For a small business, the greatest cost of computer software lies not in the initial price of software but in installation, training, maintenance, upgrades, troubleshooting and lost time due to system failures and lack of user training. A good support and upgrade strategy will help minimize these costs.

Whenever possible, give your workers formal training for the software you've purchased so they can start being productive immediately. Online tutorials, self-paced manuals and training videos may provide alternatives to formal training.

A standard software license may come with 90 days of "free" support, but that period mainly covers short-term installation problems, not the long-term technical support you're bound to need.

Vendor technical support can get expensive for a small business, running as much as $200 a year per user. Encourage users to try free sources of support like Web sites and newsgroups.

Also keep in touch with software upgrades. These include version upgrades and bug fixes. Bug fixes, also known as patches, frequently correct security problems or major software performance, and should be downloaded as soon as they become available on vendor Web sites.

Version upgrades occur less frequently than bug fixes and include major changes to the software. They should be adopted with care as they may disrupt company performance and compatibility with client software.