The Right it Stuff: Finding and Working With the Best Information Technology Services Partner for your Small Business

Do you often feel stuck in the computer abyss when it comes to managing your company’s needs for web or information technology services? Businesses with fewer than 50 or 60 employees often find themselves struggling to keep pace with their basic web and computer support services and miss out on effective small business IT solutions.

Without the guidance of an information technology services provider, small businesses can end up wasting time and money on computer support services because they aren’t in touch with the best technology tools and practices for small business IT solutions. Even zero-employee companies can benefit immensely from a computer support services partner who shows them how to standardize their practices, save money with the right hardware or software and develop effective websites.

Putting Out Fires – Who Needs Dedicated Computer Support Services Anyway?

The approach often taken by small organizations when it comes to information technology services is one of putting out fires. No one has time to update the website, the network is cobbled together with wiring strung across the floor, and you’re not sure when the last backup really ran. Then, a hard drive starts going click-click. You call that guy you occasionally use for computer support services, “Joe-I-Fix-Anything-PCs,” to get the computer booting. That’s when to your horror you discover that the tape in the drive since last Tuesday wasn’t really backing up and the click-click is the sickening sound of your QuickBooks data being eaten by the dying hard drive.

There is a Better Way: A Solutions Partner for Web and Information Technology Services

It isn’t that “Joe” can’t spot you some quick computer support services and get you up and running again. It’s the point that the “bargain” hard drive failed without warning, your data wasn’t backed up and you didn’t even have a centralized data management practice to begin with. Wouldn’t it have been great to avoid all the headaches by using best-practice guidelines for business management and making informed purchase decisions? That’s where a good small business IT solutions provider comes in, not only to avoid disaster but to save money. For example QuickBooks could be integrated with your shipping and credit card processing which saves three employees 30 hours a week in order fulfillment. Then you might implement a web solution for online orders which integrates with QuickBooks. A good information technology services partner makes computer support services a value proposition.

Small Business IT Solutions – Hiring a Partner

So what’s the best way to find a great web or information technology services partner to work with and then get the most out of that relationship?

1. Look for a company that specializes in small business IT solutions

Computer support services companies that specialize in small business will be more in tune to your particular needs and challenges. They will understand budgetary constraints for computer support services and the need to use resources very efficiently. Because technology developers and manufacturers are now seeing a large and relatively untapped market of small business customers, there are some terrific tools emerging for small organizations. A technology partner focused on small business IT solutions and information technology services will help your company grow and succeed.

2. Do you need a local information technology services partner?

Not necessarily. If the goal here is to find a provider of information technology services to help you manage your website, make purchase decisions and facilitate projects, it doesn’t have to be local. With sophisticated remote tools and web-based collaboration, many problems and projects can be addressed remotely. The key is to find a good fit. For onsite service such as network installation or hardware swaps, a good solutions partner can identify and schedule local computer support services as needed or works with a nationwide network experts for repairs, rollouts or other onsite computer support service. If the company isn’t local, ask what provisions it has in place for onsite service.

3. Personalized computer support services

One of the stigmas attached to the tech industry and a common complaint about providers of computer support services is lack of personalization. A good provider of information technology services wants to get to know you, your processes and your employees. The staff should ask questions about what your company does and who the key contacts are to gain a feel for your organization’s culture. Likewise, access to the provider’s staff and resources is equally important. The relationship is going to be much more effective when that company has a mandate for personalized service and an open door to communications.

4. Due diligence

Think of hiring a solutions partner for information technology services like you would hiring someone for your staff. Look for a company that is seeking a long-term partnership. Ask for references. Then find out how long the company has been in business, who you will have access to for a problem or project and how the provider charges for its computer support services.

5. Cohesive approach and good facilitation

The partner that you select should want to take a cohesive approach to understanding your business or organization and help you come up with a customized plan for your technology and web needs, be it a long-range strategy or a specific project. The difference between “Joe-I-Fix-Anything-PCs” and a provider of complete information technology services and solutions is someone who can do a good discovery about your organization and its goals, facilitate the project and help bring together providers for the components outside their expertise. Also, a one-stop shop can provide you with benefits. Keeping your hardware and software purchases, web and computer support services together can provide you economies of scale combined with the convenience of single point of support and access to someone who knows your business.

