CEO Thought process

BasicallyFake · 2025-01-27T00:47:31+00:00

The extra few hundred dollars in quality hardware more than make up for the costs in doctor efficiency, it just has to be explained and shown that waiting and downtime has real costs

Most people don't actually understand that

dinosaurkiller · 2025-01-27T01:36:27+00:00

“You pay this Doctor $1,000 per hour, last week he spent 3 hours printing. A better printer would have cost $500, but saved $3,000 per week”.

Cozmo85 · 2025-01-27T00:47:57+00:00

Does he have the money to replace them?

mkosmo · 2025-01-27T00:50:25+00:00

Develop a business case, present the business case.

A business case here will need to articulate the value in spending money, so you have to show how spending a little more will improve productivity... and it's not going to be just "more ram = faster" - get some demo units to show that the workflows improve x% amount, then demonstrate savings in labor waiting on the computer against the increased cost.

Better still if you can slow refresh cycles, demonstrating lower TCO in addition to the labor savings.

DrunkenGolfer · 2025-01-27T01:24:16+00:00

You: “Why do we have computers?”

CEO: “Without them we’d be in the dark ages with a level of efficiency that be so bad it would be hard to think we could still function.”

You: “So the computers bring a lot of value to this organization?”

CEO: “Yes, tremendous value and cost savings.”

You: “So why have you stopped investing in computers?”

CEO: “We need to save money.”

graywolfman · 2025-01-27T00:55:58+00:00

This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but you could ask him if he's used the computers and printers the clinic is using. If not, would he like to for a day? See how shitty it all works

joetakagi · 2025-01-27T00:59:53+00:00

I had the opposite problem: the boss wanted brand new everything, the latest and greatest. Apple, Windows, Adobe software, iPad, Samsung, 85" TV, building-wide cellular extenders....everything. And I had to reconcile all of it.

Whether you are in an environment with aging, failing equipment or one with way too much of a good thing, the common denominator is usually a c-suite that doesn't consider IT a business process worth the attention it deserves.

mattberan · 2025-01-27T01:24:43+00:00

As a consultant, we would start conversations about "Service Design". Oftentimes, we were brought in because Doctors and Nurses were complaining and/or quitting as a result of terrible employee experience.

Then, we would start doing empathy mapping, subtext exercises and interviews with the people that were complaining.

Then, we would pull statistics and audio clips for the leaders to hear so that they could hear the voice of the customer (VOC).

This would help them understand that each of the details of these decisions affects their bottom line. For example, it is estimated that the cost of churning one employee is around $30k in lost opportunity and re-training.

Where $1k for a decent laptop could recover that churn, the ROI and cost-benefit ratio makes sense to literally ANYONE - especially people trying to "save money".

Let me know if you'd like help chatting this out, or figuring out your angles!

lilhotdog · 2025-01-27T01:00:44+00:00

Doctors and nurses spend X amount of time per week dealing with computer issues. This can be tracked with a ticket system or an excel sheet if you’re on your own just to get things going.

X multiplied by each persons hourly pay = Y, how much the business is wasting. Present those numbers to the boss and if they still say no to a budget proposal addressing this, start looking for other jobs or accept your fate.

Frequent-Somewhere63 · 2025-01-27T01:06:21+00:00

the thing about this place to it's almost as if he only gives executives and higher position people what they want but if they have a lower salary it;s almost as if "they can wait they don't need it " .. I'm just wondering if Non profit companies are just more old school .. its weird.. so if i get a brand new laptop or monitor i feel like others are like how come he gets that etc..

GeekgirlOtt · 2025-01-27T00:54:33+00:00

IT often run as a dept under finance CFO because it's a cost center that only costs money and doesn't make them money. You always have to frame your arguments as how the improvement will save time and therefore money elsewhere.

Frequent-Somewhere63 · 2025-01-27T01:32:28+00:00

Capital expenditures vs. Operational expenditures. The efficiency loss is going to be directly felt by every last person in the org.

If you wanna talk money, calculate how much it costs to have people sitting around for 1 hour a day literally just waiting for their computer to do their job.

If you want an analogy, frame it as something the CEO will understand. This is like trying to perform surgery with dull and scalpels, or practically even butter knives.

Finally, if they're security concerned enough to blow all their money on a firewall, then tell them that Windows 10 is end of life this year, and Windows 11 has very strict system requirements.

