Perhaps the element that has made the most progress toward customer usefulness in the past 20 years has been computer hardware. Today's modern computers all support the industry standard Ethernet networking system and virtually all equipment works together in that TCP-IP environment. Along with the hardware, today's standard operating systems - Windows, Linux, Unix, and Macintosh OS - also support this standard networking environment. So in today's systems all kinds of equipment can share the same network in many ways. The primary consideration for the hardware these days is whether the software you have selected supports the type of server you prefer and the type of "clients" (user workstations) you prefer.
What does that mean? Most business software is designed to run in a "client/server" environment. That means the company's data (that is used by everyone in your company) resides in a single computer system (the server), and the "clients" (the people who are using the system) have workstations. The software will oftentimes have been designed to run about the same on a server running Windows, Unix, or Linux, and usually client workstations running Windows. Some software packages offer more options, but most do not. Some business software is offered in a Mac OS environment, but they are rare.
However, the brand of server and workstation is usually left up to you. And in many cases the brand is not a differentiating factor in terms of performance. There are factors that you should consider, however:
- Reliability. Sometimes what appears to be cheap is not really cheap. Do your due diligence. And be sure you have a good source for repairs and maintenance.
- Supportability. Some workstations are more supportable than others. For example, laptop computers are not as repairable as desktops. A standard network of Windows PCs and Windows, Linux and Unix servers is very supportable.
The most important items in the hardware decisions are the following:
- The machines (both clients and servers) and the network should have the power to drive the number of user sessions you need, at a pace that doesn't make your operators wait. It should also have the power to add more users and still maintain an adequate speed. The amount of growth capability to buy depends on your situation.
- It should have the storage capacity to store, retrieve and process the number of transactions and data files you need, plus a growth factor of at least 100 percent. The good news is that today's systems come with loads of memory and disk storage space.
- If you should outgrow it, you should be able to replace the main system server, move your programs and data into the new one, and keep on processing. In other words, it should be compatible with future servers.
- Be sure to get a reliable back-up device - usually a tape drive of some type. It's incredibly important that your system be backed up regularly, so be sure a good, reliable back-up methodology is in the system.
Although the initial purchase price of the equipment is relatively low, because your expensive people are all using it, the investment in equipment is very important. Be sure to get more than you need. If it is doing its job, your computer system threads through every part of your organization, and through every transaction. The cost of changing these processes is very high, and once they are working well, you certainly want the system to be reliable.
And if it breaks, you want support to be fast and efficient. So keeping it standard is the key.