Lack of a UPS = Frustration

[Igore]

hi all, i am new here so please forgive me if this is in the wrong forum but here goes -

the power has just gone out for the 4th time today...so i have lost most of the day's work dispite frequent save's and what not. my boss (who clams to be a good businessman) refuses to see my point that a UPS with save our hardware and alot of work/time. i have searched but can't seem to find any non-manufacurer/vender spcific data that could prove my arguement. i know that they help. we all know that they help. i have one at home. that's how much i beleive in protecting my data/hardware. but he sign's the check so he is the one that needs to be convinced. he is rather a tightwad (sp?) so getting money out him for anything is hard as heck. so i thought him being a "business man" and that he would understand numbers. ie. loss of work or redo work = time = money. verbal arguements have failed. so i guess my question: can anyone point me in the right direction or have a link to some sort of research (preferably credable althought at this point i'll settle for anything)??

thankx in advance for any help.

ig

p.s. again, sorry if this is in the wrong forum....

 

[Igore]

*bump*

 

[MichaelD]

Yes, you're in the right forum. Hmm. I don't know of any non-vendor sites that show the benefits of a UPS, sorry.

Do you work for a small privately owned business? Your boss sounds like a member of the "older generation", which is very resistant to those "damn computer things". He prolly already spent $320 on the P166 he lets you work on....am I close?

I'm sure you already know that there are basically two types of UPSs. Voltage regulating and non-voltage regulating. Both provide battery backup time in case of main power failure, but only the voltage regulating (VR) boosts or retards the incoming line voltage to provide a computer-friendly 120v. It also filters out whatever EMF or line static that may be present.

Hopefully, more folks post, then you can print out the whole thread, roll it like a newspaper, and beat your boss about the face and head w/it! Good luck.

 

[Igore]

MichaelD

to answer your questions:

yes i do work for a small company (about 20 ppl). and yes you hit the nail squarely on the head about my boss. and actually i have a pII 400 (or something close). and all of us (2.5 of us that is) in the drafting dept. had to fight tooth an nail to get that much. ever do cad and photo editing on a sorta slow machine? its a pain...but i digress.

and yes i do know a little about the types of ups and so forth. i have been researching this topic alot here lately. (i know just enough about computers to be "dangerous&quot.

side note: the only reason i am looking for non-vender specific data is b/c my "older generation" boss thinks the stuff i have showed him so far reads like a "sales pitch" and not "concrete facts". go figure.

thanx

ig

 

[Windogg]

Hell, I can provide dozens of testemonials about the importance of UPSes. The best way to pursuade your boss is to talk in their language. Managers love fully calculated cost-benefit analysis and usually will not budge without lots of line graphs showing fixed costs, variable costs, payback period, deperciation tables, worst case scenarios, etc. Put it all into a Powerpoint presentation. These people seem to love text appearing on nice backgrounds.

For example, a power outage lasts 10 minutes but it takes at least one hour get each employee back up and running at the last place they were at. So if there are 10 employees, it equals 10 man/woman-hours in immediate lost productivity. If this happens once every 2 months, it equals 60 hours lost per year or 6 hours per person. A decent APC BackUPS Pro office costs about $85 - $100 with enough juice to allow for a proper shutdown or even plow through a short outage. The total investment of $1000 (worst case scenario) divided by 60 hours lost per year equal $16.67 per hour. Then you must show the average pay rate per hour plus benefits (important)and taxes. Also make assumptions that some overtime will be involved for hourly workers at a higher pay rate.

Have a spreadsheet prepared with a "drivers" sheet. Any changes to a variety of cost drivers will then be modified on the subsequent sheets. One sheet could be breakeven, another could be cost per hour of downtime, and another could have charts.

I know it will be hard but keep all of the above to a 5 - 10 minute presentation. Whether they truly are busy or not, managers have the attention span of a 4 year old.

Good luck.

Windogg

 

[Helznicht]

"ever do cad and photo editing on a sorta slow machine"

Hehehe, yes, I used to cadd 11 years ago, and yes, cad on a 486 with a math co-proccessor (you could watch it draw the lines on a refresh, really).

"I know just enough about computers to be "dangerous"."

I will say most cadd techs do. The hardest job I ever did was to be a cadd/IT tech running 8 cadd stations on a Novel Network just for this reason.

Well you not getting the backups any time soon IMO. Starting today, keep track of all downtime and redraw associated with power surges and outages (especially OVERTIME to meet deadlines because of power outages) for all your cadd techs. After a couple of months compile the hours into dollars and include that data with your "sales pitch".

BUT be aware that most (affordable, ~$300) batt backup units will only give your system power for 15-20 minutes, So if your power goes out for several hours, dont include all of that in your cost estimate. Otherwise when you do have that power outage after you have your backups, 30 minutes later when the Boss comes in, he wont be wondering why all his cadd techs are arm wrestling on the desks (long story )

Good Luck

 

[NesuD]

It is a fact that the cleaner and more consistant the power supplied to a pc the more reliably it runs. Simple logic supports this fact. The electronics in a pc are very sensitive components so anything you can do to stabilize the power source is a worthwhile benefit. Occasionaly we will have days here with several momentary power outages. From a productivity point of view the ups is a definate + as even during these momentary outages I never miss a beat and never lose my data. Another point to make is that a decent quality ups is far and away the best way to protect your pc from surge damage which can be come extremely expensive in the cost of repairs or replacement not to mention the possibility of lost data. I have a friend who works in a Gateway repair department. He related an experience one of their customers had with a surge event. Apparently some construction was going on near this persons home and a utility pole was inadvertantly knocked down causing the 2 tranformers on the pole to catch fire. The resulting surge burned out every electrical appliance in the building. Refridgerators, Televisions, stereos, Microwaves, everything with any electronics was shot including surge protectors and a lone ups unit that was being used to protect the pc. Well they brought the ups and the pc into the gateway repair dept to get them evaluated and when the techs checked the ups it was a total loss visibly burned and melted case is pretty bad. They then checked the pc and to everyones surprise it still worked perfectly they ran it for over a week just to be sure and could not find any damage at all. Considering the condition of the ups that was very surprising but there it was right in front of them. The techs said that no way would a simple surge protector have been able to protect the pc from that kind of surge. So there it is while the ups was a total loss it did it's job and saved a $2000 loss on the system. This combined with the battery backup features and the power filtering features seems to definatly make a ups one of those indispensible must haves for every pc. Make all these points to your boss and if it doesn't convince him have him call any pc manufacturer and ask them their opinion.

 

[Igore]

thanx gent's and lady

the presatation thing sounds like a good idea too... my boss seems to be a sucker for pretty charts and graphs. anyways, thanx again. i'll see what i can put together and maybe pitch it him next week...

ig

 

[MichaelD]

Good luck. All replies (except mine....it was early...no coffee in me) were excellently worded and to the point. Build a little presentation and hit him with it. Figuratively, not literally, of course