Help me make a BUSINESS case for switching

[agentphish]

Sorry for the longish post, but please help me out...

So, I'm a graphic designer at a job where unfortunately PC's are used company wide because it's a corporate environment.

I just left an advertising firm which was all Mac, for this job about 3 weeks ago. I also use Mac at home for all of my freelance work.

I knew going into it that I was going to have to use a PC to design. I hate doing it, but I love the job. It's very interesting, pays more, and is far less stress than the advertising firm.

Anyways, I'll finally get to it... I know that one underlying reason I was hired is to assist the lead Designer in getting the company to switch the "marketing dept." (where I work) to Macs. There are only 4 of us and essentially we need to make a good "business case" as to why switching to macs would be better for us and worth it for the company.

I am looking for your creative ideas as to the types of things I can say on paper, the outside the box stuff that is really going to make them say...wow, you're right.

So from here I leave it to you. Fire away.

Thank you!

 

[mad jew]

Cost.

Macs generally last longer in the business world and therefore don't require replacement costs as frequently.
Macs have a lot of bundled software and features that would cost extra if implemented or required on a PC.
Macs do not have the security risks of PCs and therefore do not need the security apps and licences.

 

[Blue Velvet]

I'm going to come at it from the opposite angle, from someone who has been battling to get our organisation to integrate the Macs into the IT infrastructure with little success, leading me to end up supporting them, spending valuable time which could be spent designing when I'm troubleshooting network problems, for instance.

The business case isn't so clear-cut. IT will need training, they will probably insist on anti-virus/malware software being on the machines, corporate fonts and licences may need to repurchased, there's very little that comes on the MacPros that's of use in a professional design environment, how will they manage backups etc.

The biggest pro is recruitment as it's far easier to hire design talent accustomed to working on a Mac than a PC. It's really difficult to make solid business cases to IT teams and non-technical budget-holders about the ease of setting up and maintaining a color-calibrated workflow on Mac networks, for instance.

What kind of work do you specifically do?

 

[Eidorian]

I'm going to come at it from the opposite angle, from someone who has been battling to get our organisation to integrate the Macs into the IT infrastructure with little success, leading me to end up supporting them, spending valuable time which could be spent designing when I'm troubleshooting network problems, for instance.

The business case isn't so clear-cut. IT will need training, they will probably insist on anti-virus/malware software being on the machines, corporate fonts and licences may need to repurchased, there's very little that comes on the MacPros that's of use in a professional design environment, how will they manage backups etc.

The biggest pro is recruitment as it's far easier to hire design talent accustomed to working on a Mac than a PC. It's really difficult to make solid business cases to IT teams and non-technical budget-holders about the ease of setting up and maintaining a color-calibrated workflow on Mac networks, for instance.

What kind of work do you specifically do?

I have to agree with Blue Velvet.

Interoperability is much nicer in Leopard (esp. Server) with pre-existing services. You're still going to have to go through integrating OS X into the existing structure (not just technology and the back-end)

I'd like to help more as well but I don't know what software you use either.

Take in mind that we do want to help but we can't make your business case for you and tossing out ideas isn't going to stand on its own.

 

[sbb155]

take it from someone who tried....
BAD idea...
Mac is awful corporate choice.

MS office is not 100% interoperable...
Just wait until your word or excel file is messed up on the PC of your boss since you did it on a mac
VPN can have glitches
lastly, dont even get me started on powerpoint files

I design on a mac, but I "work" on a PC

I use both, but all corporate works goes through a PC
I value my job and my future.

 

[nsbio]

Shouldn't it be fairly seamless to have a couple of Mac machines in the Windows environment if it is really necessary? That should not be a problem.

The biggest headache (financially) is having to repurchase software licenses. If money is an issue, I would stick with PCs. There might not be a business reason to switch to a Mac for you, unless you prove that a Mac computer is necessary due to a particular piece of software. Are there any software titles that you are used to using on a Mac that are not available on the PC side?

 

[agentphish]

I appreciate all the comments so far.

Let me enlighten you all to the situation a bit further... Sorry for the lengthiness here.

As far as the IT goes, I really think it wouldn't be a problem...Here's why, the company has several offices, some of which are in the UK...The UK marketing team, is, and has always been on Macs.

The IT personnel here in the US actually have to support them when they have issues. So not a big deal from an IT standpoint I don't THINK...There is supposedly only ONE IT person at the UK office, whereas we have like 8 in the states. Additionally, i have not experienced any network problems in the last 2 places I worked (both agencies) between macs and PC servers that we had. I was on PC servers all day every day because thats where all of our network storage was.

We don't use Entourage or an Exchange server...Oh no, it's much worse than that...Lotus Notes, which does have a mac version, and from what i understand from my UK counterparts, is identical to that on the PC. So again, already supported.

I have to disagree with sbb155 about MS Office...I have done MANY things for my superiors in office in my previous 2 positions (on mac) and have not had problems as far as office goes. Additionally, don't forget, if necessary Parallels could be installed to run office (but we really don't do anything with the office suite except open word documents that people send us, we don't send any sort of office docs to anyone else within the company)

As far as what we specifically use, it's basically CS3, and Quark (for some older stuff that's not been redone in indesign yet)... But for example it PAINS me when I am working on the 3.2ghz P4 "Extreme" processor PC I have w/ 3gb of ram and it takes 15 minutes to make a "smallest file size" PDF of a 35 page brochure/catalog.

I brought my 1.5ghz powerbook g4 in and made the same PDF in under 4 minutes. CS2/CS3 just doesn't seem to run nearly as well on a PC either...I have ran both on this powerbook and it runs much faster/smoother than the PC i'm working on at the office.

The business really hasn't got many fonts, so i'm stuck with the general crap ones that windows/adobe provides. So "buying" font's is no big deal...Along those lines, font management in windows is a freakin nightmare, and extensis is the only game in town for PC that's 1/2 way decent and it sucks on PC even more than it does on Mac.

Please continue

 

[MacAficionado]

client access fees = overlooked

One thing that is overlooked is the difference in client access fees for Mac OS X server and client and Windows. You may end up switching the entire company to Macs if you explain the cost of a Windows environment vs the Mac.

 

[nsbio]

Please continue

Just make a move and go buy the bloody things