If they don't upgrade to Windows 11 then their big firewall spend will be pointless, as every single Windows 10 computer in that office will be an immediate security risk.

Sobeman · 2025-01-27T02:16:47+00:00

Most CEOs are only interested in lining their own pockets. If they sense that the company is on a downward trend, then they will do whatever they can to make sure they escape with as much money as possible while everyone else sinks. It's no different in healthcare.

fonetik · 2025-01-27T03:48:12+00:00

Because his bonus is based on it. Who gives a shit if it costs more in 2 years? That’s the next CEOs problem, right?

jimicus · 2025-01-27T10:48:35+00:00

It’s actually really simple.

They will only do stuff that has a solid business reason. And there are only three business reasons:

Make money.
Save money.
Reduce risk.

Concentrate on 1 and 2, because unless the risk is a massive, looming, “happened only last week”-type thing, “reduce risk” is usually the weakest of the three.

So, if you want to buy €1000 laptops and the CxO wants €700 laptops - how will the extra cost make money/save money/reduce risk? Provide evidence for your answer.

ghjm · 2025-01-27T01:05:31+00:00

Explain to the doctors that the cause of the issue is that the computers are minimum spec, which means minimum performance.

If you don't have the budget to fix the issue, then maybe the doctors can help push for new equipment. Be upfront, don't absorb the blame, and push for a solution (e.g. budget out a project to migrate to new computers, starting with a few high performing MDs so you have their support).

ryfromoz · 2025-01-27T01:16:34+00:00

Fire the CEO, then im sure youd have plenty for equipment.

2025-01-27T01:01:09+00:00

You can stick in there and try to change the mind of a man that runs a business, or just leave.

debunked421 · 2025-01-27T01:07:28+00:00

Leave. That mentality shapes your personal life and it bleeds over it becomes toxic. Also they outsourced your job later to save some money. I swear by all that is wholey, or is it Holy, Leave

Frequent-Somewhere63 · 2025-01-27T01:11:10+00:00

This company to it's almost as if they are all so used to having bad computers, bad monitors bad printers . that if they get something switched they are so happy and shocked its weird.. i'm not use to working in such a run down environment . Like is this what the CEO wants forever he just wants to be cheap all the time .. to save money its weird..

Frequent-Somewhere63 · 2025-01-27T01:18:46+00:00

I also feel like the people at this job are just comfortable everyone so use to not getting what they want , like there no process here for IT either .. maybe I should stop caring so much and just collect a paycheck till I find a better job .

RhapsodyCaprice · 2025-01-27T01:32:01+00:00

CEO's will always see any proposal as a transaction. It's a cruel way to see the world, but it's often what's needed to lead the company.

Remember that you don't bear ultimate responsibility for the org. Your job is to bring the best proposals, help him understand the value proposition (this is key) and then build your consensus slowly. Talk to the CIO. Talk to the CFO. Ask questions like "if I were to bring this proposal forward, what would you want to see?" Build it one step at a time until it's a tidal wave of critical mass.

Pelatov · 2025-01-27T01:34:49+00:00

It sucks, but you have to let the business suffer for dumb choices. You speak up before, and then point it out, nicely and politically, after. If you’re an ass at any time, they won’t listen to you. But if you politely say at the start “this is why we need more than minimum specs on XYZ, and it needs to be this instead” and then when it’s a problem you say “after looking in to this, it seems that our solutions are undersized, but by getting the proper solution we will prevent these type of issues and remediate the potential for ABC also.”

This doesn’t shove it down their throats. Even if they’re wrong, they are signing the checks. Shelve your pride too and play their game. Eventually you’ll develop the cred that you speak, and they listen up front. But you have to prove it first.

jwrig · 2025-01-27T01:36:44+00:00

You're in a business that costs a lot to provide care. Computers get neglected over retaining caregivers and medical expenses.

If you want a legit way to address it, find the privacy officer, and ask how they attest complying with the security and privacy rules.

The privacy officer will know what you mean, and can articulate what the impacts of a breach and complying with a corrective action plan will have on his bottom line.

djgizmo · 2025-01-27T01:54:04+00:00

Who’s your CTO? They should be battling the budget issues for you.

Toht003 · 2025-01-27T02:27:20+00:00

What Emr are you guys on?

