Getting the most value from your technology dollar

Spending your hard earned money on technology is sometimes a challenge. Lets look at some principles that seem logical to the ArrowQuick way of thinking.

I recently listened to a great podcast on important considerations for technology personnel and spending money in the tech space. Many of the concepts and principles really hit home for me. Now, contrary to the title of this post, you might think that cheaper equals better. This is far, far from the truth of the matter. But buying the shiniest new object is not spending wisely either. So let’s explore the middle ground using sound judgment.

How do we get value from our technology spending process? Two questions need to be answered: How do we procure equipment with a reasonable lifespan and how do we maintain said equipment over its useful lifetime? We do not have as much money to throw at technology as we used too.

Number one, avoid the shiny new object in the technology world. Top of the line products are designed to separate you from your money. Getting an extra couple megahertz or gigabyte of storage costs proportionately more money that the mainstream products and oftentimes gives no return on the investment. Most of these high priced items pay for the research and development costs of the company’s products so cost can come down later. Take the new Core i7 processors from Intel, which while smoking fast, at the cheapest will set you back the cost of 3 mainline items. A motherboard, CPU and 3 sticks of triple channel RAM will run just over $700. Then you have to stuff it all into a machine and get it running.

Why should someone buy a MacBook Pro when you can get 2 MacBooks for the price of 1 MacBook? Most people can make a MacBook do 98% of all that people normally do. Do not get hooked on 1 or 2 specifications on high end products. They are designed to part your money from your wallet.

Do your research ahead of time and then go to the store armed with knowledge. You do not want to find yourself being talked into something you do not need or, worst yet, overpay for a product. You can do product research using Nextag and other pricing engines on the Internet. Find out if coupons or specials are being touted on the web for solid product offerings. Free shipping and taxes makes a difference.

Consider buying refurbished machines, which are discounted off the new price. These machines are unused products that are just repackaged from stores that did not sell them. Buy products that have resale value — Apple comes to mind.

Read the manual on products so you know how to handle maintenance tasks. Documentation can often help you get more years out of your product or prevent you from doing things that shorten the life of your computer. As a note, heat is a particular problem for computers. Keep your computers clean and dust them out with compressed air. Clean the filters. Shutdown your laptop before placing it in your bag. At a minimum, make sure the machine is asleep and not generating heat. Overheated batteries shorten their life significantly.

Consider turning machines off overnight or during the day when not at home. When in a business environment, shut down machines over weekends. Being green and conserving energy is practical and wise. Moreover, the wear on the machine is nonexistent when the power is off.

Do not use harsh chemicals in cleaning your computers and especially monitors. Use diluted soap and warm water. Be extremely careful when working on LCD monitors. Liquid can seep down to bottom and be absorbed between the out surface layer and inner layer of LCD membranes.

Keep cables neat. Tangled cables cause equipment to get yanked around and present tripping problems. Use Velcro judiciously and keep things neat and orderly around the work space. Consider monitors with speakers built in to keep clutter minimized. Most business environments do not need gaming speakers.

What about maintenance? Keep the machines upgraded. If it is hardware, add RAM when your machine slows down. RAM is the single biggest factor is controlling the slowdown problems most PC users experience. Always use the recommended amount of RAM as your minimum. For Vista, 2 GB is the minimum no matter what Microsoft says. Do not skimp on RAM.

Extended warranties are great for laptops since they receive more abuse than typical laptops. Otherwise, desktop and solid state devices with good 3 year warranties are fine. When making purchases for business, select products that have 3 year warranties when possible. An example is selecting an HP business-class machine like the dc5800 series or xw4600 series over the lower end dx2400 series. And remember, those Wal-Mart HP or Gateway special deals — yeah, they are cheap for a reason.

Imaging the hard drive or using restore discs and partitions are great ways to keep peace of mind should a bad things happen to your computer. Backup your data! After all, the real value of the machine is not the hardware, but the information or data contained on it. Consider desktop RAID configurations where data is mirrored from one hard drive to another hard drive. Hard drives are cheap and a lot of times your business can not afford to be down for a great length of time.

Well, there you have it. We have covered some ways to extend your technology dollars over the long haul and life of a computer. You might ask, what is the effective life of computer equipment? Assuming you buy middle of the road PCs and peripherals, here is my rule of thumb. PCs are good for 5 years, with RAM and HD upgrades during that 5 year period as needed. Monitors are good for 6 – 7 years. Printers should last 8+ years if they have a duty cycle for business — especially laser printers. ArrowQuick has a LaserJet 4MV that is now approaching 13 years of useful life.

Spend those tech dollars wisely and email me or comment on this article.

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