What We Didn't Put on the Quote
We found a network closet that badly needed replacing, and then left it off the quote. Here's why that was the right call.
Written by Shimon Goldner
We were at a new customer's office, replacing computers that were six to ten years old. The monitors were from around the same era, so we swapped those for 2K panels while we were there.
What we found in the closet
While we were there, we looked at the network closet. It was old. Not "needs a refresh" old. Decades old, with the whole office running through an unmanaged desktop switch that belongs under someone's TV, not in a business.
That's a real problem, and fixing it is exactly what we do.
We left it off the quote.
Why we left it off
The reason is simple. They're planning to renovate. Anything we install today gets ripped out and thrown away when the walls come down. Selling them a proper switch, proper cabling, and a proper rack right now would mean charging them for work with a short shelf life, and then charging them again to do it right the second time.
So the quote covers the computers and monitors they need today, and the network stays on the list for when the renovation happens. That's when it's worth doing, and that's when it'll last.
An IT company should be able to tell you when not to spend money.
If everything your provider finds is urgent, and everything urgent happens to be something they sell, that's worth noticing.