You do the arithmetic: at just four hours to set up a workstation from start to finish - 11,213 Dells will require 44,852 man hours to remove the old existing computers and take them to central storage areas, set up the new computers including being moved on carts from central areas, unpacking from boxes, removing packing materials, simply setting them up on desks, crawling underneath to plug in all the wiring etc., etc.
44,852 man hours over eight hour days (not including weekends) would require one man 28 years. To bring this in line with the schedule would require multiplying the number or workers by 28, and to make it happen in a single year, and then by six to make it happen in two months. Meaning it would take 168 qualified networking roll-out technicians experienced with Vista, working eight hours a day five days a week two full months to complete this job. That's not going to happen in Hernando.
Brooksville Computer Network Solutions worked on a similar project rolling out just 3,000 new Dell computers for an education facility located in seven different areas of NYC. Besides the Dell support team sent in to initiate the roll-out, fourteen full time technicians needed to be employed to perform the duties associated with initial setup, upgrades, program loading, hardware troubleshooting (some broken hardware is always inevitable on new machines arriving in that quantity that got past the quality check at the factory), migration of user accounts and setting up security, specialized software installation and troubleshooting for compatibility issues as well as maintaining the existing old machines that were obsolete - but still had to function until the new computers could take their place. Domain issues were also involved and setting up logins and passwords, all had to be done - and this will be the case in Hernando as well for up to the next four or five years - the positions created may therefore last for as long as six years, not, as the article predicts, two months. The roll-out of the 3,000 Dells at CWE.ORG required approximately one and a half years completing.
Anyone interested in putting in an application should do so now with the Hernando County school system or with Human Resources.
This is a GREAT OPPORTUNITY to anyone wanting to break into IT / MIS who has just graduated from a technical school or gotten a degree in computer science. Dell will give further training to any A+ certified person so you can earn your DELL certified service technician certification as well - you MUST be A+ certified already to qualify for Dell certification training by Dell.
Your job will include working on up to 40 computers at a time in a "round robin" fashion, moving from machine to machine in a circle around a classroom environment and installing software, patches and performing various and multiple network functions and installations from central servers, and connecting to and installing multiple network printers including IP printer port configurations. This is invaluable experience because of the high volume work you will be doing - gaining the equivalent of years of high volume technical experience for each single year you work.
You will be seeing and solving a high volume of multiple problems, as well as be dealing with maintaining legacy computers existing on the present network as you keep the old network working until the new one can be put in place.
I strongly advise anyone interested in a career in computers and networking to take advantage of this opportunity at any rate of pay offered - even if it seems to be lower than you would like to receive, or that you believe you deserve at your education level. I also strongly advise that you study for further certifications while you work, and when you are laid off after the completion of the rollout, that you be ready to look for new high paying work afterwards with your new qualifications and strong experience.
Best regards,
David Curtis - Owner
Brooksville Computer Network Solutions