Vectra 500: An ideal solution for small businesses<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): In this country, small-scale business owners
\nhave reason to envy their North American counterparts. In the
\nUnited States, small businesses have long been recognized as the
\nengine of economic growth.<\/p>\n
The same is true in many other parts of the world. Small
\nbusiness entrepreneur associations (there are hundreds of them in
\nthe United States) have the power and influence to lobby in
\nWashington, D.C. In contrast, our small businesses are simply
\nconsidered orphans. Having been involved in a joint effort to
\nestablish a small business myself, I could write dozens of
\nstories about how difficult it is to get ahead among our big
\nconglomerates and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, one thing is certain. Whether in the U.S. or here
\nin Indonesia, technology can be a tremendous leverage for small
\nbusinesses. Take the telephone and the fax machine, for instance.
\nI'm sure that by now the vast majority of small-scale operations
\nhave found out how essential these gadgets are to their business.
\nOn the other hand, it is also safe to say that still a lot of
\nsmall business owners have yet to take advantage of personal
\ncomputers to facilitate and even speed up their business
\nprocesses.<\/p>\n
Why do small and home-based business owners generally tend to
\nbe rather slow in adopting computers? Their problems are actually
\nuniversal. First they are not sure whether the computer can
\nreally raise their revenues or decrease their costs. Second,
\nthere is the usual fear of the technology.<\/p>\n
What do these people actually need? Obviously, they need
\nreliable computers that do not require a high level of technical
\nknowledge to operate. Next, as confirmed by the fax that I've
\njust received from one of the readers of this column, people also
\nwant to know that their vendors will provide them with dependable
\ntechnical support. Furthermore, they also need an opportunity to
\ntest the use of computers in their business without having to
\nmake a huge investment up front. This would mean that financing
\nis a very desirable option.<\/p>\n
At the recent HP press off-site meeting in Hong Kong, I got
\nnews that HP has offered a solution for small and medium-sized
\nbusiness owners who want to computerize their operation for some
\ntime. Being sort of a small-business operator myself, I was
\nnaturally excited about the news. I wasted no time in pursuing
\nmore information about the program, and this led me to the
\nopportunity to chat with Pak Adhiprabawa, president director of
\nPT Hewlett-Packard Finance Indonesia (HPFI) in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The vendor's financing program is part of their Small
\nBusiness-Small Office (SBSO) initiative, and it is now available
\nin Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore -- with other countries
\nfollowing soon. According to their definition, an SBSO -- I still
\nprefer the term small office home office or SOHO, though -- is a
\nbusiness organization with one to 100 PCs but no permanent MIS
\nsupport. Examples will be law firms, architects, consultants and
\nreal estate agents.<\/p>\n
The Vectra 500 Series PCs from HP have been designed
\nspecifically for these small and medium size businesses.
\nAccording to Pak Adhi, small and medium business owners will be
\nable to lease such PCs through his two types of financing
\nprograms later on, after his new company has put all the legal
\ninfrastructure in place. Business owners who require financing up
\nto US$50,000 will be considered big tickets and will be financed
\ndirectly by HPFI. Those who require up to a couple of PCs will be
\nhandled by HP's resellers, who will be better equipped to assess
\nthe prospective buyers' eligibility.<\/p>\n
What does this imply? It means that small business owners with
\ntight budgets will be able to test the water and avoid the huge
\nstrain on their cash flow. In other words, they can start using
\nPCs for their operation without having to invest substantially. I
\nreally think such a program would be a definite boon to small
\nbusiness owners in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Medium-sized businesses have an additional advantage besides
\nbeing able to deal directly with HPFI. The company will make sure
\nthat their customers will not suffer from the obsolescence blues
\nin the future as technology advances. After an agreed period of
\ntime, for instance, a portion of the PCs will automatically be
\nreplaced with new ones based on HP's Technology Protection
\nProgram (TPP).<\/p>\n
Vectra 500<\/p>\n
Ok, the availability of financing meets the first requirement
\nof a business owner. Now let's see how the second requirement --
\nthe need for reliability and ease of use -- is being met. I
