>        Agreed, but I'm sure you've had to do some explaining in the
>past for purchases and it's not always that simple.

It depends upon the nature of the people in charge and organizational
culture.  Back when I worked for The Phone Company, that was a large
bureaucracy with General Purpose Managers and the accompanying need to
arduously describe and justify everything.  Here in a technical
department in a university, those in charge are very much in tune with
technical realities and how systems are performing, and upgrades are
taken care of almost implicitly.  (You may sense why I changed jobs.)
I gather that you have the former type of organization, and I sympathize.
  Richard