Quality Equipment = Quality Experience

I don’t get to play golf as much as I would like, but you wouldn’t know it from all the golf shirts in my closet.  My wife is incredibly organized and errs on the side of minimalism. As a result, she really takes exception to the fact that I have so many shirts and she takes every opportunity that she can to get me to purge a few of them. In particular, she’s after one light purple “Polo” branded golf shirt that I’ve owned since college. The shirt’s in great shape but it’s age and the fact that I have so many newer, wife approved shirts places it in my wife crosshairs every time she gets an urge to spring clean the closet.

Problem is that I’m pretty partial to the shirt. Back in college I didn’t have a lot of money. So when my mother purchased the shirt for me I knew I had a quality item. Of course, I never would’ve dreamed that the shirt would’ve lasted as long as it has.

I usually tell my wife I can’t give the shirt away because, "I just look to good in it .”  Then she rolls her eyes and tells me, "get over yourself."  She’s right, it’s all too true that I feel like I look good in the shirt, but I think the real reason I keep the shirt around is because it’s a reminder of the quality of buying quality.

Similarly, there’s a lot of technology out there and just like golf shirts, tech comes in varying degrees of quality. Sometimes the technology is so important that it’s really hard to justify purchasing the most "economical" option. Yes, servers from reputable manufacturers such as HP cost more, but the data and software applications that reside on servers are vital.   If something were to go wrong HP has a pretty deep bench and resources that can be brought to bear to correct an issue. The risk of using a lesser-known manufacturer really outweighs any cost savings.

But sometimes the cost to quality trade-off is less cut and dry. Wireless networks for example are often targeted for cost-cutting. It makes sense, wireless networks are a more recent addition to corporate local area networks.  As such, I think they still carry the stigma of being considered optional or add-on.   Early on this may have been the case but now more and more of us have multiple devices that use a wireless Internet connection.  That means that the equipment managing the wireless network has to be more powerful and it has to be smarter and that means it’s going to be more expensive.

At Endsight, each of our clients is assigned a Technical Account Manager or TAM.  One of the TAM’s primary functions is to identify key areas of weakness or inefficiency in the computing environment and to make recommendations to address those areas. Part of the TAM’s analysis includes evaluating and comparing technology options. Endsight’s  Network Operations Team is also continually evaluating new hardware and software that can be safely and reliably deployed across the client base.

Sometimes we end up standardizing on one of the more expensive platforms and sometimes not. More often we find that the most valuable solution (the one that will provide the most "de-hassled" end-user computing experience) isn’t necessarily the most expensive solution. But because were looking for the most quality solution, most of the “economical” technology is rarely the right choice.

Adam Camacho, one of our TAMs, forwarded the included link:   This article by William Van Winkle, details the findings from a wireless performance test that his team conducted.   Adam included this as part of the due diligence he was conducting for one of his clients.

If you feel like it might be helpful to work with a partner that can bring recommendations based on research and analysis of what’s happening on your network, click here and lets schedule a time to meet in person.