save time on workflows, compared to some packages, but Vs others may not be as strong.

Finally do a gap analysis on what is currently required, compared to what will be on a Mac. Do you already have Office, an Exchange Server, other software? If so, what's the spend on getting all this implemented on Macs. You'll need to offset this against the time you think each person will save - maybe you'll be able to get rid of someone?

Finally, what's the IT support and infrastructure. Will you be able to support Mac use internally, or does money need to be spent on training? What support does Dell offer as part of the package, or Microsoft, for example.

When you have all this documented, fire up PowerPoint and do a presentation showing the return on investment, if you go for a Mac, assuming of course you found one. This would outline all the upfront costs, time invested, learning curves etc, against the long term run-rate. Stack this up against the current run rate and tell your boss when to expect a return.

BTW, if it'll take more than 12 months, don't be surprised if he says no.

ApplePi said:

I work at a creative firm cutting video with two other guys. We're cutting on Dell Vostro 200 machines. These are $299 desktops that have more ram and hard drives added by our it department. We've been having all kinds of issues. But yet our boss is too cheap to want to buy macs, or thinks they are a rip off. But at the same time is expecting us to do quick turn around on these video projects. We're not a small company either. We've got about 60 employees and do work for some of the biggest companies in the world.

How can we convince him we could really use some Mac Pros? Is there any statistical numbers I can throw his way, like how many creative firms use macs, how many studios cut on Final Cut Pro? Anything you can give me to help our chances? We're pulling our hair out over here trying to deal with glitchy software and our bosses answer is "add more ram".

Click to expand...

tell your boss macs are faster, stronger, better and that you'll be able to get work done twice as fast because you won't have to worry about slow start up or slow opening apps.

Fire the boss

Seriously tho, I have been there and it takes ages to persuade a tight boss that you need to spend to improve things

Do what Zoolook said, and if there are any times when the problems have caused tensions with a customer, point that out, the cost of losing a client far outweights the cost of hardware

I'm with the other posters on this one, especially if you like the company. If you don't like the company or they just say no, look for employment where you can have the chance to enjoy your job rather than pulling your hair out.

If the company is demanding quick turn around times, they MUST supply their people with reliable systems at a minimum. Glitchy or crashing software is a priority to get fixed or to find viable work-a-rounds for. You and the other editors should document all issues and highlight the most hideous of them and those that cause delivery delays. Rate the issues in priority to be fixed.

There are just too many possibilities to assume a Mac is the end-all be-all answer for your current job problems. Do your own research to resolve the issues you are having. You'll likely find others in the same boat and perhaps even fixes.

Don't rely on the I.T. department for answers. Most I.T. people are not trained and do not have the experience to deal with this level of software and hardware. If this is true at your company it means you have to gain enough knowledge so that you can have constructive (and argumentative) conversations with them.

By the way, the range of specs on that box doesn't impress me. As low as a Celeron processor and a high of 100Mbps ethernet capability. Some of your glitches might be caused by either of these two items. Clearly you would need to analyze the problems to find the correct blame.

I was that boss! I managed a company with about 100 employees and one of the chaps there wanted to convert to macs from old PCs. He did what the first poster suggested and gave me a presentation of the initial outgoings followed by the savings. He then did a presentation using his own mac, showing me how some of the tasks we do every day would be easier/faster on a mac. He included items like how long it would take to train new users on such systems (macs are a lot more intuitive etc). Good luck!