True laptop costs for Small Businesses
There are numerous costs to consider when selecting a laptop for employees in your small business. The cost of the machine is significant but you may suffer sticker shock if you do not consider other costs. An inexpensive $500 laptop may cost you closer to $1000 once you account for cost of service agreements, operating system upgrades, data protection, and backup.
Support Agreements
Accidental damage agreements are vital for laptops since they can suffer numerous tragedies over their service life. The Assure Extended Service Plan from Microsoft Store and Peace of Mind from Dell offer coverage for accidental damage. The plans cost $80 and $118 respectively for two years of coverage. Dell’s small business plans offer similar options. In-store replacement offers a great advantage for those living near a Microsoft Store. Dell’s service is by mail.
Two year Priority telephone support for both hardware and software issues will cost you $168 for Total Support from Dell and $198 for Signature Premium from the Microsoft Store ($99/year).
Table 1 – Support Summary
As you can see the support agreement costs are a significant portion of the total cost of ownership for a laptop.
Data Security
Next consider the value of you data should the laptop fall into the wrong hands. Are you liable for sensitive data governed by your own privacy policy, government regulations etcetera? Software like McAfee’s End Point Protection offer a robust layer of protection. This software, or similar, can add another $50 dollars to the cost of you laptop.
Data Backup
Traditional backup requires something more than simply mirroring files to the cloud or copying to an external disk. Ideally you would like to have historic snapshots of your data and programmable retention periods. This level of sophistication will require additional software and data storage costs for each of you mobile staff. There are many offerings on the market that offer secure, encrypted cloud storage each will add a per seat cost of $30 dollars or more. Vendors to look at include KeepVault Pro, Mozy Pro, Cloudberry, and SugarSync. Each will have it’s pros & cons. Be sure to factor in your data storage costs as the organization grows.
Finally, we are ready to talk hardware costs. Let’s look at key factors to consider and leave it at that given everyone’s budget is different.
CPU: Entry level CPUs (Intel’s i3) will do just fine for most business applications. You may want to spend for the i5 if you are doing some serious number crunching or photo/video editing.
RAM: Minimum 4Gb
Weight: Everyone wants less
Battery life (inversely related to weight): Everyone wants more. Remember numbers are always over stated and get worse with time.
Screen size (inversely related to battery life): Compact size for use in airline seats, ease of carrying, or longer battery life; Large size for home & office use or for reading information dense displays.
Heat & Noise: Some lesser laptops can produce large amounts of heat and fans can roar in order to fight the thermal battle. It is best actually demo the laptop or carefully read reviews for these characteristics.
Windows Version: You will want to pay to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro if your PC needs to join a corporate domain. You will want to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate if you intend to use BitLocker for data security instead of something like McAfee’s Endpoint Security. These upgrades can add $200.00 or more to the cost of your laptop.
$500 to $800 should get you a very good piece of hardware that will provide a 3 year service life. There will be many holiday hardware deals this season so keep your eyes open and be mindful of the total costs.
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