To avoid a server installation being a technical decision, it is important to identify your business reasons and then ensure you understand how SBS 2008 will fit in. This might sound obvious, but it's a step people, especially technical people, often miss out.
There are two things that drive the deployment of new IT: first is a wish to do something differently, where SBS 2008 can assist; second is a need to replace old kit that is either not living up to its promises or is getting old and failing.
If your reason is "I want IT to make things better", then you need to work out more precisely what you want to do with your server—otherwise, you're setting yourself up for failure. I will go into what SBS 2008 can deliver for a business in Chapter 2.
It's about the money, or, to use the business jargon, the return on investment (ROI). If you invest £5,000 on your IT project, how long will it be before your business sees the incremental benefit of at least £5,000 in return? If you can't answer that question, how will you know that SBS 2008 is giving a benefit to your business? Remember that the return could be as simple as "more sales", or it could be as complex as reducing staff churn and, therefore, the cost of training new team members. It can also be against "the cost of losing business" if the need for IT is critical to continuing and competing in today's more competitive markets.
To help drive out this process, keep asking yourself or your IT consultant why you are doing this. What are the changes and what will be the benefits of those changes? Then, sit down and put a value on each change—and the cost of not making the change. Normally, you'll find that the financial benefits make themselves plain pretty quickly.
The list of whys can also help you to prioritize the order you make changes in. It will also help with your bank manager if you're after a loan to roll out the new technology: bank managers love to know what financial benefits the new technology will be delivering.