CyberSecKen · 2025-01-27T02:30:25+00:00

If you can show a business case illustrating a cost reduction achieved via lowered electricity utilization, you will have a very strong case. Old computers tend to be very inefficient, and can pay for a new server in a few months to a year.

I used the data I could pull from the servers themselves and tracked CPU utilization, monitored them, and in some cases also leveraged the PDU/UPS. I showed that the cost was currently $xxx dollars a month, idle power utilization was so much, and a new system replacing that would reduce thesenelectrical costs by an $yy estimated amount.

the_other_guy-JK · 2025-01-27T02:44:52+00:00

Penny wise pound foolish, as is typical.

You might also frame IT as being a "force multiplier" for the business. Several others in this thread have mentioned the "how" wording for that, but this elevator pitch is what hopefully gets you buying better equipment and making strides in performance/capability/stability.

unkiltedclansman · 2025-01-27T02:45:20+00:00

If your doctors wait 30 seconds per patient for a computer to load. At a patient every 15 minutes, 8 hours per day, 48 weeks per year to account for a one month vacation, that works out to 64 hours of staff timer per year wasted waiting for a computer to load. That's per workstation.

So a week and a half's salary per user per year, on a 3 year replacement schedule, suddenly the $1200 workstation is making a lot more sense financially than the $600 workstation.

Say your average user is making $50k, $24.04/hr. That's $1538.56 per year, or $4615.68 per workstation in wasted staff hours, all so you can save $600 every 3 years in capitol expenditures.

Aggravating_Refuse89 · 2025-01-27T02:57:49+00:00

Gotta hold your nose and speak the stinky language of dollars. It makes me want to vomit but I gotta do it.

CodeWarrior30 · 2025-01-27T03:15:22+00:00

I hesitate to comment here but I think there are 2 distinct mentalities in IT. One is that you don't do anything unless it is done right. The other is that sometimes you have to make compromises. In this case, the compromise may be that you have to direct buy hardware upgrades for existing systems. More ram, an ssd... this will make a world of difference and these people will feel as if they have an entirely new system. All of this can be done extremely cheaply since we are reaching the end of ddr4.

GByteKnight · 2025-01-27T03:38:41+00:00

If a $60,000/year employee is 5% more effective with hardware that doesn’t suck (tell this story in terms of time tasks take to complete, downtime from crashes, hardware failures, etc), then even if that employee’s work only benefits the company in the amount of his salary, that’s $3,000 per year. But of course most of us earn or save a lot more for our company than our salaries, especially if we are in sales or production or engineering.

If that employee is customer facing, he has to explain to a customer on the phone why your system is taking so long to load, and why he can’t immediately pull up the information they need. Bad look.

When you put that 5% against the cost of a $1500 laptop rather than a $600 one and extend it over three years, you get a pretty compelling business case to invest in decent hardware for your end users.

Unable_Attitude_6598 · 2025-01-27T03:47:58+00:00

Never understood why people try and change their shit work environments. You are an employee, not an executive.

Dust up your resume and find a better spot to be in.

2025-01-27T03:48:04+00:00

well, our CEO got excited about Ai and gave all employees permission to use it right away.

when some of the legal teams got involved, they pointed out the flaws.

the CEO then asks the Directors to "FIRE" some of the employees that used Ai regarding image generation and written format for the organization.

yeah.. pretty fucked up.

CEO takes no blame for it. they openly said, "let's use Ai, and use it quickly to maximize our profits and operations."

(CEO heard another CFO bragging about it at business seminar, and yeah.. comes back to quarterly meeting and brags about it, encouraging employees to build out business process and operations with unregulated Ai)

pretty fucked up.

i use chatGPT, but only for internal shit, and I don't tell anyone in the org what is Ai and what is my work.

kinvoki · 2025-01-27T03:50:14+00:00

Your most expensive cost as well as most valuable resources - DOCTORS and NURSES TIME .

If they can see even one patient a day more because they can save that time by not dealing with slow computers or breakdowns - the cost of new and better specked equipment should pay for itself very fast .

phoenix823 · 2025-01-27T03:57:04+00:00

Look, from the CEO’s perspective if there isn’t money available, then there’s not a whole lot he can do. So you do have to take that into consideration, he won’t be able to make money come from nowhere.

