Standardize our laptops!

June 11, 2010 5:59 AM

What do you put in your standard laptop configuration for business?

My company has a new Director of IT and he has requested that we come up with a standard configuration for our users. The users are mostly sales oriented and travel locally to their customers sites. They do minimal demo for customers and mostly use the box to access our CRM system and their email.

We are a Dell shop...

Any standards that you could reccomend (Processors, RAM, Screen Size, Wireless...)

Thanks!

posted by keep it tight to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

What you should be providing is a list of applications that your users need to do their jobs, and the IT department should come up with a technical configuration that will support that. If IT won't perform that sizing function for you, your new IT Director sucks.
posted by fusinski at 6:17 AM on June 11, 2010

I'd start by talking to the sales people. Find out if they'd prefer something small and light or if they want the larger screen. That will pretty much drive the rest of your buying decision and, for most of your users, will be the only thing they really care about. 4GB of RAM and the fastest processor the laptop size offers. Definitely get wireless. If you have a standard cell solution check if their plan allows tethering. I don't know if you need software advice, but you want an A/V and spyware solution that doesn't need to talk to a server inside your network for updates. Make sure the firewall is on too
posted by IanMorr at 6:40 AM on June 11, 2010

There's a difference between standard configuration on the software and hardware side. And really the IT department should come up with the whole thing. That's their job, especially if they've been providing computers to the employees to date.

We have three difference images based on the type of user. Business, Designer, Customer Support. Many utilities are installed by default because they solve the most common desktop support requests.

Basic Install:
Anti-Virus
Compression (7zip)
Firefox
File Usage (Xinorbis, Sequoia View, etc)
Flash Player
FTP Application (FileZilla)
Media Player (VLC)
Notepad++ (notepad alternative)
Quicktime Player
Office for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word (standard small business edition)
PDF Reader (FoxIt Reader or third party alternative to the Adobe Reader garbage)
PDF Printer (CutePDF or other)
Remote Troubleshooting (VNC)
Screenshot Capture Tool (always handy)
Shadow Copy Client
Visio Reader
VPN Client

Designer:
Adobe CS4 / CS5

Manager:
Visio
Project Manager
-- installed on a case-by-case basis

Configure:
Disable Admin Access
Printer (Local office network printer)
Enable Shadow Copy
Wifi (Local office wifi settings)
Windows Updates Schedule
posted by iamgoat at 6:55 AM on June 11, 2010

A software solution that I rely heavily on for supporting my mobile workforce is LogMeIn Pro. It's so very helpful to be able to get on a remote computer and fix a problem instead of trying to explain to a sales person where they need to go to fix a problem over the phone. Wherever it has internet access you can get on and fix things up without their problem.
Another thing we've grown to rely on heavily is our corporate IM. We installed Office Communications Server but there are free solutions out there. Many people asked why we needed it when I installed it, and now when I have to take it offline for an hour to do maintenance (very rarely) they all ask when it will be back up because they don't like having to send an email for a quick question, etc. It's something that has completely integrated into our work style.
Just some food for thought.
posted by msbutah at 7:59 AM on June 11, 2010

Best answer: I think we're misinterpreting Mr./Ms. Tight's role here. I think he/she is in the IT department, has been given a task, and is looking around for what other organizations do.

The gist of the responses though is dead-on, in that it depends on what the requirements and budget are. Other questions that haven't been asked that you need to think about are:
a) what's your life-cycle?
b) how do you support said equipment, in-house or ship-it-to-Dell?
c) what's the feedback from the sales team on what their requirements are? Do they want something small that they'll hook up to an external monitor at the customer site or do they want something big enough that they can do the entire demo on the machine?

Our general rule of thumb is to buy either the top-end of the middle model or bottom of the top model, with an appropriately-priced onsite warranty (the sweet spot seems to be 3-4 years, after that the cost of the warranty outweighs the replacement cost). The application list is highly dependent on the role of the user.
posted by Runes at 8:27 AM on June 11, 2010

We are a Dell shop...
That pretty much eliminates what my suggestion would have been: Toughbooks. I adored my Toughbook 74 when I was a field tech fixing copiers, and gladly ponied up for the extra cost (about 2.5x the cost of a mass-market notebook with similar performance.... so pretend you're buying a Mac ;) )
posted by xedrik at 8:32 AM on June 11, 2010

Are you leasing? If so, there is probably a standard Dell model that the leasing company wants to deploy, based on the length of lease.
posted by k8t at 8:41 AM on June 11, 2010