What technology costs are involved in opening a new, small business office?

Question

A small organization (4 people) I work with is planning to get office space and I'm compiling a list of technology-related costs. So far I've got:

• PC hardware and software
• PC backup service (cloud)
• Email (cloud)
• File sharing/collaboration (cloud)
• Accounting software
• Internet and local voice service
• Some sort of virtual PBX/phone services, incl. fax, conference calling, ACD, etc.
• Helpdesk support
• Printers, copiers, fax, etc.
• Networking equipment

Am I missing any one-time or ongoing costs?

UPDATE: Here's the list I went with http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhGnwmWjos08dFVsM3pMV1VSNU5sLXNHRTZQNE9lclE&hl=en. The "Item" column (refers to the cost category) is the focus but I've also included some specific product names and estimated costs.

Answer 1

Since most of the actual work is cloud computing, "cloud," I don't really see a need for a server, especially with only 4 users.

4 computers (depending on how strong you need them) can run about 500-1000 from, say Dell. It could be much cheaper from other manufacturers, but then again those prices usually include Office 2007. Since you are cloud computing, then that saves you about 200 per computer. Perhaps invest it into bigger LCD screens. Even those are very cheap nowadays. Optiplex machines are very scalable if you decide to upgrade later on and are reasonably priced.

Since you are a very small network 4 ppl, you could get a package deal with an ISP or phone company, like for example Verizon, check this out: http://smallbusiness.verizon.com/bundles/

You can save a ton bundling, Internet, Voice/Cell into one bill. You won't be using a T1 internet connection in these bundles but with 4 people, I think you guys can get away with a good fiber optic or DSL connection, they are extremely fast for a fraction of the price. (30-80$ without a package)

Help Desk support is going to cost you depending if its a contractor, or an outsourced company, I'd compare, you most likely though won't need them a lot after it's fine tuned. You may get a better price from someone looking for clients than a company dedicated to support. But then quality may suffer, but then again, it's not like you can't fire them for bad work. For example if you just hire someone to fix a problem, expect a person to charge you anywhere from 30 to 75$ an hour, not including hardware that is replaced, driving fee (if any) etc. I personally never did a support job for anything less than 35$/hr, but that's me, others may charge less, others much more, so call around.

A good HP Laser jet printer probably around 500~ depending where you go. You want a workhorse, especially for accounting reports. But then it all depends if you need color and what size paper you need.

The only networking equipment you really need is a switch, to share data with eachother. A good NetGear 8-12 port switch should cost you about 20-30$. Don't forget you'll need CAT5/6 cables which are usually cheap you if make them yourself. Or you could go wireless, but then you'd have to worry about security, encryption, wireless card devices for each computer etc.

While you could create a simply network with shares on each workstation, you could also invest in a small network area storage server, such as SNAP servers ranging in about 200-500$ depending on size and features. Or you could simply purchase an extra computer and put all your data there, but remember, standard Windows OSes do not allow more than 10 connections, so if you grow you'll be stuck. Though Windows 7 Ultimate allows 20 I believe (more if you hack it.)

An on going cost is going to be power from 4 computers, monitors, and a printer, toner and paper. Additionally, you may want to look into buying BATTERY BACKUPs from APC, perhaps the APC SMART UPS RS 800s for quality and good battery time. If you want cheaper, just get their much smaller versions, but with less battery time. You'd hate the power to go out during some accounting transactions.

Hopefully that gives you an idea possible solutions. For the most part you have everything covered except the UPSs I mentioned and perhaps a file sharing device.

Answer 2

• UPSs for machines.
• On-going upgrade costs for your software.

You might be considering those parts of one of your existing bullet points though...

Answer 3

Lets see- you'd probably want a domain name, and use google apps for e mail- its free for under 25 mailboxes, and the combination of space, and maintainability is hard to beat. It also includes a collaberation suite through google docs and a calender system

In my current workplace, we use a canon prisma multifunction device for fax, e mail and printing, tied into a windows network. If you intend to do a LOT of printing, a laser printer might be worth looking into too.Any scanned files go into a shared folder, which is on a windows box we use for common storage and printing - this can be the same box someone uses, but with an additional hard drive for shares - this'll really depend on your setup.

For remote backups, I might take a look at backblaze - its unlimited storage for 5 dollars a month per pc. We use fairly standard free disk imaging software (acronis for example, or a host of free livecds) at the moment, and back up each system to a central storage box (the same one i mentioned earlier- if i wanted a low cost backup system, i'd just have the storage box tied into a cloud backup system

For networking equipment, get a good solid consumer level router, and you should be fine for now. We use a wrt54gl with dd-wrt, and its been troublefree for years.

For virtual PBX in an office, Astrix might be worth looking at, or any SIP based layout. I've never set up one, but there's plenty of good resources on it. I might suggest google voice, but its currently invite only

Answer 4

A few suggestions:

• You may want to call Microsoft Office a biennial expense, as hosted Exchange providers will want you to stay current, and Office 2010 is around the corner.
• Email: Be careful here... some cheap providers skip things like backups. You may want to spend and extra couple of bucks a month to buy Exchange hosting from Microsoft.
• Sharepoint: As with email, you should look at Microsoft hosted services.
• Printers: Personal printers in general are a bad idea that waste money. Invest in a better shared device. Depending on volume, look for local office equipment vendors that offer "managed printing"

Good luck!

Answer 5

If you're going to run Windows, even for four persons, I'd recommend a windows domain to centralize the user accounts and make it easier to somewhere in the future (or now) share files and resources locally.

Having a central server for local files and printer sharing makes some things simpler to handle as well albeit at a slightly higher initial setup cost if you don't have the knowledge or will to do it yourself.

There's a Windows Server Foundation license that includes 10 (or 15) users at a fixed and almost non-existing price which is a fully capable Windows 2008 R2 Standard Server which comes bundled with server hardware (ask around, Dell, HP and so on). This is a much cheaper and more basic solution than even Small Business Server (SBS) so it would be fitting and easy to (have) set up and forget. I think they're competing with free alternatives and simple NAS devices on this one so it's suppose to be extraordinarily cheap.

Besides that part, I agree with most of AdminAlive's points and I especially like the notion of spending extra on the monitors (and the input devices) as that's what you may be locked into staring at and using for a large part of your life - depending on the organisation type? :)