[X4U] Trying to get a Mac Laptop approved - Part 1

[Bill Fox]

On Oct 16, 2008, at 12:13 PM, Ken Schneider wrote:

> I wasn't coming at it from a business need.  I was coming at it from  
> the issue of the Mac being the best tool for my job.  I don't want  
> to give away who I work for or what I do but my job involves a lot  
> of travel to customer sites with Mac-based graphics departments.   
> Many times I need to troubleshoot why certain graphics don't work  
> with our device (non-Mac hardware/software) and I can't be on-site  
> all the time so I need to use these graphics in both Mac and PC  
> environments to get to the root of the problem.  Plus we are trying  
> to court these same graphics people and going in there with a PC  
> laptop will many times generate dirty looks.
>
> I thought there were articles about how well the Mac works in the PC  
> networking architecture and how adding Macs into a Windows  
> environment did not add to IT support costs.  That is the type of  
> information I was looking for to help back up my response.

Ken, you are probably thinking of <http://macvspc.info/>. However,  
Shawn is right in that all are true even if most could be relatively  
insignificant based on your skills. The precedent of making an  
exception seems like and usually is the real driving force. It seems  
to me that you are already on the way to justifying an exception with  
a business case. It just needs a lot of work--dirty looks won't cut it  
but company credibility to professionals to whom your company is  
selling products might. It will depend on how well you can stack up  
the facts. You may still need to go over the person's head with the  
help of your company's the marketing department, for example, if you  
have a strong enough case. Good luck! If you lose, you can always use  
your own Mac like I do. Bill