How to convince I.T. to buy computers that can handle ArcGIS Pro?

[Bud]

My department's computers are up for replacement this year. So I've asked my I.T. department to buy us computers that meet the ArcGIS Pro Optimal requirements: ArcGIS Pro 3.1 system requirements.

To my surprise, my I.T. department say they can't afford to buy computers that meet those requirements. They actually say they'll be replacing in kind -- meaning we'll get the same specs as we already have, which doesn't even meet the Recommended requirements, let alone the Optimal requirements. Screenshot.

To be honest, if that's the case, I'm not really looking forward to my next few years of using ArcGIS Pro.

I actually don't end up doing much mapping in Pro. I normally just test individual queries or add a table/small FC to the map to do testing. I don't do anything that has heavy graphics requirements; the enterprise geodatabase does most of the heavy lifting.

Even still, I end up waiting for Pro to load more often than I'd like. It's little things like:

• Geoprocessing tools are slow to load/initialize. (I'm not talking about running the tool; I'm talking about opening the tool.)
• Right-clicking a layer in the Contents pane. The right-click items are greyed-out initially and take a few seconds to load.
• Using the Explore tool on a small FC. Takes a few seconds to load.

I can't say I really understand why simple things like that take a few seconds to load. I can understand slow performance when running complex analysis or maps. But not so much when opening a GP tool, etc.

But that's beyond my control. 

What I want to ask is:

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Have you had any luck convincing your organizations to buy high-performance computers for using ArcGIS Pro? If so, how? For example, I've tried saying, "We spend all this money on software, it would only make sense to have hardware that can run it properly." But that hasn't worked so far.  

Any tips or lessons learned?

[AmyFry]

Following this thread.

I am in the same boat, and attempting to create at report for our director of administration.  Despite verbally presenting this situation to the highest level in my organization, and pleading with my IT department, I have gotten absolutely nowhere over the past 16 months talking.  I am now attempting to put dollars behind it since we have already committed to a 3 year EA (Cadillac amenities), but are saddled with an aged Chevy to run it.  Beyond frustrated.  

[BrianOevermann]

It appears that I, and my organization, may be an anomaly regarding this. Ever since I dipped my toe into the 3D/lidar processing waters I was able to convince IT to give me a higher spec machine. My relationship with IT has been great all along--my position started in IT, then re-org'd to Public Works, and is now full circle back to IT. The GIS power users have always had a slightly elevated configuration, much like the CAD users (someone else mentioned that angle) but with the onset of Pro the system requirements have increased. Our City has gone "laptops almost exclusively" and that helped during Covid lockdown--we simply took our machines home with us, followed by dragging home our monitors for the long haul.

The reality is that Pro needs at least an Intel i7 CPU, at least 32Gb of RAM, and a discrete GPU. 64Gb of RAM is even better now. When you put those specs into context, that is a gaming laptop/PC. We have long been an "HP shop" but in the past few years the gaming/workstation spec'd machines from our vendor were astronomical in price. So we looked in a different direction. HP makes gaming laptops. You can get them from places such as NewEgg (ordered from there the first time around) but then we looked at Costco. Costco also sells HP gaming laptops. (It is a bonus that our city is the HQ for Costco, though we don't get any discounts for it!). We've been ordering gaming laptops from Costco now for a few years, for all of our GIS/CAD power users. We've upgraded RAM in them to get them to 32Gb or more if necessary. And are you aware of Costco's warranty? It's probably better than IT's vendor. The savings are huge compared to our regular vendor.

But part of the question is how do you convince IT... You can't. You've tried and they don't want to budge. You are going to need to go above them--perhaps way above them. You can play the "staff time waiting costs more" card ("Mayor, how much idle time waiting for my machine is acceptable to you? I'm happy to drink coffee and surf the net while waiting.") but the analogy someone here used of equating your situation with a police car or fire truck works well, too. How much does a fully outfitted police car cost? Does it come from Ford/GM/Dodge equipped completely? Likely not. Our fleet adds all sorts of equipment after taking delivery. The delivered vehicle is basically IT's standard issue machine. But the minimum requirements of our software can't run effectively on that "base model". "Accessories" must be added to make it functional for the job. It is a cost of doing business in this modern world that we need higher end machines. Ask THEM to tell IT to give you the tools you need to do your job. Offer up the cost savings of sourcing machines from other vendors as a "we can get a suitable machine and save a bit of money, too" angle.

Simple request: Don't buy all of the laptops Costco has! We need some inventory available for when we want to order. lol

And just as a snapshot in time regarding cost/savings: I personally replaced my gaming laptop with a machine from Costco. Not HP--another brand that I like more. Intel Core i9 CPU, 32Gb RAM, Nvidia RTX 4070 discrete GPU. $1400 on sale ($1800 regular price). Even regular price is close to half of what our HP vendor was charging! [Note that I do understand IT's need to have reasonably similar machines for support reasons. But that is why we have only bought HP gaming laptops vs going with any brand available.]