MicroRentals discusses trends shaping computer hardware and technology

IndustrySearch: What are the trends that have shaped the computer hardware and technology sector in recent years?

Mandar Atmasidha: Today technology is constantly changing. This rate of technological change is also having an impact on how the business world approaches its IT strategy.

According to IDC (International Data Corporation), around 60 per cent of mobile phones sold in Australia are smartphone devices, many of which run the same size processor that a home PC would have operated only a decade ago.

With added features such as touch screen interactivity, GPS capability and Bluetooth and you get a sense of how remarkable the technological change has been. Businesses are currently shifting by getting the latest technology that is easy and affordable. 

So today businesses have found many benefits of renting rather than buying. With technology constantly changing, computers and electronic equipment need to be replaced every year if you want to stay up to date in your business.  

Buying new technology can be costly, particularly if you're managing a business budget. When you choose to rent, you can avoid large lump-sum purchases. With IT equipment renting companies you'll pay manageable small monthly rental payments – it's an easier and more efficient way to manage your monthly budget. And, the low monthly cost of renting means that you can afford to upgrade your equipment as new technology rolls out.

Managing cash flow can be a significant challenge for small businesses.

This is why renting companies are here to make your business afford the technology you need. You can get equipment to rent and you can avoid the high up-front cost of buying computers and other technology outright. This allows your business to spread your payments and manage your monthly cash flow.

IndustrySearch: How have you as a supplier responded to these trends? How do you see this changing in the next 12-24 months, and what will drive the change? Can you give examples as to how your company has adapted to these challenges?

Mandar Atmasidha: At Microrentals we continuously work for the betterment of our customers by offering value added and cost-effective solutions. Is your office equipment out of date? Perhaps your computers are slow and an important tool such as the company projector needs replacing.

For many businesses in this situation, it's rare that there is available capital for a complete office refit. Here we will rent equipment; you don't need to have a big cash reserve ready to go for purchasing the equipment. You simply need to call us with your requirement and we will update your entire IT system. This reduces the likelihood of software conflicts and networking problems by ensuring all staff are working on the same technology.

Moving ahead considering the technology changes, we offer world class IT advisory and integration services that improve our customers' business performance. We do strategic planning services which help align your IT investment to business imperatives by building a clear roadmap which leverages technology and innovation in a cost effective and disciplined manner.

We offer variety of services and the broad categories include: online data backups; web solutions; and managed services.

Our proactive monitoring and maintenance provides comprehensive preventative maintenance services remotely. This solution is comprised of a desktop/laptop/server agent within our technology platform with all of the intelligence built-in to conduct day to day monitoring, preventive maintenance services and remote access. Moving forward many businesses need one-stop solution for IT equipment's and its services.

IndustrySearch: What initiatives would you like to see from government to better support computer hardware and technology?

Mandar Atmasidha: We recommend that government should support the small/medium businesses and consumers by providing the protection and tools they need to acquire/implement cloud services with confidence. Government should have security policies and diligent in identifying risks and confident in their ability to manage them.

Further, additional information about the security benefits of cloud computing is a key priority. Small/medium businesses have consistently identified security concerns as one of the key barriers to cloud services adoption.

Many small/medium organisations are unaware that cloud service providers have greater scale and resources to provide better data security, redundancy and resilience than is generally possible for in-house solutions available to SMEs.