Which was *about right*.

When we did the math, we came out with $22k, per year, per PC on our network.

Our bosses screamed because "Garter said it should only be $17k" so they cut out the help desk from the math, and got it dropped to $19k, and that was OK.

Bob Lweis had a series of forums discussing their innacuracy.

Bob had a lot of forums. Bob's columns were damn short on facts, and long on guesses.

I did the math. Gartner's math (using theoretical PCs, users, hardware, networks) was *in the ballpark*.

Pull up a PC and ask for the maintenence records along with that report and ask the powers that be for a reconciliation between the actual cost and the gartner.

Don't forget:
Hardware
Network (did you run a cable(s)
Admins
Techs
Help Desk
Network (internet connectivity? factor in that, too)
Routers/Switches
Software
Maintence contracts...

And yeah, it starts adding up.

Things have decreaased some, with more user literacy, and cheaper hardware. But I suspect, not by a lot.

Bob didn't want to add *all the costs*.

Sure, you *can* do it cheaper. Some places do. They have varying levels of success.

But enterprise level customers are still talking a big chunck of change, per year, for their PCs.

Addison