Many businesses are looking at pulling their offices out of the technological dark ages called the 90’s. Not so long ago, we were all bombarded with ads from the likes of Gateway, Compaq and IBM. Looking to gain market share, these giants of computing brawn started enabling small businesses with commercial-strength computing hardware at reasonable prices. During this time, most users thought they were ahead of the game by replacing their ancient sub-gigahertz machines with brand new shiny Intel Pentium III’s! Seriously, I was able to enter my spreadsheets at least 10% faster than on that old clunker that now holds up the corner of the storage shelf in the basement.

Since those days, we no longer see black and white cow spotted boxes being delivered. Compaq was acquired by HP and IBM sold its laptop division to Lenovo, to focus on the server market. Today, just about every computer manufacturer has a complete line of consumer, advanced consumer and corporate products to offer. With the push to buy all new, savings and productivity can be found in the simple upgrades.

Double Your Computer’s IQ
Do you feel like your computer can compute any given task, as long as it has plenty of time to think about it? What if you could simply upgrade the computer’s IQ? Most of the newer computers out there now come with dual or quad core processors. What is that? Doesn’t it sound like a bunch of hype to make me buy a more expensive system? Well, yes and no.

Each computer has a CPU (central processing unit) that acts like the brain of the computer. When you see terms like “Core 2 Duo” or “dual-core”, that means that
there are technically two brains working together to get more done. Recently, “quad-core” technology has come out, but don’t be up-sold. Unless you run very specific
applications utilizing multi-threaded code sets like database servers and high definition media rendering, you will never fully realize the computational power behind this technology. With the two major players in the CPU market (Intel and AMD) slashing prices at every turn, the dual-core platforms are more and more affordable as time goes on.

Buy More Real Estate
One technology that has become a standard with every new computer is the LCD (liquid crystal display) computer monitor. While this basic technology is nothing new, the available screen sizes have gone up considerably. For the serious multi-tasking guru in your office, the bigger the screen, the better! For the aging workforce, a bigger screen simply means everything is easier to see.

Gone are the days of 15 and 17 inch screens; welcome 19 and 22 inch! While there are many monitors sporting even larger sizes like 24-32 inches of viewing glory, their price tags increase sharply. A full range of 22 inch monitors can be found for under $300, while the 19 inch screens can be purchased for as little as $110! Ask any desk jockey about the best upgrade they could receive -- it would be more pixels at their disposal.

Add Some Flare
Tired of printing out hundreds of pages on your trusty old black and white LaserJet printer, just to end up waiting for your Inkjet to slowly print out fifty copies of that color enhanced sales chart? Inkjet printers are often sacrificed to the LaserJet bullies, due to their slow pages-per-minute performance and lack of laser-crisp edges. The wait is over my friends! Almost all of the major printer manufacturers have come out with sub-$500 color laser printers. These are no slouches either. Most feature both USB and Ethernet connectivity used in workgroup applications, high resolution 2400 x 600 dpi printing, and many units even include all-in-one functionalities including scanning, faxing and copying.

Print quality usually rates pretty well across the board with this new breed of affordable laser printers. With the new found freedom of a color laser printer, you should still keep in mind your production costs. As the complaints about expensive inks for Inkjet printers stack up, so do the complaints over color toner cartridges. With prices ranging anywhere from around $100 to $300 per color toner cartridge, you can easily see that a full set of toner replacements could buy you another color laser printer!

Take Your Desk With You
Mobile computing has never been as affordable as it is today. More times than not, you are finding the fact that manufacturers are blurring the line between the desktop PC and the portable PC. If you throw the “ultra portable” products into the mix, the decision becomes even more confusing.

Computer manufacturers like Dell, HP and Toshiba have lowered pricing on their introductory mobile platforms, many times, to below the $500 mark. This compares easily to the $300-600 entry level desktop offerings from the very same manufacturers. When considering buying a new computer for your staff, think about the mobile needs of that employee and you might just find that a portable solution takes up less space, power and becomes their indispensable selling tool!

Assess The Playing Field
When you get right down to it, one of the biggest money savers when considering an office upgrade is a fair assessment of your current inventory. Many times businesses purchase multiple upgrades out of a single person’s or group’s technological needs. These kinds of purchases usually leave a number of employees unsatisfied and with perfectly usable hardware taking up space in a storage closet. Depending on your business size, a network consultant can usually be worth his time in gold when planning your next hardware and software migration path. Make sure to assess each department’s specific requirements. Do not assume that a single solution will fit each and every need. When assessed accurately, your bottom line decisions will usually be a cheerful 10-30% more affordable!

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment