Technology Support For Your Small Business

Leke — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:24:45 +0000

Maintenance of Your Business Computers and Technology Investment

Investing in computers for your business can be expensive, even though it is necessary. It is therefore important that after investing a fortune in equipping your Small Business, you should put in place an efficient technology support for your small business to cater for the maintenance of your investment. Just like the wise says that “He who fails to plan has planned to fail” if you fail to put in place (before you actually need it) an efficient and effective technology support to cater for the upkeep and maintenance of your computers and peripherals, you will incur very expensive cost when there arises an equipment breakdown. Even the best of equipments do breakdown or malfunction. Here are some tips to help you make the right decision.

Buy Your Computers and Peripherals From Reliable Sources

When purchasing your business computers and peripherals, it is good practice to buy from well established computer shops that provides after sales support and services. The cost of acquiring computers, as well as software and possibly putting in place a simple peer-to-peer networking is already a major expenditure for a small scale entrepreneur. So you can’t afford to purchase equipments that have manufacturing defects which you will only discover months later. If the shop charges a token for providing warranty, do well to pay the extra so as to protect yourself from unnecessary cost of replacement few months after acquiring the equipment.

Expensive Business Equipment deserves Effective Support Service

It is common to see small scale business owners shying away from entering into a service contract after they purchase their business equipments. Their excuse being that they have already spent too much in acquiring business computers and peripherals.

My simple advice is that if you cannot afford to have a computer technician on your payroll, then it is advisable to enter into an agreement with a reliable one that you can call upon whenever the need arise. Scouting round for a computer technician when your equipment is already malfunctioning is not the best. You will spend more and may even fall victim to quack technicians that abounds everywhere.

It is quite more cost effective to have entered into a technology support agreement with a technician or repair shop for routine maintenance of your business computers and accessories.

What to Look Out For In The Technology Support Agreement

When entering into the technology support agreement ensure you find out what the technician will be charging for his time and what percentage he intends putting on as markup on parts for replacement. You are better off if all this are negotiated upfront before you need the technician service.

As your business grows, you may need to review the agreement or even change your technology support service strategy. If your business can afford a technician on the payroll, it is better as he will be monitoring the business technology investment on day to day basis instead of periodically. However, there is nothing wrong with outsourcing the support service until you can afford to employ a technician. The important issue is that you have an effective technology support service arrangement in place before you need one. You can get free future updates to this post Technology Support For Your Small Business by subscribing to our RSS feed. Cheers.

How To Choose The Right Computer For Your Business

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:40:43 +0000

Which Computer is Right For My Business?

In this present generation, businesses cannot function effectively without computers. Computers are essential tools for carrying out various business tasks. However, choosing the right computer for your business may not be as easy as choosing other tools. Two critical factors makes the decision critical.

The first factor is that computer equipments can be so expensive and investment on them is usually considered as a long time investment. Often, you won’t be able to recoup the investment in the first twelve months after your purchase. That to an entrepreneur calls for caution when making a decision on what computer to purchase.

Business Computers

Secondly, computer technology changes so fast that a state of the art computer equipment purchased with so much fund can be rendered outdated in a matter of six months or less. That makes the issue quite complicated, isn’t it? An equipment going outdated before its payback period sounds like a bad idea! Well, that is the reality that you need to face when deciding on the computer to choose for your business.

Even though it is difficult to choose, there are some guidelines that if carefully followed can reduce the possibility of making a wrong choice. We shall consider the most important ones in this post.They are mostly questions you need to ask and answer sincerely before parting with your hard-earned money.

What will the Computer be used for?

There is need to sit down and ask yourself sincerely what the computer is meant to do for you. Why is this critical? There are too many models with different specifications and performances been offered in the market that it is easy to get confused on which one to choose. It would have been okay to base your choice on the best performing equipment, however, those factors explained above show that it is foolish to do such. The best performing business computer today may become outdated in few months. Also, best performing machines don’t come cheap, so you need to consider your purse too.

The safe thing to do is to sit down and jot done all the task you need the computer to perform for you. The tasks should then be rearrange in order of priority so that you will easily know those that are indispensable and those you can let go. Often time, it is those extra features that you can actually do without that may unnecessarily add to the cost of purchasing a computer.

