From time to time, we get clients who wish to purchase their own hardware but have us implement the solution. Most of the time we have no issue with this, but when we encounter a computer that was specifically purchased to save money, knowing that it will alienate the client with their lack of performance, we must advise them that we will not work on it.

That being said, if you have an option to purchase business-grade hardware, I extremely recommend doing it.

Understanding Business-Grade Computers

Residential based hardware is based on quantity sales. If I can buy 1 million low-end chips and put them into a low-end chassis with a low-end warranty, I will make a greater profit because of the number of computers I just sold. That sounds great from a business perspective when you are selling computers, but as a person who is purchasing, you will encounter an issue that would not present itself if you had bought a commercial grade computer.

Costs: Time in Money

Business grade computers are designed for performance but obviously can cost 2 to 3 times more than his residential machine. Now if you’re going on a straight dollar value of the machine, it makes sense, but businesses have to look at the big picture, all costs. If you have to wait an extra 15 minutes a day to accomplish a task because the CPU on your computer is slow, try to imagine that cost over the period of the year. You most likely obliterated all savings.

Commercial Grade Warranties

The other issue that I tell people about all the time, and was just proven again. The warranties and hardware replacement (check out our blog, Computer Warranties: Know What They Cover Before You Claim) from a residential versus a commercial computer are vastly different.

A prime example is that we had a client by 60 Lenovo residential based computers because they physically looked great. And they did. But two of them had a motherboard failure. As per the required warranty from Lenovo, it had to be shipped to them, diagnosed and it would be shipped back. We shipped out the clients computer on November 15, 2017, and we received it back on January 2, 2018. Easily 45 days + for warranty repair. For a business that would be devastating. Luckily for them, they are a managed client, and we had backup hardware that would do the same thing. If they didn’t have us, as a small business, it would’ve taken them out of business.

At the same time, we had a client had a hard drive failure from a Dell laptop. It was only six months old, but hardware failures do occur. We contacted Dell before noon on a Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon the next day, we had the replacement drive. The support that we received from Dell was second to none.

That is a lesson that I tried to inform people, look at all of the costs including what it would take to replace, upgrade, and repair. Want to learn more about getting your business’s hardware and IT managed? Contact Triton Technologies today.