FUJITSU SIEMENS CONNECT2AIR

Small businesses have enough to worry about without IT becoming a burden. Fortunately, the Connect2air package has everything you need for worry-free mobile computing

Small and medium-sized businesses have traditionally faced a large problem when it comes to taking up and using IT equipment, namely cost. The average company in the UK, according to figures from www.startups.co.uk, starts with around £5000 of capital. Now, when you’ve taken deposits for heating and lighting, stationery costs, office rental, desks, phones and so on you soon start to whittle away that initial investment. So it’s no wonder that, faced with paying £1000+for a business laptop and a full copy of Microsoft Office, many small companies run scared, or try to make do with an old computer from home. That’s fine if you don’t mind having no warranty, a slow machine that could break down at any moment and some badly installed software.

The Fujitsu Siemens Connect2air solution enables the average small company to have the latest state-of-the-art laptop and a whole list of extras at a price that won’t break the bank. The offering is intended to take the sting out of high up-front costs, by getting the business user to pay a fixed monthly sum that covers practically everything a business could want. Connect2airgives you five essential mobile business elements in one.

The main element is a Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook laptop or Tablet PC with a full on-site warranty. This comes with a fast 56kbps GPRS wireless connection to the Internet through Vodafone, which lets you access your data from anywhere in the UK with a 10-150MBlimit per month. It also includes a copy of Microsoft Office 2003Small Edition and Microsoft OneNote, plus Norton Ghost for backups – an entire start-up IT solution in one package.

Insurance against loss and theft and accidental damage cover come as standard. Finally, there is one special additional extra: StealthSignal (www.stealthsignal.co.uk), an anti-theft service that enables the police to locate your laptop if it’s ever stolen.

Prices for the service start at just £89 (ex. VAT) a month for the Centrino-branded Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook C1110, rising to £99(ex. VAT) per month for the package based on the LifebookS6120. Users wishing to take advantage of a Tablet PC can do so, with prices starting at £109 (ex. VAT) per month for the package based on the Tablet PC Lifebook T3010.Subscribers to the service must pay some one-off costs upfront: the C1110 and S6120 have a one-off advance payment of £99 and the T3010 has a one off cost of £149. We were also unable to find out what companies were eligible for the package.

BUSINESS OFFERING

We reviewed the Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S6120 with an Intel1.6GHz Pentium M processor, which supports the full Centurion branding, 256MB DDR SDRAM, 60GB hard disk, Windows XP Professional, Wi-Fi/LAN/modem, a DVD/CD-RW combination drive and a 13.3-inch XGA screen. In real-world usage we found that the laptop had a reasonable battery life of around three hours, which is just enough power for a daily return commute, and it was fast enough to do all the basic presentations the average user needs while web surfing in the background. However, the Lifebook wasn’t entirely without problems: the touchpad would disable every time you put the Lifebook into standby mode, so that you could move the mouse but to double-click you had to use the touchpad buttons.

The other piece of hardware in this package is a Vodafone PC Card GPRS with a monthly download limit of either 10MB or150MB. The 150MB tariff costs just £10 more than the 10MB one, and it’s probably worth every penny. The Vodafone card works well: the software loads when you start up Windows, allowing you to connect or disconnect (connecting takes just a few seconds), send and receive SMS messages, access Instant Messenger to chat live with other users, access the Internet or check your email.

The GPRS connection seems fast when you’re used to accessing the Internet on your laptop via a normal 9.6Kbps mobile connection, especially when you’re in an area with good signal strength. But it gets slower when the signal is weak, as is often the case in rural areas, and will occasionally drop out altogether. However, it always reconnects automatically. The Vodafone SMS facility was very simple to use, and we imagine that you could become a heavy SMS user very quickly. However, you would have to limit yourself to using it for outward messaging, as you won’t receive SMS messages when your laptop is switched off, no matter how urgent. There doesn’t appear to be a limit to the number of SMS messages you can send with this package, other than your 10MB limit. This should allow you to send around10,000 SMS messages.

As sending an SMS normally costs around five pence there’s a huge temptation to use the card to broadcast SMS messages regularly to your entire customer database. We had this package for a month and used it solidly during that time. There were plenty of occasions where the ability to get to the Internet to send and receive emails on the move and to SMS using a decent keyboard were invaluable. The best thing, apart from the technology, is the many different levels of security and peace of mind the package provides. There’s a customer support service that for once covers all the parts of the package. There’s an on-site repair service for the Lifebook so you’ll never lose days while your laptop is elsewhere being fixed.

An insurance policy from Burnetts covers you for theft and damage including accidental damage. If the worst happens and your laptop is stolen, there’s a good chance that the Stealth Signal software will help you get it and all it’s valuable contents back. The other good thing about the package is the contract. It runs for 24 months, so you aren’t locked in for excessive periods. If at the end of that time you decide to renew the contract, Fujitsu Siemens will replace the mobile computer with a newer model. Alternatively, you can opt out of the contract and pay a small percentage of the value of the device to transfer ownership of the machine, software and accessories to your company.

All this and a fixed monthly rent makes the Connect2air a compelling package for any small business. And when the 3Gversions of this system start to appear later this year there will be even more reason to buy it.

PRICE: AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
PROCESSOR: INTEL PENTIUM M 1.6GHZ
MEMORY: 512MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE: FUJITSU 60GB
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE: 13.3-INCH TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1024 X 768 PIXELS
WEIGHT: 1.9KG
STANDARD WARRANTY: 290 X 237 X 34MM
WARRANTY UPGRADE: 1.7KG
CONTACT: 0845 123 5251 WWW.CONNECT2AIR.CO.UK