Laptops or Desktop Computers

Laptop or Desktop Computers?

Computers come in two major packages. Desktop computers, ie those meant to be kept at one location and laptops or notebooks ie. those meant for mobile computing. If the nature of your business is such that you need a computer in a particular location all the time, then you are better off getting a desktop computer. Usually, desktops are easier to work with because they are large while laptops, notebooks and netbooks have miniaturized parts that don’t make them conducive for long time computing work.

However, laptops are better for mobile computing. Laptop are quite portable, you can take your laptop almost anywhere so your files will always be with you. It is important to remember that both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, you need to know which one is better suited for your business needs.

The Right Computer Specification For Your Business

While every computer have some common basic features, there are some features that actually differentiate the function each can perform well. As an entrepreneur, you should consider the following features when deciding on the computer to choose for your business.

Memory RAM – What you need the computer for will determine how much RAM you need on the machine. Using the example above. A graphic designer will need nothing less than 2GB RAM to drive its memory consuming graphic software while a secretary can actually make use of a simple machine runing with just 128MB RAM.

Hard-Drive – The storage capacity of the computer should also be determined by your business need. Graphic files are usually large and consume much space. While the whole Bible can be placed on less than 3mb hard-disk space as a text file, a single photo can occupy as much as 11mb hard-disk space.

Processor – There are several kinds of computer processors with different speed. It is good to get a processor that is appropriate for your need. AMD Turion X2 processors and Intel Core Duo range are good choices to choose from. Just like the RAM memory, the high end performer are meant for heavy work and are not needed for text processing or basic computations. For example, a computer with a processor that is rated at around 2GHz (Gigahertz) is fast enough to handle all basic office applications.

Monitor – The screen size of the computer should be determined by the kind of task to be performed. Usually, the larger the screen size the better. However, this is only true for desktop computers. Laptops with larger screen size actually tend to be heavier and less portable, so it may not be desirable to go for larger screen if you opt for a laptop. However, for desktop computers a 19-inch monitor is desirable especially if you intend to work long hours on the machine. Also, for graphic design activities, you are better off with a large screen so that you won’t need to strain your eyes as you work. LCD screens have basically replaced the CRT monitors. They tend to be more portable, consume less space and less electricity.

Other basic features – Your computer should have at minimum a cd-drive (DVD drive is actually better, but cost more). Also, you should ensure that it has slots for attaching USB peripherals. Most peripherals now come with USB cables to attach them to the computer. Diskettes, Zip Drives etc are no longer in vogue and are hardly in use, so you may not bother about them.

Example of Different business needs for a computer

Let’s use an example to explain these features. A computer that will be use basically for accounting purpose will need features that are quite different from one that will be used in a music studio. Also, a computer that is to be employed for heavy graphic design will be quite different from one that is just meant for writing letters or corresponding with clients via emails. If you are going to use the computer for graphic intensive activities, you will need to place as priority the memory capacity, a large hard-disk and also fast video cards.

Upgrading the computer and cost of part replacement

Well, having said all that, it is necessary to note that whatever package you decide on, you should carefully find out if it be easily upgraded when you need to. Also, find out the cost of servicing and replacing parts if need be. Some branded computer system tends to be quite expensive in terms of upgrading as their parts are unnecessarily expensive. Don’t overlook this issue because computers are machines and they do break down.

Ask For Help, Don’t be Shy!

If you are in doubt of your ability to pick the right computer for your business even after going through the list. Then your best bet is to take a friend or relative that is knowledgeable (about computers) with you when you go shopping. Never base your purchase decision on the advise of sales-persons no matter how friendly they are. It is your business and money we are talking about here. Also, don’t be in haste to settle for a deal because it looks cheap. Take time to go around the stores.

Ask for permission to test-run the machine right there in the store and ask as much question as you feel like. Remember, if the store won’t give you their attention now that you have not parted with your money, they most likely will not give you a better attention when you come back calling for assistance.

I wish you great success in choosing the best computer for your business. In my subsequent posts, I will be discussing on how to choose the perfect computer peripherals for your business. If you enjoyed this post how to choose the right computer for your business, say so in a comment. Cheers.

Business Computers » Computer Equipments