The way we buy computer equipment has changed. It is now possible to pick up a laptop along with your loo paper. This is all well and good for most home users but why should businesses be wary of buying from their favourite national sell anything and everything chain?
Home user products are designed to appeal to a different market than business products. They are built to a price and use the cheapest internal components available at the time. Much effort is also put into visual appeal to promote a fashion statement. Basically, the focus is on bling and less on zing.
If you are buying a new machine for your business, there are a few things you need to be wary of to make sure you are getting a fit-for-purpose PC.
As a guide, most machines that have 3yr warranties will have decent stable internal components. You will also need to make sure you have the Business version of Windows 7 or Windows 8. Home versions will not work on a company network correctly.
Recently, one of our clients needed three new PC’s in a hurry. The person who normally does their procurement was away, so the task was handed to the enthusiastic junior who thought he was the company “computer wiz kid”. When he saw the quotes of business grade machines, he saw an opportunity to save his employer some money. He popped around the corner to the stationery store and bought some pens, a waste paper basket, a jar of coffee and three computers.
His Cheshire cat grin went west when one of our technicians showed up to connect the new PC’s on the network. The tech explained to him that each machine will need to be reformatted, have Windows upgraded, plus it needed some additional RAM to run business applications. The cost of this meant that the PC’s would end up being quite a bit more expensive than the original business grade machines quoted. Plus the performance, warranty and reliability would still not be up to par. I felt sorry for him, he meant well but he simply thought that all computers were the same and only the price was different. I think he is back to stocking shelves and running errands 🙂
