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Financing Computers for Business?

Posted by Cliff on from the intimidated-by-the-numbers dept.

Mercutio asks: "OK, I've been handed the responsibility of acting like a grown-up and changing from my normal day-to-day IT job to actually making decisions involving someone else's money. Specifically, I've been asked to deal with all the variables associated with purchasing/leasing computer equipment (desktops, laptops, printers etc) and I'm feeling a bit out of my league. Anyone have any tips for dealing with leasing or financing equipment, companies to avoid working with, or mistakes made in past leasing/purchasing arrangements? Any company that was really great to work with? Any help is of course appreciated. Thanks."

3 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Dude..your gettin a .... by xagon7 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It depends, if you have a large enough IT staff that can handle maintenance and support to build your own machines. If not, nearly every company I have worked for have used Dells and had great luck. I have hardly had one break, and if they do break and you have a decent support contract, they can usually have them fixed for the employees that day or the next.

  2. I am the question originator by slaker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To respond to those asking for more information:

    I work for a training company. I'm solely responsible for, at the moment, about 150 non-uniform beige boxes in five different locations. The company only has five full-time employees, but a horde of part-timers. I am the IT department. Just me. Everyone else teaches non-technical classes or has an administrative role. Maintaining 150 random beige boxes, mostly with super-cheap generic motherboards, is exactly as nightmarish as it sounds. Ghost helps a lot but can't fix everything.

    I've gotten approval to purchase 60 PCs over the next month, but we're a small business and this is a decidedly large-scale endevour for us (I understand that the PCs we now have were purchased maybe three or four at a time, on a cash basis). I'm completely re-building our network infrastructure - putting in 802.11b and laptops for the full-timers, actual 100Mbit everywhere (and Cisco hardware for my classes), setting up a couple of file servers and dedicated internet access at the remote sites.

    That's the plan, at least.

    The down side of this is that I have no earthly idea how to properly evaluate financing options vs. leasing vs. paying for equipment outright, and since I've never personally done purchasing for anything NEAR that much equipment, I don't want to be subject to the whims of the salesdroids I'm going to be talking to in a couple of weeks.

    To anyone who replies, I thank you very much for your thoughts.

    --
    -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
  3. Even used, Dells are good by gentlewizard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My home lab has two Dell Precision 210 workstations, with a KVM box to a common monitor. I bought them used on UBid for about $300 each. They still work great, even after a corporation banged on them a couple of years.

    What I really like about them is the "no tools" cases. I can flip up/open just about everything just by releasing latches. I wish the cabling was longer, but they've been good for me.