Buying IT equipment can be a complicated and sometimes daunting task. With so much technology on offer, it’s often difficult to know exactly what you need, when you need it and whether you’re paying the right price. To help simplify the process, here’s our Top Ten Tips for purchasing IT hardware…
1. Implement an IT Budget
It’s surprising how many businesses work on the ‘when it’s broken I’ll replace it’ philosophy and have no IT budget in place. Sadly, this approach is far from cost effective. It often results in staff waiting days for new equipment to arrive, and in the meantime they are unable to work. If a server breaks, it can cost thousands of pounds in unexpected capital expenditure to get the business up and running again, and if you haven’t budgeted for this spend, it can have a disastrous effect on your finances. So step one ….allocate a budget to your hardware spending.
2. Ensure your IT Meets your Business Needs
It is crucial to make sure that the business need drives the IT need, and not the other way around. It is all too easy to be tempted by shiny new gadgets and the latest special offers and waste money on technology without realising it. If you’re IT dependant, you’ll need to have sound budget planning in place to meet your needs and should seek professional advice on whether the equipment you plan to purchase is fit for purpose to avoid wasting money on unnecessary hardware that won’t ultimately benefit your business.
3. Maintaining an IT Infrastructure
At present, 75% of IT budgets are spent on maintaining an IT infrastructure, leaving only 25% for investing in new solutions. A large proportion of this 75% is wasted by poor implementation and a lack of understanding of the equipment and software. It is crucial to get it right first time, or you will risk paying the consequences for a long time to follow. Wasting budgets in this way leaves very little spend left to take the business forward with new solutions and can result in out of date and badly run equipment slowing the business down while your competitors streak ahead.
4. Select IT Outsourcing with Managed Services
By outsourcing to the experts you can cut down on staffing costs while enabling current employees to concentrate on running the business and driving new initiatives. Many SMEs struggle to afford dedicated IT staff or at the best have a single employee looking after the technology who is often overworked, under skilled and not exposed to the diversity of IT systems available. By having your systems externally monitored and maintained, you have peace of mind that your IT will run reliably with minimal intervention.
5. Get a Finance Deal
Financing IT hardware is no different to financing cars or sofas, and all the same choices are available – delayed payment, buy now – pay in 12 months and 0% interest. You can also finance a complete solution package, meaning you can buy IT hardware, engineering time, project management and ongoing support for the entire solution, including the end users. This can make expensive server purchases and upgrades much more affordable and allow you to keep your IT up-to-date without a large upfront cash layout. If you decide to add to your system, you can extend the term to cover the change, with the monthly cost remaining unchanged.
6. How to Dispose of It
This area is guided by the WEEE directive, governing the disposal of IT equipment. All businesses are expected to follow this and any reputable IT service provider will offer an IT disposal service, or at least provide advice.
With modern IT equipment purchases, you can pay an upfront IT disposal cost meaning when the item reaches end of life, the retailer will dispose of it correctly as per the WEEE directive. The other option is to pay for the disposal at the end of its life, by paying a disposal services company a fee to dispose of the equipment.
7. Keep Disposals Secure
At the time of disposal, you can opt for either hard drive destruction or electronic wiping. The destruction option is cheaper, but possibly less secure as it may sometimes be possible to access data off a rebuilt hard drive. On the other hand, wiping is 100% secure but takes longer to complete and is therefore more expensive. For 99% of businesses, destruction is perfectly acceptable but both options allow for certification to prove the work has been completed.
8. Keep Up-to-Date
By keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies you not only stay one step ahead of the game, but can also save yourself money. Virtualisation and cloud computing for example, can help reduce the need to buy and maintain multiple physical servers, meaning significant cost savings for your business. There are always new ideas and technologies in the pipeline and many could save you money, so try and keep your ear to the ground and stay up-to-date. If you don’t know where to start, then ask a reputable technology company to advise you on what’s new and how the technology could help you.
9. Consider Mobile Computing
The IT world is focussing on being able to access your company data quickly and securely from anywhere and on any device. Most users don’t need a high powered computer to undertake their daily IT routines and portable, low powered laptops and notebooks are relatively cheap to purchase. Mobile working is a powerful business tool and can massively increase staff productivity. Mobile computing devices are shrinking in size yet their power is increasing, and the costs are coming down, so why not consider going mobile and see the benefits to your workforce.
10. Updating Software
By outsourcing your IT, your support company will take on the responsibility of ensuring your software remains current. This will protect your business against security vulnerabilities and software enhancements and take the stress out of having to decipher which software and licenses are right for your business.