Unless you opt for a business model that will allow you to rent equipment, the resale value of the tech you currently use will be crucial in your ability to innovate your work tools. Needless to say, keeping your equipment up to date is one of the most important things for your office’s efficiency and you need to keep it up to date if you’re to remain on top of your game. This is why you should turn the maintenance of your office tech equipment into one of your priorities. Here are several tips that will help you get there in a simpler, more frugal manner.
Go digital
When it comes to your office printers, the less you use them the more preserved they’ll be. This is quite intuitive and, in the digital age, quite easy to achieve. This means that you need to print only the most vital of documents. Another benefit of this method lies in the fact that it drastically reduces the carbon footprint of your organization. An average office employee prints as much as 10.000 pages every year. Add to this the energy consumed and toner cartridges depleted and you’ll be able to see the full extent of your potential saving.
Managed printing services
Another tip is also one focusing on printers and printing services, seeing as how it brings a series of advantages to the table and saves you from the need to rely too much on your own printers. First of all, it lowers your printing costs. Second, it helps you track and monitor equipment condition and usage, which allows you to organize a lot better and come up with a solid plan for tending to your office equipment. One of the greatest advantages of this method is the fact that you get a specialized technician to tend to your equipment, instead of having to focus on this on your own. All in all, managed services are always a cost-effective solution.
Buy used and refurbished
The next thing you need to understand is the fact that the resale value of your office equipment matters when compared to its original price. You see, there are some items that are faulty, to begin with, which results in them being returned to the manufacturer. The manufacturer later fixes the problem but is still unable to sell the device at its full price. This means that, by buying used and refurbished smartphones for your staff, you stand to get high-end devices for merely a fraction of their original price. This is the best way for you to achieve an outstanding balance between the cost and the quality of the equipment that your team uses.
Desktop instead of laptop
Those entrepreneurs who ware more tech-savvy might find it better to invest in desktops instead of purchasing laptops. This gives you a chance to customize your configurations according to the needs of the team member in question. For instance, someone in your HR or sales department doesn’t need a configuration that’s as powerful as the one on the workstation of a person in charge of web design. Also, if anything malfunctions, you can just replace the part with a new one and somewhat maintain the office tech equipment.
Moreover, in the age of cryptocurrency mining, computer components aren’t losing their value as quickly as they did in the past. This makes maintaining a high resale value of your office equipment a lot easier, especially for those who opt for this path. One last thing, by using this technique, you’re making it easier to update your configuration whenever your budget allows for such a thing.
Be realistic
Lastly, you need to be realistic about the equipment you need and the equipment that you can actually afford. Ideally, every single member of your team would have a high-end device on their hand but is this thing A) necessary and B) viable from your financial standpoint. By answering these two questions you’ll already set yourself on a path towards finding the best solution. Bear in mind that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions that work in this field and that just because something works for your competitors, it doesn’t mean that it will work in your case, as well. Always be ready and willing to adapt.
At the end of the day, those who care about constant innovation are probably best off leasing equipment instead of buying it. Still, this depends on the gadget in question. Smartphones and personal computers are items that aren’t losing that much value over time and items that you aren’t likely to replace anytime soon. In their case, purchasing at a convenient price might be an optimal path. In other words, combining these two methods is probably your safest option, yet, this is for you alone to decide.
