DaVex - Shaping Your Cyber Dreams into Web Realities

Office Automation

No longer is a sharp pencil and a legal pad enough to make you competitive as a small business. As computers have infiltrated and entrenched themselves in the world of big business so also have they trickled down to small companies and made themselves a necessity in every business setting.

This of course raises many questions for the small business owner/manager.

1) What computers to buy? Should we go with Macintosh, Windows98, WindowsNT, or Linux? Compaq, Gateway2000, Apple, or HP?

2) What software do we need for our company? Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, Quicken, Contact Managers, internal e-mail, Internet e-mail?

3) Do we connect them together? Ethernet, 10BaseT, Localtalk, ArcNet? What about that TCP/IP stuff?

The questions go on and on but where do the answers come from? DaVex of course.

A few things to keep in mind when you decide you want to make the move to office automation.

There is no holy grail of computers. You won't just bring a computer in and your office will suddenly be streamlined and organized. Making the decision to computerize your company involves not just buying the hardware and software but also developing a plan to transition your paper based activities to an electronic format. This will involve sitting down with someone knowledgeable in computerization to help you define the objectives of computerization. From here you can then make a decision about which hardware/software combination will best meet your needs.

No matter if you're only looking at bringing one computer in or a dozen. Eventually you'll have to address the question of networking. You'll want to share printers, files and phone lines Even if a network isn't in the works with this first computer a little forethought can make it easier when you decide to implement one.

And don't forget the all-encompassing Internet (you're reading this online, aren't you?). Will you need to bring in more phone lines to support a dedicated line? Or maybe you want to go faster and get ISDN or maybe faster yet, a T1 connection.

All these decisions and more face you even before you buy your first computer. As you go forward and bring in more computers the questions and decisions increase rather than decrease.

But don't let all these potential questions overwhelm you. As long as you take the questions one at a time it's a manageable experience and in the long run your company will benefit from it.

If you'd like some help in addressing these questions and more please contact us to set up an assessment meeting to help define your needs and objectives.