Purchasing IT as a Utility

How to Spot a Comfy Seat

Moving to seat management can be a turbulent, time-consuming exercise. Here's what the early adopters have learned.

• Determine need. "Take look at whether IT systems are attached to core competencies or are strategic to the organization," Gartner's Ambrose says. "An agency has to determine what the true needs of its users are."
• The per-seat cost can include desktop hardware and software, network services, help desk support and even phone services.
• Use caution when conducting total cost of ownership studies. Managers who aren't forthcoming about their true costs can throw a wrench into the entire process, Hagerty says.
• Non-IT managers also play an important role in the changeover to seat management. For example, the HUD IG's Connors, an auditor by trade, is helping his organization make the shift by coordinating the relationship between the contractor and the IG's technology staff.
• Keep users aware of how the move to seat management will affect them, says Ambrose. "You are not implementing change in a vacuum," he notes.
• Be flexible in a seat management partnership with contractors. "Hang in for the changes because this is not for sissies," says Mark Hagerty, program manager of NASA's Outsourcing Desktop Initiative contract. "You can't play the gotcha game with the contractor."