While the right IT equipment can help your company, a bad purchase can hurt your ability to compete. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze the pros and cons of every purchase, including the potential return on investment. Don’t fall into the trap of avoiding equipment purchases simply because the economy is volatile. The right equipment can improve your processes, productivity, and capacity to innovate.
Points to guide you in making the right IT equipment purchase.
Assess your business reality
It is important that you understand your objectives. Are you looking to improve productivity? Will this new equipment make you more successful in the marketplace? Will it help you to stay ahead of your competitors? Can you upgrade instead of buying a new equipment and still get better performance? Be sure you have answers to these questions before you buy. Avoid being influenced by aggressive marketing campaigns that make unrealistic claims.
Seek an external viewpoint
Depending on the scale of your investment, it may be worth working with an external consultant who can ensure you make the most of your purchase by helping you assess your needs. Initially, you’ll be looking at important factors such as capacity, employee usage and current resources. The most common practice is to do a cost-benefit analysis, which helps you justify your purchase and determine the pros and cons. The premise is that more efficient equipment will give you better results.
Be innovative
In today’s competitive business world, being innovative in everything you do is key to success. Innovation is really about responding to change in a creative way; one way to do this is by acquiring equipment or technology that helps you improve your efficiency. Your new equipment might help you streamline your operations and create better products and services that appeal to a niche market, for instance, or it might help your research and development efforts or by improving customer service. It’s always a good idea to let your customers to know that you’re investing in innovation; it’s a clear message that you have their evolving needs in mind.
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Look at your business as a whole
Rather than making isolated purchases, look at the overall needs of your operations. Short-term purchases without long-term plans are costly and may not yield the best results. An external consultant can conduct a review of operational processes to help you fully understand the way your business works. This review enables the consultant to devise a sound plan that ensures your operations run smoothly and don’t generate waste.
Creating such a plan helps you focus on improving one area of your business at a time, rather than tackling an entire process. A consultant can also help you anticipate human resources issues arising from new equipment. For instance, if new machines make some jobs redundant, will you be able to move affected employees to other positions in your company? Will you face increased costs for severance pay or retraining? Do collective agreements affect your ability to re-assign workers?
Another question worth asking is whether the equipment you are replacing could be used somewhere else within the company. Often, for example, less powerful computers can be reused in departments that do not require high-performance machines. Likewise, in the area of electronic data processing, the newest technology is not necessarily the best. To avoid useless setbacks, businesses often purchase the second or third version of a new software package, after the first buyers have discovered the bugs. Ask yourself carefully whether the new features offered by more technologically advanced equipment are really of use to you.
Shop around for suppliers
The Internet gives you access to a wide range of specialized IT equipment companies, so take the time to browse. Don’t let price alone guide you in your supplier decision. Also consider aspects such as post-sales service and a supplier’s reputation, and get references. If you’re a loyal customer, you can ask for better warranties or an extended customer service plan.
Keep training in mind
All too often, entrepreneurs don’t consider the time, money and resources required to train employees on new equipment. You want to avoid the productivity drop that occurs when employees take too much time to adapt to new technology or processes. If the equipment is new or has new features, you can assume employees will face a learning curve. It’s important to head off problems by ensuring that you have the financing in place to address the resulting downtime. You’ll need to block off time to train employees and still be sure that your operations can run at capacity.
Know your financing options
Every method of financing has advantages and disadvantages, so carefully evaluate each option. The factors to be considered vary from one company to the other, depending on your company’s credit record or line of business. purchasing enables you to own the equipment as soon as the transaction is completed; leasing the equipment for a specified period, can make your payments lower that they would if you purchased the equipment and renting option may be appropriate for equipment that quickly becomes obsolete or is needed for a specific project.
Keep it green
When purchasing equipment or technology, be sure that it’s energy efficient. Not only will you be saving money, but you’ll also be contributing to the health of the planet. Research the environmental impact of your new equipment and find out how to dispose of your existing equipment in a way that minimizes its impact on the environment.
Conclusion
A healthy and safe work environment means your employees and your company can be more productive, and this rule applies to your equipment and technology purchases as well. Your suppliers are responsible for selling you equipment that can be used safely, but you are responsible for ensuring that your employees follow safety rules.
Investing in the right equipment is a complex task. An external consultant can help you see the big picture and plan your purchases so that your new equipment supports your company’s ability to thrive in challenging times. Paritie Dynamic Enterprise Limited – We are that consultant that you need.