Simplify Your IT and Save your Business Money
Dave Moore, European Services Director - small and medium businesses
My goal is to do ‘what it says on the tin' and give some simple, practical tips on how you can use your IT to best effect in this current economic environment and save your business money.
For many of you, IT is probably way down the agenda in the recession – you'll get by with what you've got. But IT can play a vital role in helping your business grow.
The natural reaction in this environment is to pull up the drawbridge, but this is the very time to keep it down so you can seek these new opportunities.
You know IT can help you grow - a recent online survey showed 96% of small business technology buyers believed that IT was important to their business growth.
We would like you to buy more computing power – you probably don't want to – but you may have to
If you do here are some things to think about:
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Don't buy the cheap price leader – but don't buy the high price one with all the bells and whistles either – buy the one in the middle.
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Don't skimp on memory or hard drive.
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Don't skimp on quality - it does count.
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Have the right service contract - invest in speed and response.
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Buy a server - protect your data, and share your resources.
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Storage - like a wardrobe just fills up. When buying ensure there is room for expansion.
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Think about leasing - low monthly payments can leave money in your pocket.
When opportunities arise grasp them - just last week one savvy entrepreneur relaunched her local Woolworths as a ‘Wellworths' (nice use of adapting the name there!) and found that crowds were flocking to it.
Dell is 100% committed to helping small businesses - we have over 4,000 people in our company dedicated exclusively to helping small businesses. We're focused on your needs - we were once a small business too, so we know all about the challenges and opportunities you face.
We've shown you a number of practical ways in which IT can really help your business and save you money at the same time.
As one the world's leading IT companies, it shouldn't surprise you that Dell has a huge amount of free resources aimed at you – the small business. These include SB360 – a dedicated website where you'll find a range of useful, handy information.
President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hit the nail on the head – when he said that you should never waste a good crisis. A recession benefits the small players, like you, the little guy who, like a speedboat against a cruise ship, can quickly switch direction. Opportunities exist all around you in a recession – to innovate your product and to look carefully at your costs and ways you can make your business work better than other peoples.
I'll finish on one my favourite quotes from Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem ‘IF' – it is perhaps even more relevant today than when Kipling wrote it back in 1909 and can certainly be applied to today's tough business environment:
"IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing their and blaming it on you…"
"Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it"