Help For The Computer Buyer

 

By: Tamara Schweitzer

11 Businesses You Can Start in Your Pajamas

Corporate Educational Services -- Joseph Pickett, Experts Briefings

So many self-proclaimed experts are publishing books about computers that most businessmen have become terminally confused. One of the latest of these, however, is also one of the most helpful. Microcomputer Buyer's Guide is essentially a catalog of what's available in the microcomputer field and -- even more to the point for the uninitiated -- how much an installation is likely to cost. The units with peripherals included in the book range from a simple Apple II at $1,330 to a Hewlett-Packard at $54,795 and a Wang at $66,200 -- not sums to be careless with when they're a small-business capital investment.

The book's photos, tables, and ample descriptions of each product and its subsystems and accessories (such as printers, security devices, and file protection) spare the prospective purchaser a considerable amount of salesman's palaver. Webster briefly reviews the technology and summarizes the state of the art in user compatibility, but it's in his attention to software that small business is best served. He describes existing programs from both computer manufacturers and independent sources in such critical areas as sales analysis, financial forecasting, accounting, payables and receivables, word processing, general-ledger keeping, maillist managing, and special industry packages. A business can get a lot of shopping done by letting its fingers do the walking through this well-organized and adequately detailed collection.