Lou Anschuetz provided the following summary of his presentation:

ECE is extremely similar to CS, so I choose not to repeat the technical details of our operation as Bob Cosgrove has done so extremely well. For the minutiae of what/how we charge, please send me e-mail or ask me personally.

Instead, I am interested in the philosophical implications of charging as a whole. Doing so creates a perceived value, but it also has the requirements that you must have a willing seller (the easier part) and a willing buyer (the hard part). The buyer must have the funds to purchase what you sell.

The buyer must also agree that the inconveniences of your service are acceptable. That is, while one user might need a different version of a software package, installing it might affect 600 other users in a negative ways. As such, it might not be possible to do the request for the one person.

In addition, I am concerned about the long term viability of the support model now in place. Both Linux and Windows increasingly require users to have admin/root privileges to install necessary packages. Once this level of access is granted, however, odds are quite high that the machine will become
unmanageable.

Finally, there are expectations that need to be managed as we send bills to folks. While I didn't cover this extensively in the talk, it remains an important issue. Some folks may expect to have full UPS/generator coverage for their machines. This is unlikely to happen. Other folks may expact that if they pay 20% of your total costs, that they then should get 20% of your staff time. This is a non-tenable position.

In conclusion, I believe charging is the proper way to go, but entering into this approach requires some planning on how to respond to unexpected issues.