What Computers Do I Need For My Small Business?

Wayne, a young businessman near Toronto, Canada, asked what kind of computing power he might need for his business. Wayne runs an online grocery business with a very real bricks-and-mortar warehouse. Because of draftiness in the warehouse office in the winter, he moved his computer back to his home office, where he only has dialup access to the Internet. In the warehouse, he has no access to the Internet.

Wayne’s business setup is as follows. He has a webmaster maintain his site. People can order groceries from him via email or the website. He gets numerous emails daily, but since he works out of the warehouse, he cannot access the emails until he gets home at the end of the business day. On Fridays, his suppliers email bulk price updates, and he has to update his website immediately to reflect the changes. This is a tedious task that simply must be done, but he would like to do it as soon as possible. I.e., while he is still at the warehouse office on Fridays, instead of having to wait until he’s home.

Wayne also mentioned that, on occasion, he might go up to the cottage and want to bring along a computer so that he can access emails and possibly do a bit of work. While I suggested a variety of computing and communication setups to Wayne, I am repeating my suggestions here for the benefit of other business people who find themselves in similar situations.

Given the nature of Wayne’s business setup and the fact that he’s quite mobile, he has a couple of choices for computing power:

1. Insulate the warehouse office and have an Internet connection installed. This might be costly, as a business would pay more for the Internet than a private citizen at home. Also, Wayne would no longer have a computer at home.
2. Purchase only a smartphone or PDA. He already has a computer at home, so if he just wants to access emails throughout the day, he could go for a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) such as a Palm Treo or a RIM Blackberry, or even one of the newer breed of smart mobile (cell) phones. The PDA selected must have some way to connect to the Internet. (Older PDAs did not even have cellular connections.) These PDAs and smartphones come with a variety of software, and custom applications can be added to some devices. The plus is that he also has a cell phone, possibly with text messaging. The drawback is that Wayne has a great deal of data to enter every Friday. From what he’s told me, that probably rules out using a PDA, as they’re not suitable for entering large volumes of data. In fact, doing so may cause MTS (Meta-carpal Tunnel Syndrome) in your hands.
3. Purchase a PDA and have a custom software application built. This application would run on Wayne’s home computer, scan incoming emails from suppliers, summarize price changes, then automatically update his website. The drawback here is that it is doubtful his suppliers will conform to a single format for the emails, and thus writing a program to scan and summarize may be expensive, if not fruitless. If Wayne can convince all or most suppliers to adhere, then this might be the best solution, as it will save him from having to manually update his website each week, freeing up his time for other tasks.
4. Purchase only a “mobile-enabled” laptop. The newer mobility laptops usually have a variety of ways to talk to other computers. So Wayne could use this laptop at the warehouse and offsite, then connect to a private local network at home to offload data for backup to his home computer. If he is at a cafe or somewhere that has a publicly-accessible Wi-Fi network with a connection to the Internet. The drawback to this solution is that he has no connection to the Internet at work, nor at the cottage, so he still would not be able to retrieve emails at those locations.
5. Purchase a laptop with a long-range Wi-Fi networking card. These cards are hard to find, but if you can, they will often reach up to 10 km (about 6 miles). In Wayne’s case, if he sets up a Wi-Fi network on his home computer (which is connected to the Internet on dialup), and if he is within range, he can retrieve emails on the laptop, or update prices on the website. This still rules out retrieving emails at the cottage, which is more than 10 km away. (Experimental Wi-Fi antennas claim distances of up to 100 km or more, but these are not available to the public, and often make your cellular Wi-Fi providers froth at the mouth, since you won’t need them for mobility.
6. Purchase a Bluetooth-enabled PDA and a Bluetooth-enabled laptop. Bluetooth is yet another connection technology with its own pros and cons. However, a PDA such as the Palm Treo can let a laptop or desktop computer connect to the Internet through a Bluetooth connection. (There are other connection options, but they are slower.) Most cellular providers have an “unlimited” monthly plan for Internet access. Most of them call it Wi-Fi, but note that Wi-Fi does not necessarily imply access to the Internet, except in the case of smartphone plans. Also, “unlimited” does not always mean unlimited, as I found out with my plan. Finally, note that not all mobility laptops have Bluetooth installed. The necessary software is typically part of most modern operating systems. So all you have to do is buy a Bluetooth card that either installs into one of the laptop’s USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, or into the PCMCIA card slot (ask your sales rep). The primary drawback is that you might find yourself easily exceeding your monthly Internet bandwidth and paying exorbitant “excess” fees.
7. Purchase a laptop with a cellular Wi-Fi card. This solution is similar to the previous one. A cellular Wi-Fi card is a PCMCIA card that contains the necessary circuitry to connect your laptop to the Internet, provided you are within a suitable coverage area. While these cards are set up with their own phone number, you will not have the benefit of having an actual cell phone, and you will have to pay whatever monthly Internet “cellular Wi-Fi” rate that your cellular provider asks. (High-speed home access to the Internet typically gives you a higher access speed and more monthly bandwidth for less money.)

There are other solutions, but they are primarily a variation of those above. Which solution is best for Wayne’s situation? Well, assuming that he does not want to install Internet access at work, and wants to access email from the cottage, options 6 or 7 above are probably the best for him. Many cellular providers are nearly giving away PDAs right now if you sign up for a 3-year coverage plan. You can upgrade to a smartphone from your current cell phone for little to no equipment cost, but your monthly bill will increase. If you choose option 7 but still need a phone, you will be paying for two plans. I’d say that Wayne could justify option 6, since he told me that his phone plan has to be upgraded soon anyway. The time he would save overall would be worth the extra monthly costs.

This is the first of a loose series of case studies. If you have questions about how computers or related technology can help your business, your questions are welcome. I will try to answer questions in a timely fashion.

Technorati Tags: itsmybizniz, its my bizniz, PDA, cellular Wi-Fi, home network, mobile computing, smartphones, productivity

« Previous Post | Next Post »

3 Comments to “What Computers Do I Need For My Small Business?”

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>