Afternoon,
I have found myself in the position where my business has expanded rapidly to the point where employee count has grown from 4 to in excess of 20 over the last 9 months. Combine that with the introduction of some new CPU-heavy software, we are looking to refresh our IT assets.
Currently its a laptop per staff member but could switch to desktops for office-based staff. At the minute, we source them through our external IT support but after they put their cut on top, we're paying 1.5 x the cost that I can obtain a similar spec laptop from Currys or the like.
So, does anyone have any recommendations for the supply of such things? Or am I best to just bulk-order from Dell/Currys/Scan etc.?
Setup can be done by current external IT at time-cost which is significantly less than their mark-up on hardware.
If you buy them yourself, who supports them when they go pop?
What would the ongoing support model cost?
You should be trying to think in terms of total cost of ownership rather than just purchase price.
Apologies if you already have a handle on that.
We purchase all our kit from Apple and have a dedicated business manager (13 in our team). I would assume other manufacturers would do the same?
We buy our laptops from Dell with Dell onsite support. If something breaks, a Dell engineer turns up and fixes it....
Don't Currys add on extras so the sticker price might be misleading compared to final price?
When the IT bod comes up with the cost, do you not challenge them? My last company had an outsourced IT support, they had a fixed set up fee for pcs/laptops to include installing software etc & bringing it to site. A quick comparison to retailers put their prices quite in the ballpark.
It was also easier just to pick up a phone and ask for a new pc, rather than work out specs etc and trawl online and worry that you're ordering xyz chip not knowing a better abc chip is due next week.
@oldtennisshoes at the minute, out IT guys act as the middleman between us and Dell support. We can cut them out. Alternatively, we pay for their time for other problems so, in theory, whether or not we bought the hardware through them is irrelevant.
@fb-atb Haven't actually bought anything from Currys. Last two I've bought from Scan Computers. I just wasn't sure whether that would be recognisable to the reader. Definitely nice to have a single source for the hardware, like a business manager from Apple as per Johndoh's post, which is what I had in mind.
I can't comment on the exact problem, but are the IT guys also adding software etc on top?
if you're looking at buying I would say the money spent on 'enterprise grade' laptops is well spent - HP zbooks, dell latitudes and lenovo thinkpad T range. They're more expensive, spec-for-spec than stuff from currys, but they last forever. You can get 'refurbished' laptops like this from ebay - if you don't need the absolutely latest spec, then they can be a great option. Dell outlet is another good option.
stuff like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324863559871
With regard to providing desktops for office staff, what would happen should there be another lockdown or other unforseen situation? Would the inability to work from home cause further business challenges and is a few days of disruption to your staff worth it for the cost saving on the hardware over a laptop?
We use Dynamic Edge - https://www.dynamicedge.com
I think they are brilliant - our hardware is at cost. My new laptop arriving this week was only £10 cheaper on eBuyer....
They charge a setup fee (£140iirc), and so it should arrive ready to login and go on Sharepoint/O365. My time would cost more to DIY.
We order phones direct with Vodafone, but Dynamic edge also help staff set them up to integrate with our Sharepoint/O365.
We have had some iffy IT companies before - but these guys seem very good, very responsive, and I think although cost us a lot, offer a saving in hassle and saviours when things occasionally unravel.
We also used a really crap local IT support company whose support software was worse than malware. Every time windows put an upadate out, their 'value ad' support SW popped up a box saying install now? Only any key stroke activated yes, which instantly shut down your machine for the update loosing all current work. So if it occured whilst you were mid sentence typing in Word, your machine just reset. I just uninstalled it after it happened, utter garbage....
Well... I sell hardware for a external IT team.
A few things.
Don't buy stuff from PC World / Currys 99% of the stuff they sell on the shelf will be consumer grade (think lots of silver plastic) they're designed for homework / couple of hours a week, not 40. I had a Charity client who thought it was a good idea because they got (near) free OS upgrades from MS, it was a disaster.
