In most cases, you don’t need to replace a computer before the hardware fails. Often, an upgrade is more cost-effective:

Insufficient RAM :  If you find that the tasks you are doing have changed, or you are in a position to need more memory than the computer has available, (typically you purchased too little RAM when you bought the computer) then you may need to buy a new one. However, since computer manufactures are getting good at using standard memory sizes, it’s no longer the norm to have to buy expensive RAM only from one source. Type “upgrade ram” into google, and you’ll find hundreds of companies that will help you figure out what RAM you need for your older laptop, (and of course, sell it to you). 

Insufficient Storage: Back in the day, (and by that I mean more than 15 years ago, when there were a number of different types of hard drives), it was a tough task to upgrade anything in the hard drive world. These days, things are a lot better. If you want to upgrade your notebook, it will cost you about $100 for a 160GB drive. If you want to upgrade your desktop, it’s about $100 for a 750GB drive.

As with every rule, there is an exception: 

CPU/Speed: This is the most limiting factor of computers. Sure, you can upgrade the CPU, and can make your computerrun faster than the manufacturer has tested it. In most cases, it’s not worth the risk. If you put a faster chip into an existing computer, you run the risk of the chip not working properly with the existing hardware, you may run into problems where the new chip overheats, (yes, it’s a safe bet that the more powerful the chip, the more heat it produces.) Would you rather have a less reliable faster computer, or a more reliable slower computer?

For large companies, there are lots of options,: reduce the staff by 10%, shift more responsibilities onto the user, pull services in-house (or push them out, depending on the service), etc. all of which could easily reduce your costs by millions.

For the under 10-people businesses (which make up the number-one slot for employment in most economies), reducing staff by 10% is rarely an option. Often there is no staff at all, just outside consultants; it’s hard to make them prioritize reducing the moneys you pay them.

I have the top three things that you can do to reduce your IT overhead in these tough times.

1) Prioitize your needs. If email is critical to the success of your business, make sure your IT consultant knows that. Bring him/her in, pay them for an hour of their time to review where you can reduce. The cost of one or two hours of planning will immensly help you in the long run.

2) Educate your staff. Send out an email that starts: “In an effort to reduce our costs going into these economically uncertain times”.. and go on to explain that users should redouble their efforts to fix any IT issues before asking for the consultant to come in.

3) Update your software to the latest security fixes. These days, all major software has the ability to update itself to the latest version. With anti-virus software you are concerned about “virus defnition files” with windows; with Mac it’s “service packs” or “patches”. Have each member of staff run those on a weekly basis. This will help reduce issues needing the attention of your IT consultant.

Depending on how far you need to cut, you may have to do more than that. Again, your IT guy is the key. Work with him to reduce those costs.

Unfortunately, the dozens of safeguards, the policies and procedures that a huge organisation like the City of San Francisco have would sink the largest of small businesses. To put it in perspective, the 2003 city budget had 31,000 employees. More people work for the city of San Francisco than work for Apple Computers.

Lets put aside the long list of ideas about what could have been done differently, what was done wrong, who was to blame. The real question is how can I prevent it from killing my business.  Today, we take a brief look at:

Sarah Palin!

No, I was just checking if you were still awake. Would be good though.. Blogging about Sarah, those eyes, those boots, ack. Sorry. Back on track.

Backups!

Chances are, if you are a small business, you don’t back your data up properly. (note, I said properly, read below for clarification).

I was at the offices of EasyPark, the company where I park my car. I had loaned my transponder to a friend  and he promptly lost it. (Thanks Scott) Fine, $50 later, and I had a shiny new one. While I was waiting for the receptionist to get me my change, I noticed that there was a backup tape sitting on the reception desk. Clearly marked “Backup”, “Normal 1″, and “to Vault”. Now, since it’s just a tape, most people would think, “hey, neat tape”, or “someone left a tape on the desk”, but since I pay for my parking every month via my credit card, I would bet a months parking that my credit card is on that tape somewhere. When the receptionist returned I thanked her for my change, and as I left, I politely asked her to not leave my credit card number on the reception desk. 

From Their Website:  ”EasyPark presently manages 38 facilities, totaling over 9,300 parking spaces and ranging in size from 20 to 1,577 spaces. We manage premier parkades within the city, including Pacific Centre, Pacific Centre North, Gastown, Library Square, YWCA & Yaletown.“

9300 Parking spaces.. Thats a lot of customer information.. Lets see who owns them.

“Since then, the Parking Corporation of Vancouver/EasyPark, as it now exists, is jointly owned by the City and the Downtown Vancouver Association (DVA). This share structure gives the City sole title to the assets of, and the revenues generated by, the Corporation; while the DVA provides the business expertise to conduct the affairs of the Corporation. It is governed by a board of two appointed and twelve elected directors.“

That was a long walk to make an important point. Making backups is not enough. I bet that they have an awesome backup system. Cleaning tapes, weekly rotations, the whole shooting match. BUT you need to also manage them, know where they are, know who are the people who have their hands on them. This is especially true if you have probably signed an agreement with, say, a bank. An agreement that states you will treat the credit cards of your clients with some kind of security. just saying..

I still think that Sarah Palin thing has legs tho..