Okay, that doesn’t hold true with everything. But one thing it most certainly holds true with is monitors. For many years we have used dual monitors in our office and our homes. We often recommend it to our clients. At first when we would try to convince business owners to invest in dual monitors for themselves and their employees they were hesitant. After giving them a trial week with the dual monitors, we couldn’t get any back.

As recently as this weekend my wife, not a techie by any means, was using the dual monitors in our home to do some work and within two hours she was emailing her boss as a “must have” for the office. Just imagine how nice it would be to compare spreadsheets with two full screens. Imagine quoting an article while having it open on the screen to your left and typing on the screen to your right.

Monitors today range from $100 to $300, making dual monitors a minor investment (especially considering the years a monitor lasts). The increased productivity you or your employees will receive from the addition of another monitor more than justifies the cost. There have been many studies done that indicate dual monitors increase productivity from anywhere from 9 and 50 percent.

Bill Gates uses three monitors while he works and look how well that turned out for him…

I definitely understand the manta “if it ain’t broke” and in some instances you shouldn’t fix it. Although with regard to technology I think the phrase “if you don’t move forward, your falling behind” is more applicable.

While Windows XP probably works well on your machine, wait until you see it running Windows 7. It’s hard to believe that Windows XP is over ten years old. A lot has changed in technology and how small businesses use technology over the past ten years. The beauty of Windows 7 is that it breathes life into your machine. No new hardware is required and it can revive machines that are even a few years old; faster boot up time, quicker responsiveness and an unparalleled search are just some of the new features.

For $150 per machine you can upgrade from XP or Vista to the latest and greatest from Microsoft. However, any custom business applications should be tested by your IT provider on Windows 7 before any upgrades are rolled out. Most Microsoft business applications (ex: Office) will work fine and the transition will be smooth. For more information or for any questions, please contact us.

Lately, we have been getting many questions from business owners about Hosted Exchange versus In-House Exchange. As an IT professional, who has been in the business longer than I’d care to admit, this was very exciting news! Not so long ago we had to explain the benefits of Exchange to our customers and now they are bringing it up in conversation, asking for specific solutions. This definitely makes a more interesting conversation. Many of the clients that we have been talking with seem to like the Host Exchange concept and think it’s the way to go mainly due to the fact that is “cheaper” then building and maintaining an in- house Exchange environment. But the truth is it’s not always that simple; there a two factors in determining which exchange solution is right for you: How many users? What is your upfront and long term budget?

We will start by analyzing two companies, Company A and Company B. Company A has three employees, while Company B has twenty five employees. For comparison purposes, all employees in both companies have blackberries (because, let’s face it who doesn’t nowadays?) and require 5GB mailboxes per employee (standard). Now let’s take our calculators and do some math.

Company A

Hosted: The industry standard per mailbox is generally around $10. To be even more specific, Intermedia (Our favorite Hosted Exchange provider) charges $10.30 per mailbox and $32.85 for three mailboxes. Then add in a blackberry per employee at $9.95 a pop, for a monthly total of $29.85 for all the employees. So our monthly total for 3 users with blackberry support is $62.70 that adds up to $752.40 annually.

In-House: Considering the cost, generally, there is really no good reason for a 3 man shop to have an in-house Exchange server. You will be wise to stick with hosted Exchange.

Moving right along….

Company B

Hosted: Intermedia has a plan for 25 users at $270 per month add in Blackberry’s for $248 per month for a total of $518.75 per month. That comes out to $6225 a year.

In-House: Presumably if you’re a 25 person shop, you already have a server. Therefore to consider the true cost of bringing Exchange in-house, we need to look at the difference of software with Exchange versus software without Exchange. Lucky for us, Microsoft has a product suited perfectly for small companies, perfectly named Small Business Server (“SBS”). The cost to buy SBS and the appropriate Exchange licenses is $4,300 (includes Exchange and Blackberry licenses for 25 users). The same set up with a standard server (not SBS and no Exchange) is $1,200. The difference between the two setups is $3,100, approximately six months of hosted exchange.

It’s important to consider set-up and maintenance for Exchange. If you’re a 25 person shop, hopefully you have someone maintaining your IT infrastructure. The cost to implement SBS with Exchange should be a flat rate negotiated with all your other needs. Generally any IT solutions provider worth their salt should be able to maintain this SBS set up for around $350 a month (includes backup and spam filter for all users).

In conclusion, in-house Exchange is cost effective (if set up and maintained properly) and can give you granular functionality that you may not have in a hosted Exchange environment. Obviously we did two extremes in the examples above and there is a lot of middle ground. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for a free evaluation of your needs.