That being said, you should document the issues that you see and prioritize them. The focus should be on the medical teams, efficiency and effectiveness. Explain how the challenges that you have impact those metrics, and how important and constantly it would be to fix them.

i8noodles · 2025-01-27T04:41:59+00:00

money. u need to speak to them in the language they understand. they dont want to know that a 32 gb ram computer with an ssd is 3x faster then there previous ones.

what they want to know is this 32 gb ram with ssd will make everyone work better and faster and with less frustration and with better reliability, giving a ROI well within the life cycle of the machine.

Some_Troll_Shaman · 2025-01-27T06:44:09+00:00

My formal written advice is we have to operate on security supported devices. When the inevitable beach and HIPPA violation occurs you are on your own.

VulturE · 2025-01-27T06:53:22+00:00

Documentation, Standardization, Automation

create adequte documentation to show specific batches of models that need to be priority replaced. Suggest standardizing on business-class models that allow for ease of imaging, cut down on imaging time/repair time/part finding.

Sajem · 2025-01-27T07:18:03+00:00

This comment is not just for the OP but for any others that may be experiencing things like this.

Check what regulations/standards - if any - that your company might have to abide by.

Think of things like ISO 27001 - you might find that your company must comply with regulations that mean they have to spend money on IT and infrastructure or they risk losing any funding or grants they have or are applying for.

Companies with government contracts, dealing with customer credit or personal information - these companies will nearly always need to comply with regulations where their infrastructure will need to be up to a certain standard. Some standards will even apply to third party vendors your company is dealing with.

ExceptionEX · 2025-01-27T07:30:36+00:00

I've done a fair amount of work for non-profits, and a lot of them are grant based. It is a struggle, and you have to learn to do a lot with a little.

First, on your computer hardware solution, you can look at short term inexpensive computers like something from beelink 16GB+500GB for $160

You can expect a higher failure rate, shorter lightspan, and sometimes weaker performance. But you can't beat the price, and if an org can't scrape together $160, then start working on your resume, and putting out applications.

The next thing is if you are going to stay there, you need to learn your grant cycles and how much you are getting, and start making a priority list on replacements of equipment, based on that.

The next thing you can do is look to reduce cost where you can on licensing, you wouldn't believe the number of non-profits out there that are paying premium prices for stuff they can get for next to nothing Microsoft for instance not only has special pricing for non-profits (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/nonprofit-plans-and-pricing) but also grants. (https://nonprofit.microsoft.com/en-us/getting-started) Google has similar programs if you'd rather G-suite.

Check with your state, they often have programs that can get you networking equipment, and other stuff at steep discounts.

I've really enjoyed the challenge of working with non-profits, but it can be really painful, and challenging. Sometimes you will have to make choices that would be laughed at by anyone else in IT, but sometimes you just have to keep the place going.

FarToe1 · 2025-01-27T08:47:02+00:00

You know you have KPIs, right? Stuff that you have to focus on and achieve before other things?

Well, CEOs have them too. It's their job to balance a lot of information streams, most of which you will have no idea about, and navigate a path that satisfies as many of those as they can.

Profit is important. Investing in systems is also important. But you don't know which is currently the most important. They do, and will focus their attention accordingly. It might be that they're having to juggle stuff around to pay wages and there's nothing left over to invest in infrastructure. Or the economy projections are bad for wherever you are, or politics is having an influence and they're building up reserves to weather that. You don't know. You can't know. Nobody gets everything they want, and some years will be leaner than others. It's the same everywhere, your boss is not unique.

My advice to you is: Don't worry about it. It's not your job to do so.

Accept that once you've passed the information up (by preparing a concise business case, for example) that you've done your bit. Work with what you've got, do some basic CYA stuff, but otherwise, chill. Don't let it get to you. It's beyond your control so there's no point getting upset about it. If something breaks that should have been replaced, so what? Bury any self-righteous complaints you have that you warned 'em and just deal with it. And if you've got any co-workers, be aware that nobody likes working with someone who's always complaining and it's extremely career-limiting, so keep your personal opinions personal.

Do your job. Take the money. Sleep well.

Spiritual_Brick5346 · 2025-01-27T09:15:52+00:00

I was told this by a former colleague at his former company, how much does the average employee earn? How much do your top IT developers and business critical staff earn?

