Planning a standard desktop means understanding your users' desktop computing needs. This requires some effort to assess the capabilities you will need from a standard desktop. Remember, also, that a standard desktop must meet the needs of its most demanding users so that the same design can be deployed on all desktops once desktop standards are adopted. This is a "highest-common-denominator" approach, but one that is well suited to accommodate future growth and requirements -- today's power users are usually tomorrow's "average Janes and Joes." Ultimately, assessing needs and determining solutions requires you to answer various important "how much," "what kind," and "how many" questions. These questions must be answered for each individual user job role or responsibility you plan to support on the desktop -- this means that your organization might need to compile separate sets of answers for clerical staff, help desk workers, administrators, managers, accountants, and so forth. - What operating system will be standard for the desktop? What does this say about processor, memory, and disk requirements? Additional peripheral and interface requirements?
- What kinds of applications does the user run? What does this say about processor, memory, and disk requirements?
- What kinds of graphical display do applications and job roles require? (Use this to establish display size, color handling, and graphics interface requirements.)
- How much hard disk space does data require, now and in the future? (Always buy at least twice as much space as current needs dictate to leave room for growth.)
- What kind of network interface card will you need for each desktop? (Scheduled plans to upgrade from 10BaseT to 100BaseT within the desktop's useful life may help justify purchase of 10/100 interfaces, for example.)
- What kinds of peripheral devices do applications and job roles require? (Potential answers include floppy drives, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM players or burners, and PC Card ports).
- What kind of desktop management tools do your users need? What kinds of remote control or monitoring capabilities will your help desk staff and system or network administrators require? (The former helps to keep desktops properly configured and up and running; the latter helps you to deliver the best possible services to your end users, and helps you measure how well their systems are working).
- Will you need help in building and deploying desktops?
- What kinds of maintenance or support contracts will your desktops require?
- How many spare units make sense for your user population? (At least one is always a good idea, and enough to provide a loaner for each site or department is even better.) Don't forget to plan for growth, including new hires, consultants, and temps.
Even if you don't know where to start getting answers for these questions, the next section will guide you through an analysis of the capabilities your desktops must support; this process will help lead you to the right answer. Once you have formulated the broad outlines of the kind of solution you want, you can work with a reseller or a consultant, and use the tools on hp.com to help you convert your initial ideas into a more detailed standard desktop specification. (You'll find more on these topics in the Use It section later in this guide.)
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