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How can a Standard Operating Environment help your business?

Big business has them, and so does government. But does your small business need an SOE? A Standard Operating Environment could well save you thousands of dollars a year in computer support costs and employee productivity. If your business has more than one computer, you should look at having an SOE.

At its lowest level, it means that everyone within an organisation is running a computer with the same operating system - eg everyone has Windows 98 running on their computers.

At the next level, everyone is using the same set of software programs to do their jobs - the same version of Microsoft Office, the same email program, the same web browser - on all computers, including laptops.

The next level of SOE would mean that the same file structure is used on all computers (all files are in the same place on everyone's computers).

How does this save you money?

To start with, if you're buying more than one copy of software at a time, you'll often be able to get volume discounts.

Then there's the installation of software. If all computers have the same operating system and set of software applications, it's possible to create installation CDs which greatly reduce the time it takes to set up larger numbers of computers and if there's a problem with a computer it can be easily reinstalled in one go.

But for small business, probably the number one reason to have an SOE is to reduce time and expense in technical support for your computers and training for your staff. In most cases your staff will be able to help each other as everyone's computer is the same.

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