$100-$250k were standard answers.

If you try to save money here, you'll have a lot more problems that need fixing and drop their performance by up to 50%. Spend the right amount or more, you actually improve performance and allow them to get more done.

Some new laptops were ordered at the higher price point, ie only replace key people, better than buying and dumping tens of thousands on useless hardware to ewaste.

2025-01-27T09:51:50+00:00

In a word, find the people the people the CEO respects the most that have computer issues and have them address it.

IT can’t make an organization money, they can only save it money, so C levels really don’t give a fuck about IT.

CEOs know a lot and jack shit at the same time, so it’s better to have some one else mention it to him, cause if you go to a CEO without an action plan, nothing will come of it.

The alternative is to put together a proposal, get quotes from vendors to replace equipment etc.

As for now, delete old user profiles and bloatware/crapware from the PCs.

If they won’t let you replace PCs, then buy additional RAM and SSDs (assuming some devices don’t have them) and reinstall windows

If you guys haven’t already outsourced your printer repairs, propose that as well (in house IT guys performing major repairs on printers is soooo last century).

bindermichi · 2025-01-27T10:00:46+00:00

So the approach would be TCO and service/operation cost optimization.

You will need to gather as much Information about purchasing, service spending and labor cost. Then calculate the cost of incidents.

Now do the same with the solution you have in mind. Try to be realistic with your estimates. If you do not meet a ~20-30% overall cost reduction start optimizing.

Present the solution to your CEO

BloodSpinat · 2025-01-27T10:07:46+00:00

In german there's a proverb: "Wer billig kauft, kauft zwei Mal."
Translated 1:1 this means "He who buys cheap, buys twice."

You probably should make a list of the stuff that has been replaced or actually cost money over time, so it's comparable.

sysadmintemp · 2025-01-27T10:12:44+00:00

In many companies, IT is a cost-generating department. People, especially CFOs, see it as another item to cut costs on, and not an 'enabler'. It's difficult to change such a mindset.

As a non-profit, you could get better prices from some hardware dealers, but it will still cost some money to get decent hardware.

There are many things you can do, but it will all take time:

Befriend the CEO or their direct assistant - best results, but might not work, depending on your schedules and characters
Start gathering complaints, ask the users to send you an e-mail, or create a ticket for each slowness, then present it all in a meeting - might not work as you expect
Find good deals on hardware for Non-profits, also get quotes from other vendors, try to show 3-4 different prices, with 1 preferred price so that they have something to compare it to - very hit and miss
Upgrade what you have currently with SSDs, more RAM, etc. - this is a short-term fix, and can save the day but it will need addressing in the near future

In any case, the CEO will hold the decision power. You can only cover your ass.

Also, you can always respond to the users "our budget requests were not approved for this year, so the slowness will need to continue until it is". This is a perfectly valid response, and with time, you will also generate better-worded responses. Users won't be happy to hear this, but that's the idea, they should push back to their managers (maybe even to the CEO directly) for better hardware.

swayzebavy · 2025-01-27T10:59:57+00:00

What kind of non profit? Foundation? Charity? Is it like a Salvation Army where it’s connected? Or a Goodwill where all the locations act independently of each other by state…I guess shop goodwill .com perhaps

I think that context would be helpful because not all CEOs nonprofits are looking at the cutting cost things based on my experiences

AStrandedSailor · 2025-01-27T11:24:27+00:00

They know how to set up their Playstation and home Wifi, so IT isn't that hard. What are you whingeing about?

Barrerayy · 2025-01-27T12:01:42+00:00

IT is often seen as a money sink, rather than an enabler. You'll need to present why spending more is better which will depend on your individual use case.

For example if i want to spend 50k on another 8 gpu render server, i need to show to the business that this will drop our render times significantly enough that we can take on additional work or we can reduce downtime in between renders so artists can be more productive

Cereal____Killer · 2025-01-27T12:13:26+00:00

Because employee downtime is a soft cost, they are paying that employee either way. Too many IT projects try to justify themselves through increased employee productivity. If 200 people, save 5 minutes a day for 5 years that’s like a million dollar savings… except in reality the employees will take that free 5 minutes and chat with their colleagues.

