How to purchase
Business purchasing for SMB's
Can you say that your small business is purchasing smart? When you purchase your laptops for example are you going to the Apple Store or Curry's (UK laptop supplier) and paying the consumer price for those devices?
It's time to get smarter with your purchasing.
Stragety
Consider that as a small business that your purchasing is in itself an asset. The more effort spent on it the better the return (And a lower depreciation).
It's worth spending some time on your priorities when it comes to purchasing, this will set the tone for many aspects of the business. Consider this;
You order customised laptops from Apple. Typically this can take a few weeks rather than a few days for a standard off the shelf unit. You need to factor that into your staff onboarding.
Your IT is like any other part of the business it needs time to react to requests, asking for the impossible ends up with a compromise, so plan for that. If it takes two weeks to order a custom laptop are you happy to have an off the shelf unit instead?
Write it all down, stick it in a chart and tell everyone! Get everyone to agree.
Budget
A good finance team or person will have you budget for each device. It's worth planning a budget for each staff member based on their role;
- Designers get bigger more powerful laptops and spend more on design software.
- Standard users get a smaller less powerful laptop
- Directors get the same laptop as a standard user but will also get an iPad and mobile phone.
This gives you an idea of expenditure on each type of staff member. Agree a value for each and then sign off on this. IT can then purchase in confidence. If there's a request for something extra this can then go through a sign off process.
Have a process in place so that IT doesn't need to come cap in hand every time someone comes into the building. They are allowed to purchase in reason and anything else needs approval.
Credit
One aspects that's overlooked when purchasing is the ability to use credit services. Many resellers will offer you a budget limit and invoice (Yay!) purchases on net30, net60 or net90.
Purchasing; Computer and Mobiles
It's pays to go to a reseller to purchase your computers and mobile devices. Typically you can get anywhere from 5% to 15% off the retail value. It does pay to shop around with the resellers as well.
When working with a reseller consider that you might not get the best discount, but benefit in other area's. All resellers are specialists in various aspects and may benefit you more in those area's.
For Apple purchases make sure to check that they are Apple authorised resellers. This will allow them to enable Apple Business Manager support (MDM) on purchased machines. They will give you a reseller ID to put into the Apple Business Manager portal.
Some resellers also take on repair work, a one stop shop for your purchasing and hardware support needs!
Quick purchases
While resellers are a good source of items purchasing it's also worth having an account with that Jungle based company which, can get small purchases over night. It's worth noting that using the Jungle based service isn't the cheapest but it is good for small item purchases and random items.
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