Buyer's Guide to Office Equipment Technology

Table of Contents and a note from the Inc. Buyer's Guide editor.

No. 10911191: Service contracts

Whether you need a service contract or not depends on which equipment is critical, and what your vendor has to offer. By Alyssa Lappen

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No. 10911221: Buy or lease?
Once you decide on equipment, you have to figure out how to pay for it. For most small companies, leasing may make the most sense. By Nancy Nichols

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No. 10911271: Consultants

For a complex purchase of office equipment, an outside expert may be just what you need. Here's how to find one. By Jayne Pearl

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No. 10911311: Resources

Want more information about office equipment? The many guides listed here can help. By Stephen J. Simurda

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Features

No. 10910681: Personal computers

Are your invoices late? Are you losing track of customers? Computers can help you fix the inefficiencies in your company. By Cary Lu

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No. 10910851: Software

Whether you manipulate words or a database of customers, software can increase the intelligence available to you. By Christopher O'Malley

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No. 10910921: Phone systems

Modern phone systems do more than connect callers. They can increase productivity, cut costs, and improve service. By Jeffrey Ubois

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No. 10911021: Copiers

Fancy features have migrated down; you can now get a powerful machine that's well within your budget. By Stephen J. Simurda

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No. 10911101: Fax machines

Instant transmission of documents, for the cost of a phone call, is a competitive necessity in the 1990s. By Scott W. Cullen

Note from the editor

Good office equipment ranks as one of the most effective competitive tools of the 1990s. Having moved beyond calculators, paper spreadsheets, and simple push-button phones, the equipment available today can help you manage your growing business as never before. It will enable you to maintain instantaneous communication with customers and suppliers, produce loan requests for your banker with sophisticated financial analyses, and turn out all kinds of documents with fancy graphics and magazine-quality printing. It will help you coordinate operations, track inventory, manipulate data, get invoices out faster, and hold down expenses.

However, choosing the right equipment for your own situation can look a bit intimidating, given the countless models available in every category. It is with the goal of helping you make the wisest choice of equipment that Inc. presents this Buyer's Guide to Office Equipment and Technology.

Special thanks go to Mark Fischetti, the managing editor for this project, and Bill Cooke, the art director. Karen Carney provided research and fact-checking, Jeanne Zimmermann the copy-editing. Victor Juhasz did the cover illustration and inside spots, and Bruce Sanders the technical drawings.

Stephen D. Solomon, Buyer's Guide editor