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If you are a typical small-business person, you have some personal computers, a printer or two, perhaps a modem. Everything works. But some questions are probably nagging at you: Are you falling behind in technology? Is there hardware or software that would make you more productive? How do you choose? When do you upgrade?
The best advice of the many users, vendors, and consultants interviewed by Nation's Business is summed up by Rick Kreysar, vice president of marketing for Computer Associates, the largest independent software vendor in the world: "You look at your business. When your business makes a large change, you're probably going to have to change the way you do business, and therefore your computing product. But if the business doesn't change, then keep running the same thing."
But even if your business does not change, your competition may, says Chuck Stegman, director of systems marketing for computer retailer Businessland. "If your competitors are changing and you're not, by the time you find out, it may be too late." Improving technology can improve your competitiveness.
Every buyer fears getting the last copy of an old model, just before a newer, better, cheaper one comes out. "One of the problems you always face in trying to buy any computer is that you know it's going to be obsolete the minute you buy it," says Lawrence Wolfe, who works with the defense technology research division of GRC International, a Vienna, Va., consulting firm with a varied mix of machines.
"It is wrenching to people to make a buy knowing that two or three years from now they will be able to buy a more powerful machine for the same price," says Howard Elias, vice president of computer merchandising for Radio Shack. "But that doesn't matter because you ve gotten three years' use from it."
Businesses are increasingly interested in upgrades that build inexpensively on less than state-of-the-art technology. But upgrading intelligently requires you to look first at what you want to accomplish, and only then at the hardware.
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