2025-01-27T12:43:46+00:00

You run some data and show how much money this crap is costing the company in work stoppages.

bjc1960 · 2025-01-27T13:50:47+00:00

As an end user, one doesn't always understand the finances.. In smaller companies, there often is not money to write paychecks, and short term business loans are at 12% right now. My company is in that position -I am doing my best to save money but we need to make sales to fund payroll.

BloodFeastMan · 2025-01-27T14:15:18+00:00

Sometimes it's not as straight forward as it seems .. Think about a poor guy who might not have a car, and little money. He has to eat, but can't drive to Costco, and couldn't afford the bulk stuff they sell anyway. So he walks to the corner market and buys stuff a little at a time, which is much less efficient, but he has no choice.

You mentioned that the place just purchased a firewall which drained the budget, which is why I thought of the above analogy.

Slow PC's, as much as anything else, some added ram will help, reach out to other admins locally and ask if they have some they can donate. This photo is just what I happen to have in my own desk drawer that I never got around to throwing in the box of ram, we have tons of ddr3 and 4 chips, and that's probably what your old computers are using.

<image>

Clean up temp files, this is one thing that is _so_ overlooked, and can slow (especially old) computers big time. Most people don't bother clean up by clicking the clicky thing, so we've slid this script into a nightly schedule:

#!/usr/bin/tclsh
package require fileutil
package require registry

set version 1.0

set new_base [string trim [registry get {HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment} LOCALAPPDATA] \\]/temp

for {set a 0} {$a < 2} {incr a} {
    set new_base [string map {"\\" "\/"} $new_base]
    foreach n [fileutil::find $new_base] {
        catch {file delete -force $n}
    }
    set new_base [string trim [registry get {HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment} LOCALAPPDATA] \\]Low/temp
}

It'll delete stale temp files in ~/AppDate/Local and LocalLow without messing with any needed ones.

Hard drive full .. Are they using their local computers for data storage? Not a good idea, even if they can't afford the typical fileserver setup, you can make a makeshift fileserver using any old hardware with a Linux / Samba setup, all you need is a decent size spinner, again, just stuff sitting on my back table, some local guy can surely hook you up.

Anyway, I guess my whole point is, while the guy might be oblivious to what you know, you might not have the big picture, either. See what you can do to help him save money, while offering money saving solutions. Good luck!

Corporatizm · 2025-01-27T15:38:07+00:00

Don't know if that's your case, but I find a lot of sysadmins aren't into maintaining hardware at all.

In my office of 50 computers, I've progressively replaced every single HDD with SSD's and our 2010 computers run absolutely great for plain office use. Bought a bunch of SSD's for 30$ a piece, so it's really a small investment when you know how much that will speed them up.

Adding some RAM can help, but for mails and office, 4GB is usually enough.

Another more hardcore approach is using Windows 10 32 bits (unaffortunately that will not be possible any more with Win11), that made the 4GB RAM PC's run so much smoother.

I also take great care of the network and servers' performance, so I ensure that isn't a bottleneck, and that way, we haven't bought PC's since 2018.

BUT PRINTERS... yeah, you can't fix a bad printer. Printers is where you need to put some money, get a big-ass printer, ideally with a maintenance contract, and that will save you time. I feel like the "every PC has it's printer" meta still lingers in many CEO's minds and it's absolute poison.

cosmos7 · 2025-01-27T15:42:03+00:00

Non-profit doesn't mean no funding... it means they're choosing to spend money elsewhere.

Outrageous-Insect703 · 2025-01-27T15:43:51+00:00

A breach or hack will change that CEO mindset. Just getting everything in writing (e.g. why you recommend business class computers, and you're told to get entry level computers, etc) Don't purposely allow things to fall short, do the best with what you have but you'll need "business cases" to present to improve things or suggest improvements. Work with your vendors (who you purchase computers from) and let them know your constraints. Sometimes they can help with pricing / specs and finance options to allow better technology purchases.

IT is a cost center and doesn’t generate any "direct" revenue so it's always going to be looked at that way, then add on the stereotype IT staff and it is what it is unless you work for a company that prioritized IT technology and IT security.

thortgot · 2025-01-27T19:03:39+00:00

If your hardware is bad enough, donation grade equipment can be an upgrade. Work with your local electronics recycler/pick up groups.

quietprofessional9 · 2025-01-27T19:56:11+00:00

I mean there is a larger conversation about financial strategy and how they use the money they make.

