Re: Business Benchmarking

I found this group very helpful asI too am bamboozeled by benchmarks
and never knew what they meant. I found David Dicks' book PC Support
very helpful - this can be obtained from bookshops or via the
Internet. There are also several other good books out there for anyone
who is interested.
Eric Sosman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Clint Tevlin wrote:
> > 
> > The problem: corporate PC's, network and servers are archaic, need to be
> > upgraded.
> > 
> > Applications are MS Office 97, AutoCAD, Lotus Notes on Windows NT 4.0.
> > 
> > The aim: find a free benchmarking tool to show upstairs just how bad
> > things are!
> 
>     Why use a benchmark, an imitation of reality, when you've
> got the reality right there and available for measurement?
> You've got a crop of (presumably) unhappy users, actual real-
> live users drawing actual real-live salaries and wasting
> actual real-live time waiting for your pokey old system to
> respond.  Do some measurements, make some calculations, and
> go "upstairs" with proof that umpty-ump percent of the workers'
> time (and the cash that pays for it) is flat-out wasted.  That,
> in my experience, will be a more compelling argument than a
> report showing that the system runs a mere eighteen-point-six
> FoobarMarks.
> 
>     Where benchmarking *might* enter the picture is at the
> next stage, once "upstairs" is convinced the situation needs
> improvement and starts the process of choosing replacements.
> (ObPlug: Sun servers RULE!)