Office Equipment - Insider Views on the Must Have Goods
by Matt Berkley
Office products on the market today are taking small businesses to new heights, giving them access to a myriad of new information and improved efficiency in day-to-day operations. It’s important now, more than ever, for entrepreneurs to keep a sharp eye out for new office product solutions to help them succeed and keep their businesses moving.
John Tipton, Da-Com Corporation
It’s time to stop thinking in simple terms when it comes to purchasing a copying machine. The current trend is focused more on multifaceted output devices. John Tipton, president of Da-Com Corporation, a local firm that sells cutting-edge, high-speed duplicators and other office machines, says that more and more businesses are purchasing all-in-one machines that can do a variety of things such as copy, print, fax and scan.
“The days of just buying a machine to do nothing but make copies is just about over,” says Tipton, “Everyone is more interested in producing documents, and a lot of emphasis is on digital machines that can scan and email directly and store it in a digital storage device.”
These multi-functional devices are making business more efficient and enabling small companies to operate a lot more economically rather than owning and operating a variety of stand-alone machines. The savings are clear. “New high-speed printers alone can save a company two-to-three times what it takes to create a document on an old-line printer; the cost per page is dramatically higher with these older machines.”
Michael Lockette, Commworld of St. Louis
It may be hard to believe, but it’s still possible to save money on your phone services. Mike Lockette, president of Commworld of St. Louis, a telecommunications company that has installed more than 3,000 business phone systems in the metro area, says that every small business is challenged to do more with less and that savings can only appear through better productivity.
What’s new in the telecommunications industry? Lockette says the hottest technologies out there are VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and presence indicators, automatic procedures that assure call completion. What VOIP provides for small- to mid-sized businesses is the ability to put in their own private network; to send voice traffic or to connect systems within the company via their own data lines.
“With VOIP, a small-business owner can look at one voice mail system, make an intercom call rather than a separate call to another office, use existing resources to minimize cost of upgrading, and provide customers with a seamless vehicle for networking offices. If it is a busy period, you can route calls to less busy divisions. It affords some economies of scale: for example, you have three offices, each with a receptionist; with VOIP you can use one receptionist to handle all voice traffic.”
Chuck Pass, Pedro’s Planet
For 15 years, Chuck Pass has been the ‘operations honcho’ for Pedro’s Planet, an office supplies store whose full line of products includes environmentally friendly items as well as shredding and recycling services. Its catalog has over 25,000 items, such as office furniture, computer supplies, janitorial supplies, as well as essential break room and office supplies.
Pass says that businesses these days are buying supplies that can make their company run faster and smoother. “The trends I see with small businesses is that they truly believe if they find the cheapest price on an item, they think they are saving money. The cheapest price is not always the cheapest cost to their company.”
Purchasing supplies from a number of vendors to save money isn’t always the best choice. Pass advises business owners to keep it simple. “If you buy from one supplier you know where the product came from so if something is defective you know who to call. You get better service if the supplier knows he is the only one selling to you. You are only writing one check to one vendor every month. And, finally, most office suppliers will match another competitor’s price on most items.”
Tracy Butler, Acropolis Technology Group
As computer technology continues to evolve, more business owners are focusing on security and adaptability. Companies are spreading their wings and merging into a working world that’s becoming more wireless by the day. For a lot of new firms, having one standard desktop for every employee isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Working from anywhere has always been a huge benefit that only some of the largest companies could enjoy. Recently there has been a big push by the enablers of this technology to develop applications priced for the small business, says Tracy Butler, president of Acropolis Technology Group.
Butler stresses that flexibility is becoming the standard for business computing. “If you take anything away from this, remember that ‘work from anywhere’ technology is here to stay and the cost of doing so is always getting less expensive. Around our office we have the Mantra, ‘Work is what you do, it is not a place.’ If you have not looked at mobile technologies yet, your competition is.”
As for printers, Butler says Acropolis is a huge proponent of networking throughout an organization. “Nine times out of ten, it makes more sense financially to have a few high volume network printers spread throughout the office rather than a lot of low volume printers on everyone’s desk.”
Jeremy Johnson, The Tech Connection
According to Jeremy Johnson, owner of The Tech Connection, current trends in computer technology are faster, more mobile machines with prices dropping for devices such as Blackberrys and tablet PCs.
“I see the trend heading further to mobile computing with smaller devices and more features. More small businesses moving to more powerful web presence with more function and feature than ever.”
Johnson notes that this will definitely save money for small businesses that will be able to have employees anywhere in the country or the world for that matter.
“There are more ways to use a web presence and Internet programs than ever. The investment costs have made this a viable feature for even the smallest of business owners to take advantage of.”
Don Barnes, PeaceFrog Productions, LLC
Worried about your computer security? You should be.
Don Barnes, of PeaceFrog Productions, LLC, believes one of the most vital things for business owners to consider is off-site back-ups for their data. Statistically speaking, Barnes says, 90% of small businesses that lose their data to drive failures and don’t have redundant back-ups or off-site back-ups end up going out of business.
Data back-up and protection is imperative in today’s business market, no matter what business you’re in, states Barnes. “Make sure you’re backing up your data on at least a weekly basis, although I recommend doing it daily. It may seem like a hassle, but it’s nothing compared to what could happen if you lost your client database or the latest project data to a hard drive failure. As an IT buddy of mine is always saying, ‘It isn’t if you’re hard drive is going to fail—it’s when.”
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