Desktops & Notebooks

Desktops & Notebooks: The first step

Desktops are the basic IT infrastructure in a small business and the adoption of laptops and thin clients is growing. By Vinita Gupta

It’s difficult to find companies that have a turnover of more than Rs 25 crore that haven’t deployed PCs. It is quite possible that a small company may not have a large IT deployment but it will have a few PCs. Which is why the survey indicates that 99 percent of companies from the base of 197 respondents use desktops.

PCs in the small business sector are primarily used for accounting, storing data and for interacting with customers through the Internet. The desktop is transforming the process of handling accounts on papers.

When we say that adoption has increased it doesn’t means that all employees in an organisation have access to PCs, for instance at Kunal Corporation a manufacturing & engineering company there are 17 employees but they have eight PCs as only seven to eight employees require it for running an accounting application. In the same way Roots Industries has 2,000 employees and 100 desktop users. Also all the PCs in a small business may not have an Internet connection.

In contrast to that the broking agencies have more desktops than they have employees. For instance Dhyan Stock Broking has 10 employees and around 35 PCs so that the customers who are planning to buy or sell the shares can use office PCs and the brokers earn commissions on the trades made.

Notebooks for marketing

The usage of notebooks is seen only among employees, who are mobile and higher up in the hierarchy. The survey indicates that 76 percent of companies (from the base of 197 respondents) use notebooks and most small businesses stick to branded notebooks. Take for instance, the marketing people at Serdia Pharmaceuticals a company that has bought 50 notebooks from Toshiba, HP, IBM for instant reporting.

Bundled with high-end applications and flexible in usage, the penetration of notebooks is expected to be the highest in services like healthcare, logistics, hospitality and advertising agencies. The operating system on these laptops is Windows XP and broadband connectivity is preferred.

Swapnil Chemvurkar, Manager in Seri Industries an FMCG or Consumer Durable Company adds, “The marketing people are always on the field. Therefore laptops are used by marketing and technical people so that they can interact with people in the office. We have Windows XP home edition as the operating system and broadband connectivity.”

Roots Industries, a manufacturing company, has ten desktops for its marketing people and leased lines for Internet connectivity.

Gaurav Bharagava, Team Leader, Bairon Tele Communication adds, “Out of the five laptops that we have, three are used by the marketing people and two by the management. We use Windows XP as the operating system and broadband for Internet connectivity.

“We have two or three laptops for people on the field as it helps them make presentations to clients. The laptops connect to the Internet over the office LAN,” adds Harshal Pandya, systems administration, ETV Gujarat.

But small firms look for notebooks that are inexpensive and offer new technology. That is why most vendors have brought down the prices of entry-level models. Higher-end notebooks have newer and faster technology such as wireless connectivity, TFT screens, DVD combo drives, data protection and security features. It is believed that small businesses represent a substantial opportunity, as this segment prefers notebooks for its sales staff and middle management.

Branded or Assembled

The adoption of branded systems is a trend that is being witnessed in small businesses. Most small businesses feel that the driving factors for investing in branded PCs are better products and technology, service support, lower TCO and maintenance costs—although the initial cost is high. Also the bridging of the price gap between branded and assembled systems has contributed to the adoption of branded desktops among small firms. Some companies are planning to launch Rs 15,000 desktops to give the impression that even branded players can offer low-cost desktops.

A few years back Everest Finance, a financial services company, had deployed assembled PCs. It faced a lot of problems and now it has replaced the assembled PCs with branded ones as the company feels that the latter are more reliable and that even if something goes wrong then service and support is provided by the vendor.

To date there are many small companies using assembled desktops or using both branded and assembled. But users contacted showed no preference for assembled notebooks over branded ones.

For instance Serdia Pharmaceuticals uses both branded (from HP and IBM) and assembled PCs and of the eight PCs that Kunal Corporation has, two or three are branded PCs from IBM.

But Lakewood Malls and Seri Industries have assembled PCs as these are cheap and according to them they face no problems in using the same. Ashish Appukuttan, EDP Officer of Lakewood Malls adds, “We uses assembled PCs as they are cheap and we can customise them. Till date we have no problem in using these PCs.”

There are companies who are using either branded or assembled for years, like from the beginning Bairon Tele Communication has used assembled PCs and for the last 15 years Roots Industries is using branded PCs from Wipro.

Basic configuration preferred

The configuration used by a small business varies as per need but the basic configuration in use is a P3 or P4 processor with 256 or 512 MB RAM and usually a 40 GB hard drive. Most small companies prefer Windows as the operating system as they feel that it is more user friendly than Linux.

Small businesses usually don’t have a fixed time period to replace their hardware and software; they replace it as per requirements. Most small businesses usually don’t have an IT department and hence they outsource the replace and upgrade process of hardware and software on the PC. Companies that have an IT department usually do it on their own.

Ashish Appukuttan, EDP Officer, Lakewood Malls adds, “We prefer Windows XP as the operating system as it’s easy to use and the PCs have P3 processor, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB hard disc with LAN and Internet connectivity.”

ETV Gujarat is a five year old media company. The company is presently replacing its systems and for that it has a contract with the vendor. At present the company runs Windows XP on systems with 2.6 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM and 40 GB hard disks.

Serdia Pharmaceuticals had outsourced upgrades and replaces hardware and software on an as needed basis. Girish Sharma, the company’s Head of IT adds, “We always prefer the latest configuration and hence we are using Windows XP and Intel P4s.”

“Last year we replaced the hardware and software. We have upgraded the operating system from Windows 98 to Windows XP and presently we are using P4 processors and 256 MB RAM,” says Dinesh Kumar, Manager Systems, Janta Travels.

Being a finance company Everest Finance requires speed and hence they use Intel P3 and P4 processors.

Ankur Mehta, Director, Dhyan Stock Broking adds, “We are planning to go for dual core processors. In every two or three years we replace the hardware and software on the PCs.” Presently the company’s standard PC configuration is Windows 2000, P4 processor, 512 RAM and a 40 GB hard disk.

Roots Industries, a manufacturing unit has Windows 2000 and Windows XP, dual core processor, 512 MB RAM and a 80 GB hard disc as the basic configuration. According to O A Balasubramain its GM –IT, the configuration varies depending according to the employees work requirements.

Investments to be made

The survey indicates that the investments in desktops, notebooks and thin clients will continue in all verticals. If the chemical & pharma vertical shows interest in notebooks, services and IT/ITES are conservative. You would be wondering that mobility plays an important role in the services vertical so why is adoption low. The reason is that these verticals have already invested in notebooks. According to the survey from the base of 62 respondents from the Services vertical, 76 percent have already invested in notebooks and 31 percent are planning to invest.

The adoption of thin clients is low in all the verticals across the small business sector excluding IT/ITES and services as these verticals have some implementations. However, companies across verticals are planning to invest in thin clients.

Presently from the base of around 18 companies in the chemical/pharma and 19 in auto/auto components, no companies have deployed thin clients but companies from these verticals are planning to invest with 11 percent and five percent respectively indicating that they will do so in the coming year. 23 percent of IT/ITES companies plan to invest in thin clients.

Investment decisions in a small business are made by the management and they usually don’t have a planned budget for the same.