In the interest of saving money I'm getting pressure to stop buying warranties on all our Dell workstations. The argument is that we can save capital expenses by keeping a few spare computers on hand to swap when there's a problem and then replace the parts ourselves.
As the only full-time IT employee the idea gives me a bit of that panicky feeling inside...there is a lot of peace in a warranty since I KNOW the computer is running or can be fixed quickly. But on second thought, it seems hard to justify the warranties IF we have spares on hand to swap and Dell computers are pretty easy to service. But every other place I know has kept their workstations under warranty.
We typically have had a 2 tier system... some users get a computer under warranty and after it expires we run it until it dies in another location that just needs "something that runs". Most of our office work is just database entry and Microsoft office. The place I'm most hesitant is with our 3D CAD users and laptops that are used to service customers.
Would it make sense to keep spares instead of buying Warranties? Or will there be a lot of hidden costs and added stress?