12 Surefire Signs Your Business is Ready for a Server

If you are like most small businesses, you acquire desktop computers, phone systems, and software in a random, “buy-it-when-you-need-it” fashion as your business operations demand it.

But at some point, this patchwork of stopgap technology you’ve acquired is going to end up costing you more in downtime, system errors, breakdowns, and other problems than it would to rip out and replace everything.

If you’ve suddenly become aware that you’re at that stage of growth in your business, then you want to stop purchasing more software and hardware in a willy-nilly fashion and get serious about planning for your future growth and business operations so you don’t end up with a big pile of expensive hardware and software spaghetti that doesn’t meet your business needs.

One Big Secret To Saving Money

One secret to saving money on IT costs is to strive for as much uniformity and connectivity as possible across your business network – and the first place to start achieving that is through the use of a server.

If you have two or more computers that are loosely connected to share information, printers, scanners, Internet access, or fax machines, then you could inject a great deal of simplicity, productivity, and security with a small business server.

A server simply acts as a single specialized computer that ensures all of the computer connected to it (called “clients”) have access to the resources, information, and systems they need, faster, and with fewer problems. It also acts as a centralized manager to make sure data is secure and organized.

They’re Not Just For Big Business Anymore

At one time, servers only made sense for large organizations because of their high cost and complexity. But today, there are very affordable and easy-to-implement server systems designed specifically for a growing small business. If you’re not absolutely certain that installing a server could help your business enough to justify the cost, here are 12 surefire signs that your business could definitely benefit from an upgrade.

12 Signs That Your Business Is Ready For A Server

1. You have two or more computers that need to share office equipment (printers, fax machines, scanners) and resources (Internet access).
2. You have irreplaceable files and data residing on more than one computer that need to be secured from loss, corruption, or unauthorized access.
3. You need (or would like to have) secure access to your computer files while traveling or working from home.
4. You need to back up critical files on more than one computer, and you would like to be able to restore accidentally deleted files or previous versions of your files.
5. You need CRM (customer relationship management) software and accounting programs to manage and communicate with your growing list of clients and vendors.
6. You need to manage different versions of one file.
7. You need a central communication system that makes it easy to schedule group meetings and share information with employees, vendors, and customers.
8. You need to allow employees to share databases and other software tools.
9. You would like to send group faxes and e-mail broadcasts to customers.
10. You want to save money by hosting your own company website and e-mail.
11. You want to control employees’ access to sensitive financial records and personnel information.
12. You want a central access point for information instead of having to hunt down various files and data on various computers on your network.