” How To Manage It Infrastructure Of Your Organisation?”
If you want to start your own enterprise the thing which comes to your mind is IT infrastructure. Depending upon the type of the business you want to run, you have to decide your IT infrastructure.
You can categorise your organization as:
1) Small enterprise – 20 to 100
2) Medium- 200 to 500
3) Large enterprise- 500 to 1000
4) Extra large- Above 1000
Once you decide the size of the organization, you have to decide about type of business, depending upon that only we can finalize the IT products required and hence can fix the budget for the same.
The essential IT products of any organizations include the following:
1) EPABX-Electronic Automated Private Branch Exchange
2) Computers/ Servers
3) Printers/copiers/scanners/Fax
4) Projectors for the conference hall
5) Video conferencing/ Audio conferencing
6) UPS/ Generators
Depending upon the size and nature of the business, we can priorities the above things, and can eliminate some of the above if some are not really needed. But approximate cabling is necessary during construction stage only, as the business grows one may need to go for the above.
We will discuss the above one by one:
1) EPABX:
EPABX ( Electronic Automated Branch Exchange ) is called in very simple terms as Intercom ( Internal communication). There are two types of technology out of which you have to decide one, whether it is TDM or VOIP. In simple terms we can say that if the application are more and your’s is a growing/ large enterprise it is always advisable to go for VOIP based EPABX.
The VOIP ( Voice over Internet protocol) has a huge advantages over TDM. Even though the initial cost is higher, the return on investment over a longer period is always superior and it is a value for your money. The basic advantages are: Lesser call rates, clarity and a lot more applications. In some cases you can even go for software based PBX where you can replace the proprietary hardware i.e telephone instrument.
The best feature of the VOIP technology is charges per day rather than charges per call as in the case of TDM technology based EPABX.
2) Computers/ Servers:
Servers:
Here the decision factor once again depends upon the nature of business. Before deciding the the computers it is always advisable to decide what kind of server you have to go for. It should be a very careful decision otherwise you have to go on spending for servers year on year as your business grows.
There are different kinds of servers available depending upon the type of usage and size of the business.
Depending upon your usage and applications you have decide your server:
Small range of servers:
Small business management, Web serving, email/messaging file/print
Mid range of servers:
Web serving, distributed ERP/CRM, messaging.
High end servers:
Collaboration, e-business, Virtualization/consolidation, and cluster computing.
Once you decide the type of servers you need to think about the processor, storage capacity and speed.
Computers:
It’s the time to decide how many number of computers you have to go: Depending upon the storage capacity, speed you can decide the configuration. The basic things need to be keep in mind are processor, Hard disk capacity, Speed , Operating system.
3) Printers/ copiers/scanners/ Fax:
The next thing is about your printing/copying requirements. Here once again you can decide the number of printers and copiers. If the printer usage is more then it is preferred to go for “Networked printers”, where you can connect more than one computer to the particular printer. You can decide the type of printer/copier depending upon:
Usage-Prints/ copies approximately you take per month
Speed-The number of prints/copies per minute
If the organization is medium then it is preferred to go for MFPs ( Multi Function Printers) where a single machine does all activities like copying, printing, scanning, fax and then again it can be connected to all computers through network card.
4) Projectors/AVSI board room Integration:
For all your other official requirements you should have necessarily a projector. And if the usage of the conference hall is very high, like training, meetings and conferencing, then it is advisable to go for AVSI board, here the entire room will be enabled with AVSI ( Audio, Video, Sound Integration ). There are number of technology companies who can build the conference room with AVSI.
If the conference hall usage is only limited for some presentations, training then go for just a projector with a screen. You can go either for a table mount projector or Ceiling mount projector.
The projectors are mainly classified into two categories depending upon the technology they use: DLP( Digital Liquid Processing ) and LCD ( Liquid Crystal Display ). Even there are both plus and minus with both technology, there is no much difference as long as you go for a branded projector.
The next thing you have to look for is: Room size or how many people can sit in the conference hall. Because the projector is classified depending upon brightness. Brightness in projectors is measured in terms of LUMENS.
Normally for a room with seating capacity of upto 50 people- 2000 to 2200 lumens
For seating capacity of 50 to 80 people – 2500 to 3000 lumens
For seating capacity of above 100 people- Above 300 lumens is preferred.
The other things you can look in projector is bulb life( hours), Aspect ratio, Contrast ratio. A well trained engineer can give more inputs and can suggest you which one to go.
5) Video Conferencing/ Audio conferencing:
If your interaction with outside your organization is more and if you have multiple branches/ customers where interaction is needed in regular intervals, the best way is to got for Video conferencing or Audio conferencing. Here also VOIP plays a major role a VC call is charged on monthly basis, rather than call per charge basis very cost is too much.
There are many players in the market who provides VC?AC equipments in a competitive prices an quality. And now a days VC is becoming the most common because of the economic growth, expanding nature of business as well as company’s keen interest to reduce the traveling cost by using VC facility.
Before installing VC facility the things you have to look for is:
Bandwidth capacity ( minimum 384 KPBS is required, but 512 KPBS is preferred)
The number of locations you want to connect
The display you want to use: Computer, TFT monitor or projector screen
The number of people want to sit in the VC.
6) UPS/Generators:
If you want to run all your electronic products without any problem from power failure it is better to go for a UPS( Unaltered power supply) or a generator. The decision on UPS/Generator is taken upon : How much load it need to withstand during power failure, What are the gadgets you want to run during power failure. An engineer can give you better idea about How much KVA, the number of battery and which type of battery for UPS depending upon your requirements.
Some general points to be noted :
After deciding all these things of IT products, we need to give importance for some basic things like:
It is always preferred to go for a branded product which is non-hazardous and which give value for your money for a longer duration
It is preferred to have AMC ( Annual Maintenance Contract ) for all your IT products, rather than calling an engineer on per call charge basis. The AMC also helps in regular monitoring which avoids un predictable damages to the goods.
Hence by proper planning of your IT products you can achieve you Return On Investment very quickly and can enjoy your business without any hurdles.
Praveenkumar Haralalli, is Working as a Senior-Sales Executive in Pentagon Systems and Services Pvt Ltd, Bangalore