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Saint-Tite

IT services in Saint-Tite: replace workstations before they fail

A computer gives no warning. It slows down for months, then one morning it will not start, and the person at the counter is left waiting. From Trois-Rivières, about 65 km from Saint-Tite, OKTO Solutions proposes the opposite: count the fleet, track the age of each device and spread replacements from one year to the next.

Have your fleet counted The three-year plan
Technician on one knee holding a new laptop and a new tower, in front of an old cracked monitor headed for recycling

In Saint-Tite, OKTO Solutions offers SMBs life cycle tracking for their fleet: an inventory of workstations, servers and network equipment with their age and end-of-support dates, then a replacement schedule spread over three years, with spending split by year. Trips leave from Trois-Rivières, about 65 km away.

In Saint-Tite, who plans workstation replacement for a small business?

In Saint-Tite as elsewhere, many small businesses replace a computer on the day it dies, with everything a rush brings along: a lost day, a hurried purchase, files to recover. OKTO Solutions offers its services to SMBs in Saint-Tite from its office in Trois-Rivières, about 65 km away, and treats replacement as scheduled work. It all starts with the inventory: the real list of workstations, servers, network equipment and software, with their age, their vendor end-of-support date and their condition. Replacements are then placed across three years, so the fleet stops aging, and being paid for, in a single year. Spending is split by year, with recurring costs kept apart from one-time investments. This plan belongs to the vCIO module, which is added on top of a main plan. OKTO has no office in Saint-Tite: in this sector, the on-site visit is planned and the work is grouped.

Without a plan

What happens when you wait for a failure to change a workstation?

The story repeats from one office to the next. The tower at the counter is past its prime, its warranty has run out, and everyone knows it is slow. One morning the screen stays black. The person who uses it can no longer invoice or answer customers.

What follows is decided on the run. You buy the device that is in stock instead of the one that fits. You find out some files lived on that disk and nowhere else. And the expense lands in a month when nobody expected it.

A failure seldom comes alone. A business that equipped its people in the same year sees its machines wear out at the same pace: the first one to quit announces the next ones.

Faced with an old workstation that is down, we weigh four things before reaching for tools: its age, its warranty, its performance and the cost of the repair. Often the honest answer is to replace it instead of sinking hours into it.

A replacement made after the failure: the 2018 tower no longer boots, it leaves the fleet and the new workstation joins it.

IT support Managed IT services

The starting point

What should a fleet inventory record?

You cannot plan what you have not counted. The inventory fits on a page, and it is often the first time management sees the whole fleet.

What is recordedWhat it lets you decide
The age of each workstation, server and network deviceWhich devices go first on the schedule
The vendor’s end-of-support dateWhen a system will stop receiving patches
The end of the warrantyWhether a repair is still worth it
Condition and performanceWhat is already slowing work down today
Licences and active contractsThe renewals to put in the budget
The forgotten machines. Among the typical findings of an audit: machines missing from the official inventory. The physical count, done on site, is one of the reasons we travel. The rest is described on the page for our cybersecurity audit for SMBs.

The schedule

How do you spread fleet replacement over three years?

By deciding ahead of time how many devices change each year. Three years is roughly one fleet refresh cycle in a small business, and it is the horizon past which forecasts lose their value.

Each device gets a priority based on its effect on the work and its risk, then a year. The accounting workstation whose system is nearing end of support goes before the spare laptop. Replacements are spread out on purpose to smooth the spending.

The budget follows the same breakdown: one figure per year, with what comes back all the time on one side and the one-time investment on the other. Management knows next year’s number before the fiscal year begins. No amount appears here, because they are worked out with you from your actual fleet.

The plan moves. It is reviewed at every strategic meeting of the vCIO module, held twice a year or quarterly depending on the level chosen.

Spending placed across three fiscal years: the workstation life cycle, licence renewals and projects, each in its own year.

Three-year IT master plan vCIO module

Replacement day

How does a scheduled replacement go in Saint-Tite?

A replacement that is on the schedule is nothing like an emergency. It follows four steps.

  1. The workstation is prepared at the office. In Trois-Rivières it is patched, encrypted and joined to your directory before it hits the road.
  2. The visit is planned. For Saint-Tite the work is grouped: several workstations change in the same trip instead of one at a time.
  3. The workstation is plugged in, then checked. We go over it with the person to confirm nothing is missing: the printer, the shared folders, email.
  4. The inventory is corrected. The old device is taken off it and the new one is entered. The list stays true for the next review.
Between two waves, the follow-up continues. Equipment nearing end of life is checked during planned maintenance, and the monthly report carries a line on what has to be replaced.

The ground

Saint-Tite, about 65 km from our office

Saint-Tite is the seat of the Mékinac regional county municipality, in Mauricie. Routes 153 and 159 run through the town.

In our Mauricie table, Saint-Tite shares its line with Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade: about 65 km, a planned visit, work grouped. Nobody on the team is stationed in Saint-Tite and we rent no premises there. Monitoring, patching and everyday support are done remotely.

Fleet inventory and equipment life cycle tracking are included in our managed IT services. The master plan belongs to the vCIO module, and the Complet plan includes one, roadmap and all. Both are compared on the our packages page. The rest of the region is described on the IT services in Mauricie page, and the whole territory on the service areas page. To have your fleet counted, write to us through the contact page.

Nearby areas

IT services in Shawinigan IT services in La-Tuque All service areas

Questions and answers

Your questions about replacing workstations in Saint-Tite

At what age should a workstation be replaced?
There is no single age. We look at four things: how old the device is, its warranty, its performance and what the repair would cost to keep it running. The operating system’s end-of-support date matters too. A workstation its vendor no longer patches becomes a risk, even if it still boots without complaint.
Do all workstations have to be changed at once?
No, and that is exactly what the schedule is meant to avoid. Workstations bought in the same year age together and end up costing a lot all at once. Spread over three years, the spending evens out and the fleet stops aging as a single block.
Does the replacement plan include dollar amounts?
It gives a spending figure for each year and separates recurring costs from one-time purchases, so it can go into your budget. The amounts are worked out with you, from your actual fleet. No price is posted on this site.
Do we need the vCIO module to get a replacement schedule?
The three-year master plan is a deliverable of the vCIO module, which is added on top of a main plan. An IT master plan, roadmap included, also comes with the Complet plan. Fleet inventory and equipment life cycle tracking are already part of managed IT services.
Do you come to Saint-Tite to install the new workstations?
Yes. Our office is in Trois-Rivières, about 65 km away, and we have no premises in Saint-Tite. For this sector the visit is planned and the work is grouped. Workstations are configured at the office before leaving, so what remains is mostly plugging them in.
Where do we start when we do not know what we own?
With the inventory. Our cybersecurity audit for SMBs already supplies a good piece of it: it records the fleet, the access and the backups. Those findings are then placed on the schedule.

Are all your workstations the same age?

Tell us how many devices you have in Saint-Tite and roughly what year they were bought. We tell you which ones to watch first and how to spread the replacements.

Contact us

Reviewed by , president of OKTO Solutions · updated