Have you ever thought about what the system requirements for a certain software really means for you? Should you bother to check the system requirements up against your IT environment? Should you trust them without testing it first in a test environment? These are some important questions to address before you start implementing a new software. Let me elaborate;
What are system requirements?
To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer/server. These prerequisites are known as system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule. Most software defines two sets of system requirements: minimum and recommended. With increasing demand for higher processing power and resources in newer versions of software, system requirements tend to increase over time. Industry analysts suggest that this trend plays a bigger part in driving upgrades to existing computer systems than technological advancements.
In short, system requirements defines how much power you should put into your computer/server to get the software running smoothly!
Is there a definition of environment?
The “nerdy” definition could be; “The set of facilities, such as operating system, windows management, database, etc., that is available to a program when it is being executed by a processor.”…
….or “An environment is what surrounds a thing or an item. The environment is the surrounding.”
Environment in this setting is the servers, computers and other peripherals devices, and in what way they interact with the users. Is it Windows, mac, Citrix, web, mobile or cloud?
So, do you have to care about your environment when selecting a new software with a set of system requirements for your organization?
The answer is YES! Not only have the system requirements increased, the environments have become an increasing factor.
Before:
- Easy network structure, few network protocols, one-to-one pier networks
- Less accessibility demands
- Internet access was not a considerable factor
- Control of environment
Now:
- Different communication methods (new ip-protocols)
- “Access everywhere” expectations from end-users
- The same experience is expected from local applications, web- and cloud services.
- Outsourcing, hired IT-personnel, lack of control of environments
This means that you can’t take a server or a computer and “dress it up” with equipment as described in the system requirements alone, you need to listen to your surroundings as well, which can consist of:
- The number of simultaneous users
- The amount of data in the database
- Network performance
- Usage patterns
- Computer size and power
In SuperOffice we try to help our new customers the best we can.With our experience together with your IT professionals, we can provide the correct configuration for you solution. In addition to our system requirements we provide our customers with information on how SuperOffice will fit into the different environments as described in the image below:
The challenge in every case is that the environment is different, and that’s what makes this part of the work so exiting!
To learn more about how SuperOffice can help you with your CRM needs, contact us here.
