Yes, it’s a £million pound note and it exists, not that you will ever see one, they are used to back the money issued by independent UK banks. Small business wastes more than 1000 of these every year by making the wrong decisions when it comes to computers systems & software.

Instead of saving money you can easily be wasting it. We have cut fact from fiction to help you save money and stop wasting it. We will look at what you might easily waste or save over a period of up to six years.

Buying cheaper machines – Waste of £200
You really do get what you pay for. If you buy a cheaper machine you may think you are saving money but you are just buying equipment that is either already old or never going to be fast enough. You will be putting your hand in your pocket every two or three years or suffering for years with inadequate performance. A cheap computer costs about £300 but a good one will be £700 and will last three times as long. Save £200

Windows server – Waste of £9,000
Windows servers used to be good value because you got all the software you wanted from Microsoft but at a cut-down price for small business. If you want it now then it will need to be the powerful stuff that big business buys but with the hardware to suit. Email, Data and SQL with a meaty system will cost you around £12,000. You can get the same out of a Linux server for around £3,000. It uses powerful software that’s virtually free. This is a whole other subject so talk to us to find out more as not every supplier is clever enough to supply it.

Use the cloud – £unlimited waste
Beware the cloud-only salesperson. Using the cloud is just paying to use someone elses computer and if you pay for anything then you are just throwing money away 10 Mailboxes for business cost £6 a month each, that’s £4,320 over six years. It’s the same thing for Accounts, Backup, CRM, HR, It all adds up to a small fortune over time. Years ago there was the computer bureau, they died when people could do their own computing with a PC. The cloud has taken us back in time and up in costs. If you want to spread the cost use leasing. The cloud is good for offsite backup and sharing data but there are usually cheaper ways.

Lease a system – Save – £unlimited
The main reason for using the cloud is to spread the cost but it’s really expensive. With a lease you can spread the cost, saving your cash-flow, and at the end you can still own the equipment without paying any more. You can also save tax which if you can’t do if you buy it outright.

Refurbished equipment – save between £300-£600
Like buying a used car the price of IT equipment drops immediately its out the box. Some top end equipment is only in use for short times and then it becomes available with several years life still in it and usually with a years guarantee. A used Lenovo workstation can save you £300. Laptops are an even bigger saving, you can get a £1200 top end laptop for £400.

Use open source software – Save £unlimited
There are two types of software, they are both branded and commercial but one is owned by shareholders, the other is freely available open source. The difference is that software like Sage will cost you £thousands but open source software is free irrespective of users and size. If you consider that the Government have just endorsed LibreOffice which is a free version of Microsoft Office it might make you look at this option. Like Linux its only the technically capable computer companies that supply it.

Buy full support – Waste £unlimited
Support cost is the reason big companies have their own IT department or else they pay huge sums to support companies. There is a different between the next day support offered by Dell and the full support offered by people like Yellow Hammer. Full support means that you pay whether you use it or not. We offer a ClubClass package, most of the support you get is free and if its going to be a big bill then we give you a 40% discount for being a loyal client.

Extended warranties -Waste £unlimited
This is a bet as big as a lottery ticket. Equipment goes wrong in the first year or in the after the third. The first year is covered by a manufacturers warranty and a 3 year cover only gives you an extra two years, when the item is least likely to go wrong. You would be better getting CMX ClubClass cover, it covers the bits that the extended warranties don’t and it works out cheaper. You can always buy a lottery ticket instead of extended warranty, the chances of winning are usually better than betting on a fault.

Turning off your equipment at night – Save £900 per system
You average computer uses 200 watts but if its left on there is 16 hours a day its doing nothing but burning money. If you turn your systems off and on each day then you will save £900 on a 13p a Kw unit tariff. You can even automate it to turn off and on. The savings with servers is even more and you can save two to three times this amount. WE just add a simple program and some computers will turn themselves on at a pre-set time.

Talking to a single source adviser – Waste unlimited  £900 per system
If you ever want advice you don’t just ask someone who has a single solution, if you were looking for a vehicle you wouldn’t go to a motorbike shop. The salesman will try to sell you what he’s got, not what he hasn’t. A salesman from a single brand of software offers a choice of one, same as a cloud supplier, buy or don’t.

To make a real choice on what is best for you need to talk to people who have the experience and knowledge of all the options, A source who supply everything. Cloud, Hybrid, Hardware, Software, proprietary, Open Source, PC and Apple. That way you will examine all the options and you will know what is waste and what are savings.

CMX business computing is all about getting the right equipment, with the right service at the right price, now and for the future. We put your needs first,  not what makes us the most money, We would rather have a customer for years than make a quick-kill sale and then forget them. That’s why we deal with many solution providers. We don’t have sales people and we offer whole of market not a one product solution.