Peter Miller, Sales Manager, ETB Technologies
Financial planning starts with knowing what your business needs. It’s a concept that seems simple, but isn’t necessarily so straightforward; financial planning involves forward thinking, to consider both the current and future needs of your business to best manage the return on investment. In a time of continued uncertainty, it can feel like a monumental task for business owners or IT managers.
There are however some general points to consider when planning your IT investment for the coming financial year.
Businesses generally refresh their servers every 3-5 years. However, many businesses’ IT requirements will likely increase before that time as they grow – taking on more customers, staff and, consequently, gathering/creating more data. This puts a greater strain on companies’ IT infrastructures, so it is important to leave room to grow when planning these refreshes. One way to do this is by buying servers that leave you room to grow, to avoid the need to buy more larger capacity products, sooner.
Across the board, as businesses have accelerated their digital transformation initiatives during the pandemic (by several years, according to McKinsey), customers are spending more on servers, with the average spend per server having doubled over the past year. Overall, there’s been high demand for 14th generation servers as they become more available as refurbished stock.
14th Gen Dell servers, such as the PowerEdge R640, R740 and R740XDs remain our top selling servers alongside blade systems like the PowerEdge M640s. However, another constant is the wide range of customers still realising the value in 13th Gen systems as part of their back-up infrastructure or to run non-critical applications – although in many cases, we find customers using them for that exact purpose, such is there reliability and performance.
With a large proportion of workers continuing to work from home, networking equipment is also rising in popularity as businesses connect people working remotely, in the office, or at third-party locations – putting added strain on networks. It is unlikely most people will return to a single work location anytime soon, so we expect this trend to continue.
Buying refurbished has the added bonus of helping you beat any supply chain delays; anything shown as in-stock on our website, is in-stock in our warehouse without any distribution lead-times. In fact, if you’re based in the UK, we can get it to you as soon as tomorrow! This rapid turnaround is far better for your accounting and reporting, and means you don’t have to wait.
The global chip shortage is also continuing to cause supply chain issues for new stock, so we’ve seen many people and businesses buying refurbished for the first time to get what they need without the lengthy wait time. Many of them have become repeat customers due to the positive experience buying and using refurbished items.
Ultimately, buying refurbished gets you more for your money without the delays brought on by supply chain shortages. This gives you a better return on your investment, which improves your financial planning – a must for any business.
To give your systems a boost as you prepare to grow this financial year, check out our website for more information on what refurbished items are available. Our team is also available to talk you through the specs you may need based on your current and future growth plans.
