Business Technology Upgrade

byinternetange

210 followers

Updated 10 years ago

Ok so you have started a new business or you are looking to upgrade your current technologies. What do you need to upgrade to bring you up to speed.

Real Life scenario .
Here 's what we did to upgrade a small business that has 20 employees, 10 office staff.

Existing Equipment:
HP proliant Server 7 users Shared documents and emails.
4 X Computers ( Bottleneck of Users to computers )
Outlook Exchange
Microsoft Office 2007
One Printer

By looking at the current setup the main factor in upgrading technology here was to increase productivity in the administrative area. Needless to say just an introduction of more computers would speed things up considerably. What we installed as an upgrade can be used as minimum for a new business as well.

Firstly we wanted to remove bottlenecks in productivity in the current setup.
Server was the first to be looked at. It was an old server and really only had 2 functions, 1 was to share documents with all staff and the other was to share emails via exchange. When you look at a server cost it can be $3,000 to $5,000 for a small business. No need to pay that much when you can use a A Network Access Storage (NAS). This was the first change we made. We removed the Server and installed a NAS that was shared amongst 12 users. Using a Synology DS414J 4 bay that can be expandable up to 20 Terrabytes giving the office ample storage and much greater speed of access to all the office staff.

• So step one Remove Server, Install NAS

Next' new computers and increase number from 4 to 12. Having more staff than computers is a definite no no. Staff standing around waiting to get access to computer is not acceptable. An efficient business would never have idle staff members waiting for tools or equipment to do their job. That's Crazy!
So what specifications for a computer? Current at 12/2014

• Processor - dual core 2.4 GHz+ (i5 or i7 series Intel processor or equivalent AMD)
• RAM - 8 GB
• Hard Drive - 128 GB or larger solid state hard drive
• Graphics Card - any with DVI support - desktop only
• Monitor - 23" widescreen LCD with DVI support - desktop only
• Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional with Service Pack 1
• Warranty - 3 year warranty - desktop only

Note the screen size. The office we upgraded used excel documents extensively. Using a 23" screen makes a big difference in reading and editing excel workbooks. To move to an even more productive level we recommend 2 screens. The benefits become apparent very quickly once used. You can view more information at the one time which means less time opening and closing windows. Every second counts.
So now we have in place a NAS drive for sharing documents and new computers with larger screens and one computer for each staff member. Just these changes alone would speed up any office.
For now lets go back to the NAS drive. With the old server we had setup remote access for the director at home so there was access to files from home however no other users had access as we felt the old server couldn't cope with the load. By upgrading to a NAS drive we can now share files to all users allowing to work from home if need be. In some cases sales personnel need to upload quotes to the server, but can now do it form home rather than visit the office. Saves travel time and keeps the office up to date with all activities of out of office personnel. Also files can be accessed via Cell phones and tablets. NO excuses for not having information at your fingertips.

Next was getting rid of Exchange. This software is expensive and we found it to be complicated and an overkill for a small office of 20 users. So from our point of view was a pleasure to get rid of.
Moving forward we upgraded the email sharing. We installed software by Codetwo which shared emails, files and folders between computers both within the office and from home. Every change that occurs by any user, filing of emails in different folders is immediately replicated across the network and over the internet so everybody sees changes made in real time, It also allows calendar sharing instantly. Another major bottle neck removed by more efficient sharing of information.
One last item was to make maintenance readily available without call out reducing down time. The last piece of the upgrade was to install Teamviewer on every computer. This software allows us to access the computer remotely over the internet and sends us warnings of computer issues before even the user is aware of it. This again saves the client time and minimizes downtime.
So that was the upgrade in a nutshell and is a good starting point for any new business.

Keys to the upgrade that made this office more efficient were:

• Everyone got a computer to work on (New)
• Monitor size increased ( 2 if you can greater viewing area is more efficient)
• NAS drive for file sharing ( Network or internet )
• Codetwo for email sharing ( Network or internet )
• Remote access to files
• Remote access for support

We just completed this upgrade and the client is happy with the changes made. This is an excellent example of technology helping business stay ahead, or at least keep up with the rest of businesses.