Make the most of your IT options

How do you buy a computer for your office? You may not be surprised to know that more businesses are researching hardware and software options online.

Whether or not they then buy online depends on how well the business understands what they have researched and whether or not they need personalised pre-sales consultation. Either way, most businesses have two basic questions: what is the most cost-effective way to buy IT; and who will help us figure out the exact technologies, services and ongoing IT vision we need?

The answer to the affordability question depends on whether or not the business is interested in making IT purchasing an operational expense through leasing, or a capital expense. When IT products are leased - an option normally only available for businesses - the cost is paid incrementally and products or services upgraded at the end of the lease period.

Advantages include tax write-offs against monthly operational expenditure and depreciation, as well as help to buy newer technologies that may be beyond their reach as up-front capital purchases. If the arrangement is lease-to-buy, the business ends up owning products and services paid off incrementally and can choose whether or not to upgrade and enter into another lease-to-buy cycle.

If the aim is to purchase upfront, the cheapest (not necessarily the best) way to buy hardware is via a direct IT seller. Today, if you buy IT direct from a manufacturer you can expect to shave around 15 per cent from the price tag of a channel reseller. One-off special promotions can bump that difference up to around 40 per cent.

But most computer makers will sell direct to a business if the business and the deal is large enough for them - IBM and Hewlett-Packard both do this. It's also worth noting that belonging to a business organisation such as the Chamber of Commerce or business institute like the Employers and Manufacturer's Association (EMA), Home Business New Zealand, or New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM) can result in IT discounts.

Depending on promotions and the relationship between the IT vendor and the organisation, discounts can get as high as 40 per cent.

If you do decide to buy IT from a channel reseller, what do you get for your extra money? At a recent Sydney press conference, Dell Australasia representatives acknowledged businesses now want IT solution partners able to help figure out end-to-end IT strategies rather than plain IT sellers.

Buying direct is fine as long as you know exactly what you need, and so is arguably better suited to a large business with a dedicated IT manager than a CEO wearing an 'IT hat' for a day. Meanwhile vendors such as Apple, IBM, Acer, Hewlett Packard and Toshiba have a nationwide group of resellers who will happily drop into a business and help plan an IT solution covering everything from wireless LANs and broadband internet access to servers, storage and mobile office needs.

There are two sales channels businesses should avoid when buying office technology - internet auction sites and consumer retail outlets. The reason for the first is hopefully obvious and the latter may be convenient, but offers at best a piecemeal approach to IT purchasing that isn't likely to deliver an overall IT solution suited to business need.

While some consumer electronics retailers create business areas in-store and hire salespeople with some business IT knowledge, they rarely stock a full range of business software and hardware. IT vendors have long despaired to see businesses buying consumer retail laptops and PCs only to find they can't connect to a business server for networking or the new machine doesn't run the business version of the operating system and applications.

Warwick Grey, small business manager for Hewlett-Packard New Zealand, sums it up: "We have a real issue with businesses of any size buying from consumer retailers. To be successful with IT, businesses need to find an IT advisor that they fundamentally like and trust."

And no, he's not talking about friends and relatives.