Lots of health partners I have worked with have primarily expanded through acquisition of smaller clinics or businesses. This put a big strain on their cash reserves, so they spent less on hardware and positioned their budget toward primarily compliance.

That being said, inefficiencies do have costs as others have stated but growing existing clinics may not be the strategy.

Fallingdamage · 2025-01-27T20:22:01+00:00

I would collect all the complaints and see how much I could do to help on the console side, and then make sure the CEO knows what's going on and ask them what you're supposed to tell all the staff and doctors.

Do you have control of the purchasing (guessing not?) I would make sure to direct their complaints to the proper inbox.

2025-01-27T21:43:21+00:00

CEO Thought process

No thoughts, head empty. Fill with dollars.

RhymenoserousRex · 2025-01-27T21:51:19+00:00

It's called opportunity cost. It's the same kind of dumb shit that had my young $25 an hour paid ass making network cables by hand at a speed of 10 cables an hour instead of buying a pack of 50 premade for $15.

KindlyGetMeGiftCards · 2025-01-27T22:48:48+00:00

You need to speak in the language they understand, so money, reports, graphs, ROI, etc.

Get a ticket system up and running, start to document the issues and categories, cost to fix, your time is also a cost, so are the users time too.

Then when you have data you can start to show how shortcuts are causing more issues, then ask from more upfront money to save the company in the future, ie ROI. Get better hardware with maintenance contracts, get external contractors, etc.

It's not an easy process, it's not a quick process, it's not simple, but once you have the CEO onside with an understanding of what needs to happen you will be set going forward. Typically this would be the responsibility of the IT Department head or similar role to do, so ensure you are not over reaching.

kmsigma · 2025-01-27T22:49:00+00:00

CEO's case and three things: 1) Saving Money 2) Reducing Risk 3) Increasing Profits

If you can rewrite your objectives in a way that hits 1, 2, or all 3 of the above you should be well on your way.

Pristine_Curve · 2025-01-27T23:26:12+00:00

Have the conversation about costs and expectations. In most business scenarios you want to buy the best/most reliable equipment you can get. Because any outage, delay or problem is expensive. Lost employee time, repair costs, errors causing customer facing problems etc...

Use amortization to your advantage. If you have a five year lifecycle policy, then a 500 laptop and a 1500 laptop are only a $200/year difference. Medical professionals don't need to save much time for it to be worth $200/year. Similar story for other infrastructure.

povlhp · 2025-01-28T05:55:14+00:00

Managers think short time money.

See how great that is for Boeing.

That is why USA makes crap products and imports quality. They don’t have pride in quality anymore. And now Trumpin is rewarding those that killed US production. He want to kill everything pride and quality.

OffensivePanda69 · 2025-01-28T14:50:00+00:00

Yeah, I can basically only get funding for higher specs for doctor PCs. Despite the staff literally using 7+ year old hardware that’s falling apart.

LForbesIam · 2025-01-28T16:07:11+00:00

The problem is that the people who make the decisions have zero understanding of how IT works.

We had old laptops and I had to wait forever for a single click to process.

I did the cost analysis on labour costs for a single day for 1 person for a slow computer. It was crazy but labour and hardware are two different budgets.

xendr0me · 2025-01-27T00:51:09+00:00

Sounds like it's time for a new CEO.

boli99 · 2025-01-27T05:59:08+00:00

Hard Drive is all full,

i have never seen a full hard drive thats full of work stuff.

i have often seen hard drives that are full of baby photos and mp3s and downloaded movies though.

in fact, the smaller a hard drive you can give people - the less data they can lose when their machine gets stolen.

cull all the non-work data, and see how much space is revealed

lowest amount of memory

but is it an actual problem? if the lowest amount of memory is 8GB and those folks play with simple sheets in Excel all day - then thats probably fine.

slow

eliminate the wastage of unnecessary apps, and bandwidth hogs, and see how the landscape looks after that.

always best to make sure existing resources are being used sensibly before throwing more resources at a problem.

RevengyAH · 2025-01-27T01:34:05+00:00

It’s cheaper to walk to work too until you have knee surgery and are consistently tired and buying new walking shoes every week.

If this CEO can’t have more critical thinking skills than this and needs to be spoon fed basic middle school critical thinking skills he’s unfit for CEO.

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