Computer lease or purchase suggestions

[killer_carlson]

Starting a new business in august. Need computers. One desk top and 2 to 3 laptops. Suggestions where i should o get them and get a fair price?

Note, im in Edmonton but could go to CGY for a screaming hot deal.

[Rathji]

What will you be running on them?

[psicodude]

If I could make one suggestion to a business owner, it would be to make your purchasing decision based upon ease of repair when the computer breaks, as opposed to price. Most SMB owners I know don't realize how tightly integrated technology is in their business until they lose that technology and discover their entire operation grinds to a halt.

Check out a place like Acrodex (in both Calgary and Edmonton) that can offer a wide array of services.

[killer_carlson]

Running microsoft office, an accounting program and other software integrated with word.

Good advice re repairs.

With that in mind, what are the thoughts on dell these days?

[Rathji]

Dell is a company where you can go to their website and almost always find something on sale that will fit your needs. They are not the most reliable, but they are also one of the cheapest. They have good support, but not excellent. I am convinced that a smart Dell purchase will save most companies money in the long run.

Where I work, we are a Dell shop. However for us, if a desktop dies, it doesn't matter. It takes us 2 hours (at most) to get a user back up and running as though nothing happened. If we have a spare PC sitting around, that time is more like 15 minutes. I am assuming you won't have the same ability, so you might give more weight to something like Lenovo, whose laptops are considered a pretty good value in the business space.

Either way, get the warranty, run a couple backup solutions (have a working system image on HDD + cloud based is likely best) and don't over spend. The specs you require are likely easily obtainable with a processor that is a 2-3 generations behind.

[Rathji]

On other suggestion, you can buy a laptop that is a couple years old ( not used, but an older model that they are clearing out), add a SSD to it, and have it run faster than a new PC that is brand new, likely saving you some money. It depends on a few things, including your storage requirements.

I am assuming that you are doing all your own IT support at this time?

[CaptainCrunch]

The last few places I've worked have all been Dell Shops and there have never been problems. For a what I call Tier 2 product they are solid, and the pricing is tough to beat.

I don't know if you can go to wrong.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The last few places I've worked have all been Dell Shops and there have never been problems. For a what I call Tier 2 product they are solid, and the pricing is tough to beat.

I don't know if you can go to wrong.

What would you consider tier-1 products in the office PC space?

[killer_carlson]

im going to go with 2 desktops for in the office, and 2 laptops for remote purposes. probably going to go Dell for these

As for a server, I figure my needs are very basic. I'm leaning towards the Small Business Solution from Microsoft and an extra desk top to run that. I am hoping to get 3 years out of that solution.

I hate IT stuff, so I'll probably be hiring a consultant to do whatever I need for me. IT stuff is not something I have the patience to learn or muck around with on a regular basis.

[Hack&Lube]

Whatever your consultant tells you, consider running it through CP to see if it makes sense.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

im going to go with 2 desktops for in the office, and 2 laptops for remote purposes. probably going to go Dell for these

As for a server, I figure my needs are very basic. I'm leaning towards the Small Business Solution from Microsoft and an extra desk top to run that. I am hoping to get 3 years out of that solution.

I hate IT stuff, so I'll probably be hiring a consultant to do whatever I need for me. IT stuff is not something I have the patience to learn or muck around with on a regular basis.

My suggestion is to find an IT person you trust, and have them make suggestions based on what you are going to need long term based on your actual business needs.

For example, I look at your description and have thoughts of suggesting Office 365 and avoiding a physical Windows Essentials server in favor of a hosted solution unless there is a very good reason, especially for just a handful of users. Depending on the number of users, there might not even be a good reason to have desktops.

I could be out to lunch though, depending on what your business needs, which is why bringing someone in to take a closer look at your requirements is likely in your best interests before you start looking at hardware to purchase etc.

edit: What H&L said. In my consulting work, I often see solutions that were cobbled together by come computer cowboy who isn't concerned about anything other than you paying the monthly bill because no one else can maintain the kludge they have assembled. If you ever need to get rid of them, you end up paying through the nose to try and get it fixed.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

What would you consider tier-1 products in the office PC space?

