Purchasing Tech
With costs for everything rising, I thought it would be good to extoll on the virtue of getting good advice on your tech equipment purchases.
I've assisted many individuals and small businesses with equipment purchases over the years, enabling them to not only save on new equipment but, to save by not buying new equipment when their existing units can be modified to last well beyond their return on investment.
A recent customer purchase illustrates what I'm getting at in this post. The client came to me wanting to configure and install a PC purchase to replace his aging CAD (computer aided drafting) workstation. As it turned out, the unit that had been purchased was incorrect and insufficient for the job. A suitable replacement was located that addressed the needs of the client.
Tech gear purchasing is really no different than anything else you would buy for your home or business, whether it's a faucet, a refrigerator or windows.
Questions to ask are:
1) How will it be used? This is the most fundamental question. Will the unit have many tasks or will it be required to do one thing exceptionally well? What does it need to do?
2) What are the cost constraints? Another way of putting this is "how much can I afford?". Getting the best bang for the buck is what I aim for when advising clients.
3) What warranties accompany the purchase? Should anything go wrong a year or three after the purchase, that warranty will be very valuable.
4) What about extended warranties? Purchasing an extended warranty would depend on what the equipment is, who made it and the cost of the extension.
5) Which manufacturer is best? There are many makers of whatever you may have in mind to purchase. One way to chose is to know someone who has experience with a given manufacturer. Online reviews are a good source for this type of information if you don't know someone who you can rely on for it.
6) Is the choice a good one? If you've found suitable answers to the previous questions, then your answer is probably yes. If you're still not certain, contact me and we can talk about it. I never charge for phone support and I'd be happy to assist.