Q: I need to spend money on my IT but which areas do I address first?

A: Over the last couple of years we have seen a number of businesses defer capital expenditure in new hardware and instead try and make do with what they have. People are now more open and willing to spend money on their IT.

Our role as a pro-active Managed Services Provider is to help businesses make these decisions more easily, underpinned by comprehensive reporting and trend analysis. This is done through monitoring and managing the IT Network keeping it highly available and keeping comprehensive records of Service requests and resolutions.
The end result is that it allows a business to make a much more informed decision about which areas to address first and prioritise expenditure on IT.

One area you could explore is extending the warranty on hardware, particularly for anything less than 3 years old. If you take a typical server, it comes with a 1 Year Warranty as standard but can be extended beyond. The price for a typical server extended warranty for a 4 Hour Response time to fix including parts and labour can be as little as £250 per annum guaranteed!

If you have come to conclusion that you do need to purchase new equipment, what is the budget? Will you go to the bank; use working capital or have you considered leasing? Leasing is becoming more popular again now that more funds have become available. No deposit is required, it frees up capital for other purposes, does not affect other credit lines and you may be able to get more for your budget rather than having to be constrained by how much capital you have.

A Managed Services Provider will assist you with all of the above and will take the time to sit down with you and understand the business needs as well as any future changes to the business. This pro-active approach will make the decision process more informed and take into account a much wider perspective. This will then allow you to concentrate more on the business safe in the knowledge that your IT provider is adding real value.