I've always been trained to consider IBM and HP as tier one products.

IBM not so much anymore since they're not really IBM products (IIRC)

[TorqueDog]

Personally, I've had great experience with leasing through Dell. I did a lease on a Precision M2400 so I got the small business warranty with it. They sent a technician to my house to fix it next day after I spilled Orangina on it (without having bought the accidental damage warranty).

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I've always been trained to consider IBM and HP as tier one products.

IBM not so much anymore since they're not really IBM products (IIRC)

Are you referring to Enterprise/Datacentre equipment and services specifically though?

I'd probably rank HP's personal computer/workstations as cost-cut and rebadged to a point where I'd value them with the cheapest Asian OEMs.

As for Lenovo, they are actually quite good.

[CaptainCrunch]

For a company with one or 2 desktops and a couple of laptops, I don't even think you need a IT consultant. why not just forgo a server that's really just there for data storage and run it using the cloud.

You can get cloud versions of Simply Accounting or quick books which is probably all the accounting that a small company uses and office 365.

You don't need a network and server and to worry about backups or what happens if the server goes down.

You don't really need to pay an IT consultant (sorry guys)

If there's nothing proprietor software wise, I wouldn't be bothered with IT infrastructure.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

For a company with one or 2 desktops and a couple of laptops, I don't even think you need a IT consultant. why not just forgo a server that's really just there for data storage and run it using the cloud.

You can get cloud versions of Simply Accounting or quick books which is probably all the accounting that a small company uses and office 365.

You don't need a network and server and to worry about backups or what happens if the server goes down.

You don't really need to pay an IT consultant (sorry guys)

If there's nothing proprietor software wise, I wouldn't be bothered with IT infrastructure.

Heck most intermediate ERP's are going to a cloud model.

The Dynamics family is looking at cloud offerings in the next couple of years.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

For a company with one or 2 desktops and a couple of laptops, I don't even think you need a IT consultant. why not just forgo a server that's really just there for data storage and run it using the cloud.

You can get cloud versions of Simply Accounting or quick books which is probably all the accounting that a small company uses and office 365.

You don't need a network and server and to worry about backups or what happens if the server goes down.

You don't really need to pay an IT consultant (sorry guys)

If there's nothing proprietor software wise, I wouldn't be bothered with IT infrastructure.

As an IT consultant, I agree whole-heartedly. The absolute worst outcome to the original poster is they get sold a shiny new Windows SBS server setup. I secretly wonder how many failed/crashed SBS implementations cause tiny fledgling businesses to go under. Lord knows I've seen enough bad ones.

[psicodude]

Yup, I would have to agree with the cloud ideas for your ERP systems presented here as well. Office 365 is actually really solid and would take a ton of pressure off of you and let you focus on your core business.

We use Lenovo at my office and am really happy with it actually. Failure rates are very low (maybe 1%) and they have a ton of options. If you insist on getting your own server, Lenovo has recently entered that market as well, although I don't have much experience with them.

I know I may get scoffed at for making this suggestion, but have a look at Best Buy and their "Geek Squad" deskside service options. They have some great service options for smaller shops that would be way cheaper than a consultant at $100/hr and you would probably get quicker service. Just another option for you.

[killer_carlson]

I will admit that right now i am getting so many different pieces of advice on servers that i am getting confused.

Is a cloud server more reliable than a regular server?

Are they more cost competitive?

[Rathji]

More reliable? Perhaps. More cost effective for an extremely small business, almost certainly.

As for which to choose, it really depends on what you need a server for.

If you are just storing files and need email, you can easily do with Office 365 (or Google Docs) and something as simple as a NAS (or Dropbox/Google Drive). There are web based accounting, CRM, ERP packages etc that can likely handle most of the other things you need, but it really depends on your business.

IMHO, the only part of this that likely needs any sort of professional assistance is someone to figure out what you need. Like Scott said, many small businesses end up getting way more than they need for something like this and have something that is cost prohibitive to maintain if something goes wrong, and the cloud has made that largely unnecessary.