Hello, I'm in a similar boat as Bill Vera, who is the lone IT guy at a large non(for)profit. I have a couple suggestions that he might find helpful for saving money. There is an organization that can help provide software REALLY cheap. www.giftsinkind.com -- if he qualifies he can get licencing really cheaply on MS software and even some cheap PCs and laptops. The catalog actually lists 486's as "donated computers" but someone told me they got a batch of "low-end" P233s. Plenty for Win98 or even ME.. if they have 64MB. Also, www.ccbnonprofits.com can help with inexpensive licensing. I don't know what kind of budget this guy has, but having a single desktop OS would surely make things easier in the long run. A good server-side antivirus solution wouldn't hurt -- like Norton Enterprise. Install on all PCs and the server takes care of (most) of the rest. Also... as part of the nonprofit thing, most people aren't well paid. I worked out a deal with the boss where we buy bulk passes for computer training, and send the workers off. As a "perk" we send employees off to computer school to learn advanced MS Office techniques. They get wallpaper and, in turn, can answer some of the simpler questions the IT guy ("me") would otherwise have to answer. www.giftsinkind.com have decent pricing on bulk class purchases. Maybe this is helpful. Great website, by the way! -jeremy Jeremy, Thanks for writing. I’m sure that Bill will find this very helpful. LIkewise, anyone who works for non-profits in IT can certainly benefit from your comments. Eric Svetcov
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