\nrequested a demo unit to look at, and I got to play around with a
\nPentium 200 MHz-based Vectra 500 tower PC for ten days. I really
\nlike the machine.<\/p>\n
The box contained an HP keyboard, an HP mouse, a pair of
\nheadphones and a microphone set for computer telephony. HP didn't
\nlend me the monitor, so I used my own Sony 2038. To help non-
\ntechnical users install this PC quickly, all the ports at the
\nback of the case were clearly labeled. With such a powerful CPU,
\nwe will surely need quite some time to outgrow this machine. To
\nput it in perspective, today I'm still using a 133 MHz machine
\nthat I assembled myself, and I'm still very happy with it. The
\n200 MHz power will certainly last a long time.<\/p>\n
Other features of this particular Vectra 500 include 16 MB of
\nRAM, an S3 graphics card with 1 MB RAM (you might want to add
\nanother 1 MB so that you can get more colors than just 256 at the
\n1,024 by 768 resolution). It also came with a 2.4 GB IDE hard
\ndisk. Well, you may later add a Jaz or SyJet drive for more
\nstorage capacity when the need arises.<\/p>\n
Unlike the increasingly popular Home PCs, the Vectra 500 was
\nfar from being fancy-looking. That was no surprise, since for
\nbusinesses, the most important feature is functionality. The
\nchassis was very sturdy and well-built. A lid covered the floppy
\ndiskette and CD-ROM drives. This would slide up the moment I
\npressed the square button on its top.<\/p>\n
Taking off the metal cover for the first time was quite
\ndifficult, but it became very easy after the third time. I found
\none very minor assembling fault, though, and I fixed it in less
\nthan 20 seconds: The floppy diskette drive was not properly
\nseated inside its bay. Incidentally, you will need a special hex
\nscrewdriver for this machine.<\/p>\n
Other features<\/p>\n
A friend once told me that he thought HP PCs were a good
\nchoice in places with no air-conditioning. Compared to PCs of
\nother brands, he said, they tended to have better protection
\nagainst heat. When I opened up the case I found the secret. This
\nmid-sized tower PC, like other Vectras that I've seen, had a
\nspecial air duct that blew air straight into the heat sink of the
\nCPU. The quiet fan was also regulated by a sensor, so it ran only
\nwhen the processor requires extra cooling. In my test, the PC
\nremained cool even after I had left it on for hours. The
\nmotherboard was designed by HP.<\/p>\n
Toward the back of the chassis there was a space for another
\n3.5" hard disk. There were also two 5.25" accessible bays
\navailable, so that you could add a removable hard disk drive or
\ntape backup. The CD-ROM was an engineering sample, therefore I
\nwasn't able to find the name of its maker. There were four empty
\nslots for RAM SIMMs, and you could install a total of 128 MB
\naltogether.<\/p>\n
Although this demo unit -- which was still a prototype unit --
\ndidn't have it, HP promises that the shipping ones will have a
\nquick restore CD -- like the one that IBM Aptiva and Compaq
\nPresario have. The machine came with Windows 95 already pre-
\ninstalled. The on-line documentations were also very complete,
\nand the diagnostics tools told me every detail of the PC that I
\ncould think of.<\/p>\n
Another important inclusion was the remote assistance
\nfacility. Carbon Copy 32 was pre-loaded, and this will enable an
\nHP technician to troubleshoot, configure the system and even
\ninstall updated drivers from their service center in Tanah Abang.
\nThe modem in this unit was a DSP-based one, which also functioned
\nas the sound card.<\/p>\n
Unlike the keyboard, monitor and mouse ports, the ports on
\nthis modem and sound card were not as clearly labeled. Besides,
\nthere was only one port for the RJ11 phone jack instead of two as
\nwe commonly find in other modems. You'll need a T-connector to
\nhook up an extra telephone set to the system.<\/p>\n
Final word<\/p>\n
All in all, HP Vectra 500 is an ideal solution for start-up or
\nsmall business owners. It is designed not as a showcase of
\ntechnology but more as a business tool. Since most of its target
\nusers may not be very technical savvy, HP has made serious
\nefforts to ensure that the setting up is as easy as it can get
\nand they've done a good job. Besides, enough computing power is
\navailable even for power users and CAD engineers, and there's
\nstill room to grow. When the time comes, the users can even buy
\nan HP network kit and install a peer-to-peer network without any
\nprofessional help.<\/p>\n
My hope, of course, is that other vendors will follow this
\nexample. Small businesses will greatly benefit from initiatives
\nsuch as this one from HP. Just remember, they need solutions that
\nhelp them grow because they don't have to worry about the
\ntechnology.<\/p>",
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