They'll also likely be Windows Home machines that will, depending on your set-up need upgrading to Pro, it's £120 per machine at the moment.
When we set-up self-supply hardware we charge 1 hour per device, £95+VAT, but we make it very clear to clients that we'll support it, in the same way we do the stuff we supply UNLESS it's a warranty/hardware issue, when it will be you in the queue in PC World waiting to speak to one of their 'tech experts' etc.
As above, we charge £95 to set up new hardware, full disclosure my margin on a new mainstream desktop will be £120-£150 depending on cost, but we take on the warranty for it etc.
I'm sure a PC hobbyist will tell you how much of a rip-off that it, but like so many industries, most client won't pay enough for support to keep us going, we have to make money from hardware to keep the lights on. Saying that, I know other providers who charge a bigger margin than we do, AND 'project' fees on top.
Would the inability to work from home cause further business challenges and is a few days of disruption to your staff worth it for the cost saving on the hardware over a laptop?
We just took any computer and screen to hand home.
it will be you in the queue in PC World
that's what most people forget when they just look at sticker price...factor in the lost work while the issue is resolved and the penny pinching comes back. The external IT support my last company used were able to provide a loan pc if the fix wasn't quick or there were no spares on site.
Been a while since I did this but whether it’s company or my own machines I try to keep them as expendable as possible. All data backed up regularly, all apps easy to reinstall quickly. Easier these days with Windows autopilot, Intune, Office 365, OneDrive, Adobe Cloud, etc to get someone up and running on a new machine. Once you’re at 10+ machines it’s worth considering if the extra for fancy on-site warranty could be better spent on a spare machine or two - switch out and get repaired at leisure.
Very much agree with shopping at the enterprise end of the laptop market. The likes of thinkpads have proper spares support and service manuals available. The consumer stuff is often cheap unrepairable junk.
May seem a bit odd, but we have bought all our Surface Pros and Samsung smartphonesfrom John Lewis (extended guarantee i think?)
We also buy the very top end workhorse laptops from the Dell Outlet £2k + stuff. Also had top end thinkpads.
We go in a fairly different direction, and buy second hand ThinkPads from Cex and run Ubuntu/Debian on them. Everything that you really need is kept either in software repos, our own CMS or a password manager, and as such you can basically treat the laptops as expendable if you really need to. This is makes it very cheap to get new laptops, and most people will also gain the savvy to set them up the way they like them as well. It also means that they tend to last a while, and you can also generally get replacement batteries and the like.
Of course, it helps that we want to run Linux. I suspect the model wouldn’t work so well for a ‘normal’ business environment.
Setting up a business account with Dell would be the easy answer, I'd also stick with laptops if there's any chance people can WFH (and factor in c-docks, external monitor, mouse and keyboard). I doubt you'd get a meaningful discount at that volume but they're still pretty easy to do business with. Support can be a hassle if you have non-technical users (unless you continue going via your IT services company)
I wouldn't order via the IT services company unless they're doing additional configuration but even then I'd want to check the Dell web-site price vs what they want to charge and query if it seems high.
20 employees, CPU heavy software and growth starts to sound like a rationale for having in-house IT support. Have you done a business case for hiring someone and having them deal with procurement and maintenance?
20 employees, CPU heavy software and growth starts to sound like a rationale for having in-house IT support. Have you done a business case for hiring someone and having them deal with procurement and maintenance?
Too small I'd say.
Our Managed Service would be £1000 + VAT a month for 20 users, that's unlimited support and consultancy, 365 licensing and a full suite of security solutions.
What @P-Jay says.
I have a similar set up you @noone and i use a fantastic company called BCN https://bcn.co.uk/
We have managed desktops and hosted servers with them, it works a treat and they're very good. Worth speaking to for comparison purposes.
P-Jay is there a name we can google for your company?
If you're in Scotland, a fellow STWer has an IT business support company. I won't post details but can point you in the right direction if needed.
