Purchasing Computers for Organizational Success

You know just how essential your company’s IT is, but do you have any idea how your employees feel about the technology you provide them? In order to get the productivity your company needs out of your staff, meeting their computing needs becomes a fundamental requirement. Today, we’ll go over some of the determining factors you have to consider when purchasing computer equipment for your staff.

Consideration #1: Departmental Needs
Your workers don’t all do the same things. You probably have several departments that you need to find IT for; all with their own specific needs. Knowing exactly how much processing power, storage, and software requirements are for every worker on your staff before purchasing new hardware can save you money and time.

Consideration #2: How Mobile Do You Need Them to Be?
These days, mobility is one of the most pressing considerations you need to have when purchasing the hardware your company will need to get work done from anywhere. If mobility is a major consideration for certain members of your staff, you will likely want to outfit them with laptop computers and mobile devices depending on your organization’s mobility needs.

As far as workstations go, they don’t always have to be high-end computing apparatuses. Most of the time--especially if there are workers that don’t need high-end technology to complete their assigned tasks--a simple laptop will do. Laptops likely cost marginally less than putting together a full desktop computer and can be just what your business needs to promote the productivity needed.

Consideration #3: What Do They Need to Do with It?
This brings us to the uses your employees need their computing platforms for. The more resource intensive the software that your organization depends on, the more resources your workstations will need. It’s that simple. Say you run a small company and you have one computer for your business. You’ll probably want to commit to buy a computer that is a little more than your software requirements demand in case you want room to upgrade or add new, more useful solutions down the road.

For the average office, however, it behooves you to pay attention to the software requirements for each position on your staff. Since computing resources (hardware, software {cloud or local}) aren’t cheap, to keep costs down, each position should be given a technology budget, and any IT expenses for that position should not exceed that budget. It may seem like a time-intensive process, but in most cases, hardware and software requirements will be similar for a lot of your staff.

For those employees that have to use resource-intensive software in order to properly do their jobs, be sure not to skimp on their machines. The better the hardware these employees have at their disposal, the more effective they can be. One resource-intensive program that many businesses use is a CRM or some sort of accounting software that allows them to track service time. Look on this software as mandatory and ensure that every workstation and mobile device can run your necessary line of business applications.

Consideration #4: What Does Your Staff Think?
Everyone knows just how frustrating using inferior technology can be. If you came to work every day only to use a computer that routinely wastes your time, you would have a problem with it. When deciding on how to move forward with your computing initiatives, understand that your staff wants to be as efficient as you want them to be. Getting them hardware and software that allows them to be the best workers they can be will go a long way toward making your company as successful as it can be.

By now, a majority of your staff has a smartphone. As to not put the organization at risk, you should implement a comprehensive Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. It will allow your staff to utilize their personal devices on your business network, and will allow you to protect said network from the threats those device potentially bring in..

Purchasing, managing, and maintaining technology can get a little hectic. Let the IT professionals at Horne & Benik help you come up with a company-wide IT strategy that will allow you to get the computing you need at a price that won’t be an obstacle. Call us today at (603) 499-4400 for more information.