SMEs buy from retailers

Businesses that have 15 to 20 employees typically buy their IT equipment from computer retail stores at a good price and retailers do not add service fees to the cost of the products.

David Hirsch, merchandising director at Incredible Connection, says often when companies are buying R100,000 worth of equipment they will buy it from a retailer and get a reseller to install it.

“We sell a fair amount of PCs with just operating systems and the customers get resellers to implement software applications like Office and antivirus software.”

Most PCs are sold a flat screen, which works out the same or more than buying a laptop computer.

Coupled with the increasing need for users to be able to work from anywhere, this is driving volume sales of laptops, which are growing at 23% a year against PCs at -5%, says Hirsch.

As an extension of this trend, there is an increasing demand for laptops that have built-in 3G capabilities, allowing users to insert a SIM instead of buying a separate mobile data card or modem.

More available and affordable broadband communication is also stimulating demand for webcam functionality on laptops, which allows users to participate in video conferencing, he says.

In addition, there is a high demand for mobile devices like Blackberry and Windows-based smart phones that support internet connectivity.

Wireless network equipment is also increasing in popularity because it saves installing cables, it enables users to move around the office while working and the technology is becoming more affordable, says Hirsch.

Mobility fuels demand

He says the need for mobility is fuelling demand for portable external storage devices, including memory sticks, external hard drives and mini drives.

“External hard drives with 300 gigabytes of capacity are now available for R1400 to R1500.”

Smaller companies are buying higher-end colour laser printers and multifunctional printing devices from retail outlets instead of leasing them, says Hirsch.

“They prefer to purchase these devices outright and not get hooked into long-term rentals.”

He says prices have come down enough to justify doing this and a similar thing is happening with projectors, which were traditionally used on an ad hoc rental basis when required.

Today, a midrange projector costs R4000 to R5000 and if it is going to be used four to five times a year it will be worth buying.

Hirsch says there is a growing demand for IT security products such as firewalls, antivirus and antispam, which indicates preservation of data is an issue.

Source: Business Day

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