Small business networking questions.

Our network here at work is going to be growing soon. Right now we just have my pentium machine, my boss' laptop, my Powerbook.

We will be adding at least 2 other computers most likely, possibly 3 or 4.

What is the best way to handle all of these machines? Can I just buy another router or something and keep adding them on? Is it necessary to have a server yet? Is Small Business Server 2003 what we would need to get if we did have a server? What other types of networking stuff would I need? Hubs? Switches? What the hell do those do?

Can the server just be any old computer, or do we have to buy a special "server" from Dell or something?

I'm also looking for some sort of Document Management system.

We'd like to be able to scan in all the hand-written orders, so that we can look them up for next year without having to spend 10 minutes flipping through a filing cabinet.

I'm looking at www.papermaster.net so far as the best candidate. Mostly because they tell me their ****ing price, unlike most of the others. And it has built-in scanning, save as PDF, faxing/emailing, and you can search what you scan thanks to built-in OCR software. Sweet.

Anyone know of a better method?

I'll be 100% frank with you. We reviewed every single freaking document imaging company in the US for 2 years. It came down to 3 companies (IMR, Digitech, and Laserfiche). Those 3 are the only 3 I would buy from if I were doing it for myself. IMR can be the most inexpensive of the 3, since with most document imaging companies, you are required to use SQL server (sometimes MSDE) which with licenses costs $1000s of dollars extra.
With Alchemy, you can use SQL, MSDE, Access, or their own, open database format. It's a proprietary system, but it is completely open-source.

The biggest factor to take into consideration with a document management solution is it's viability over the course of time, and whether or not, when you go to upgrade your system in 5,6,7 years, you'll be able to get your images back out.

We currently have one customer that we are trying to sell an IMR solution to, who is currently using a system that uses a proprietary image format. Generally with document imaging systems, they use a non-proprietary image format, such as Group IV TIFF. Most allow you to save in any format you like, such as PDF or JPG, but TIFF is the industry standard. But this customer is using FileMagic (WestBrook Tech) which uses a completely non-open proprietary image format (.MAG) which can only be opened in FileMagic. FileMagic has no way to export your current database and images out. You do not want to be in a situtation like that, where you have to start completely over again in 6 years.

I already talked to you on MSN about the server/network stuff.

Go here to request a demo of the IMR software. Make sure to tell them that you heard about them from Matt @ R&D Industries (I get bonuses). They will do a WebEx demo for you.

https://www.imrgold.com/Contact/ContactForms/Contact_Form.asp

What is the lowest possible price with that IMR system? Just the starting price. Sounds too expensive to me. And I really hate filling out those stupid questionaires just to get a freakin' price. I looked at about 15 document management system sites today and left 14 of them immediately because I couldn't find the damn price. If it's so expensive that they won't tell me the price without giving me a 15 minutes spiel, then I'm not interested anyway.