Article provided by Incredible Connection
We often hear that technology is supposed to make life easier. It is there to aid in increasing productivity and help keep your small business organised giving you a competitive edge. Whether you want to improve customer service or communication, productivity or profitability, the efficient use of technology within a small business can go a long way towards making it a success.
With ever increasing and evolving technologies available, how should you go about making the right decisions about your business’s needs? Investing in technology can be daunting, but if done well, can dramatically help your businesses grow. Incredible Connection offers you a few tips to keep in mind for your SME technology needs.
Do you know what tech you already have in place? Now is the perfect time to conduct a technology inventory of your business as it stands. And then ask yourself, how well is it serving your business? Put all your current technology into three categories (good, bad, needs improvement) in order to assess where the gaps in your technological infrastructure are.
When you are used to outdated or sometimes even difficult methods of working, ways to improve can sometimes be difficult to see. Try to think about how your business processes could be made easier by improving the technology available to you and your employees.
Common areas for improvements in technology include but are not limited to the following and would also depend on the type of SME you are and the number of staff you employ:
- Accounting and finance
- Ordering systems
- Database management
- Communication (both internal and external)
- HR management
Solutions can be as simple as a software update or acquiring a licensed software suite to meet business needs. Say you’ve chosen to upgrade your laptop or it’s the first time you’re purchasing one. All the technical jargon can be really overwhelming. We want you to get the best in tech to help your business thrive, improve your efficiency and experience the best in performance.
Below is a walkthrough on what the different terms mean and how it affects the performance of the device. It will also help you choose a laptop that is best suited to you and your business needs.
The CPU is the Central Processing Unit of a computer. This is the most fundamental component of any system: it is the brain. When shopping for a computer, the CPU (also known as the processor) is one of the key parts that will tell you how fast your computer is.
The two biggest processor manufacturers of today are Intel and AMD. What’s important to remember is, the newest processors are the most powerful. Modern computers for everyday use generally use a Core i3 or the equivalent AMD Ryzen. Depending on the number of tasks you wish to perform simultaneously, you will have to choose your processor accordingly.
RAM (Random Access Memory) has the capability of storing data that the computer is currently using, due to the fact that it is faster to retrieve data stored in the RAM. Larger RAM size will mean faster computer performance while smaller RAM size will result in slower computer performance. You should consider RAM of 4GB or higher.
The higher the speed and memory capacity of the hard drive the faster the performance of the computer. Less space on the hard drive will result in slower performance. Hard drives contain data that use most of the memory leaving less memory for the operations of the processor. Modern devices use SSD’s (Solid State Drives) and eMMC’s.
You’re probably familiar with USB memory sticks – SSD can be thought of as an oversized and more sophisticated version of the humble USB memory stick. Like a memory stick, there are no moving parts to an SSD while information is stored in microchips. A hard drive uses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter (disk). This difference is what makes SSD so much faster.
eMMC stands for Embedded Multimedia Card. These cards are like the memory card of your camera with the downside being that they are soldered to the motherboard. They are available in up to 128GB and basically work in the same way as an SSD. They are cheaper than HDD and SSD and make laptops affordable for those that do not require much space.
Finally, when it comes to the quality of pictures and animations, your graphics card is the main factor. If a machine processes many graphics and it has a weak graphic card it will perform slower. The more powerful the graphics card the faster the performance of the computer.
We’re always here to help if you have any questions about getting the best in tech solution for your business. Feel free to contact Incredible Connection for your tech-related needs, to ensure that you stay agile and thrive.
Incredible Connection is a proud Partner of the NSBC