PC Maitenance- Is it really needed?

feature from: Dominion Post, Waikato Times, Christchurch Press APRIL 2007

"PC maintenance” - an often dreaded term that causes a lot of business owners to ask: Should I be doing it? What is it? Why do it? How much should it cost me?

These are all very good questions, and ones that should be asked of your own IT supplier. Firstly, regardless of whether you lease or own your PC’s, each has a timeline of approx three years. After three years it will generally cost you more in terms of repairs, updates and productivity than it would to purchase or lease a newer model. The only exception to this is the terminal based systems, for example those used in banks, which can last for 10 or more years.

You know you’ve only got one body. Take for example the person who decides early in life that they enjoy smoking, drinking, fast food, no exercise, watching a lot of TV and reading gossip magazines. Now, the performance of that body in any situation is going to be poor, get worse and probably cease around 50 years of age. The information coming out of that body will also be rubbish.

If we then take that same person, feed them nutritious food and vitamins, and give them a regular exercise regime, yearly doctors check-ups and continual up-skilling; it would be fair to say that they would perform better and that their date of cessation would be around 75 years. The quality of information being produced by that person would also be much higher.

The situation is much the same for your PC. Now we all know cases of the heavy smoker living until they are 80 and the lifetime exerciser dropping dead of a heart attack at 45. Similarly I have seen $4000 PC’s blue-screen after eight months and I have walked into new sites and seen Windows 3.1 based 486’s, that Te Papa would pay good money for, working like new!

However it’s all about the averages and the averages suggest that preventative maintenance and care will increase the lifetime and performance of your body and that of your PC.

So what does preventative maintenance entail? Basically, PC Maintenance involves all or some of the following: 

·         The removal of internet based clutter, including the   deletion of temporary internet files, cookies and internet history.

·         Identification and resolution of registry errors, defragmentation of HDD and repair of any HDD errors. 

·         Optimisation of settings to gain maximum speed and stability. In human terms, this is equivalent to condensing 12 months of daily workouts into one session.

·         Removal of spyware and malware and resolution of any security vulnerability. Think of this as  

·         Full anti-virus scan and any applicable software updates.

·         The backup of critical information and removal or archiving of old files.  

If PC’s are a key part of your business infrastructure, then preventative maintenance is crucial. Otherwise, it’s like sitting on the sofa, eating burgers and watching Sky 1.

How much should it cost? If you are paying a technician to complete this work regularly, then 30 min every six to eight weeks per PC is about right. If you want to do it once every six months, then expect the bill to be a lot higher. And if you want to wait until breakdown, then expect higher still. 

Regular PC maintenance should be included in your IT budget for each year and your suppliers should be helping you to understand these costs going forward so they are already foreseen.

So don’t let your PC’s become super-sized with rubbish, get them running as efficiently as you do with the other aspects of your business and take pleasure in the results

Patrick Kershaw is a Business Partner for Horizon Pacific, a nationwide technology support provider specialising in assisting SME’s with all their technology requirements. For further information, go to www.horizonpacific.com