T hroughout this book I have emphasised the advantages of having a computer system to look after your management information. It does not matter what size or type of business you operate – a computer is an essential piece of equipment for you. Technology does not, of course, merely relate to computers. Other items of technology that you might use in your business include:When you start your business you should be thinking small. You will need to appraise critically whether a particular item of technology is absolutely essential. As a specific example I would caution you against either purchasing or leasing a photocopier, at least initially.For some reason photocopiers can be very temperamental and there are other options available, such as a copy facility on a fax machine or computer printer. There are also numerous small shops where a photocopy service is offered at a minimal cost per page.
Choosing A Computer System
With the speed of change in the specifications of computer systems, it is impossible to recommend any basic system. There are, however, a number of things that you should consider because your computer may
provide the whole foundation of your business information and management system:
- The processor speed may have little importance to you because it will not be required to run complex games software. Although processor speeds are increasing, indeed probably doubling every year, you will not really require the latest model
- The hard drive capacity will be more important to you and it should be as large as you can afford. You will not wish to run out of space and then have to transfer all your files to another system
- In terms of RAM, the more that you have the better because it will speed up the running of your applications. At the very least you should look at a system with a minimum of 256MB.
Keeping Duplicate Records
This is often ignored by most businesses with computerised accounts. There can be serious consequences if this task is not undertaken. You cannot ignore the fact that technology does sometimes go wrong and computers are no exception.
If I were to lose the information stored on my computer I would be absolutely devastated. For this reason I have at least three back-up copies stored in different places, including one on a totally remote computer system. This means it is merely a minor irritation for me to retrieve a back-up copy.
Making Regular Copies
You must make regular copies of your accounting records. At the very least, this should be done once a week, although daily would be even
better. There are a number of different ways in which you can make copies. You can store a copy in a different place on your hard drive, although this in itself is not recommended. If a hard drive fails it usually affects the whole drive and not just segments of it.
A better method would to be use an alternative storage device, or example:
- tape drive streamer
- zip disk
- CD-ROM.
All these alternatives are relatively cheap to purchase and are sometimes offered as part of the computer system. All offer a large volume of storage space, for example a CD-ROM will store at least 650Mb of information on each disk.
Deciding On A Printer
The appearance of your documents is important and, in my opinion, only a laser printer will produce the required quality. You probably do not require one that prints more than eight pages per minute nor one that can deal with anything other than black and white printing on standard A4 paper.
There are also a number of printers on the market which have additional functions, such as a combined scanner, copier and printer. These could be a cheaper alternative than purchasing the three items separately.
The cost of colour inkjet printers have also substantially reduced in recent years and a ‘photo quality’ printer could be useful if you are going to print your own publicity material. It is entirely a matter of
personal choice. You will, of course, also need to consider the relative costs of replacement printer cartridges.