How to Get the Most Out of the Relationship

6. Identify key problems, goals and areas to improve efficiency

Once you partner with a provider of information technology services and solutions, the first and most important step is an analysis of problems. The more you can communicate about your company, current practices and areas to improve, the more effective your solutions partner can be in coming up with a computer support services plan designed to keep things running smoothly, maximize your assets and move your organization forward.

7. Set up best practices

Typically the biggest challenge small organizations face in being successful is getting out of their own way, seeing the big picture and making the changes necessary for improvements to happen. A good small business IT solutions partner can help you set up best practices to get most out of your investment in information technology services. However, making sure those practices are implemented and followed rests squarely on your shoulders, not on those of your computer support services provider.

8. Avoid costly mistakes – Don’t make impulse purchases

Whereas large companies tend to have a formal evaluation and approval process in place for making technology purchases, many smaller organizations make impulse purchases. Let the company you’ve hired for information technology services do its job and provide you its expertise on purchases. If the company resells hardware and software at competitive rates, purchasing from it can be worthwhile. You’ll have a single point of purchase for computer support services, and the company can recommend hardware and software from manufacturers it has partnerships with and expertise on as well. All of that translates to added benefit to you.

9. Choose managed information technology services designed for business

Small organizations have a tendency to operate off the cuff, looking for freebies or grabbing cheap services not really designed for business. This approach to information technology services can come back to bite you. If you want to grow your business, approach your needs for computer support services like a bigger organization would. If your IT partner makes recommendations on computer support services that you think you can find cheaper elsewhere, take a hard look at what you are getting and how it can really benefit your business. Once you weigh all the benefits, you may find the value to your business growth and offerings far outweighs the cost.

10. Can I still do it myself?

Working with a good provider of information technology services doesn’t mean you can’t do anything yourself. In fact, a reputable and innovative IT company should educate you on how to better manage your technology needs and investments. There are still a lot of day-to-day tasks you can and should do within your organization, depending on your skill level, time and desire. The point is to keep your computer support services partner in the loop and use their expertise and input on major technology decisions.

Conclusion

So, what’s in it for you? By partnering with a provider of information technology services, you’ll find a more thought out, comprehensive approach to small business IT solutions that can increase efficiency, save you money, generate revenue, and help your business

10 Reasons Your Small Business Needs A Technology Services Provider

Can your small business get both affordable professional-class IT service and peace of mind? The secret lies in having a technology services provider handle your technical solutions.

To stay competitive, small businesses must make the most of current technology. But it’s expensive, time consuming, and inefficient to maintain a full-time IT department like larger companies. A true Professional Technology Services Provider offers on-demand talent, depth of experience, deep resources and huge economies of scale. Here are the top 10 benefits you’ll see.

Benefit #1: Stay Focused On Core Business Functions

People are happiest doing what they do best. And they get frustrated by tasks that distract them from it. Researching solutions, implementing new technology and fixing IT-related problems are extremely inefficient for non-IT professionals. Free up internal staff for revenue-generating functions and the business of business.

Benefit #2: Tap Economies Of Scale And Purchasing Power

Due to a single focus on IT, sechnology services providers achieve greater efficiencies and economies of scale. They consolidate purchasing power and have access to deep and broad knowledge bases. Using developed best practices, tasks are completed more efficiently than small businesses can do on their own. The means real cost savings– both in time and money.

Benefit #3: Reduce Cost and Control Operating Expenses

The business value of technology services providers results in very hard dollar savings. In almost all cases, small businesses will spend 25% to 50% less than the cost of even one mid-level IT professional. Then take recruiting, training, vacation, sick days, turnover and other management issues out of the equation to see even more savings. Costs are budgeted, predictable and controlled.

Benefit #4: Access Highly Specialized Talent

Small businesses cannot cost effectively achieve the scale and flexibility to properly support their technology environments. Even a very experienced and dedicated IT employee has limits to skills and avenues for help. Professional technology services providers offer access to teams of IT specialists that deliver the cross-sectional IT knowledge needed to provide both on-going and critical support for small business networks.

Benefit #5: Get Services On-Demand

Many small businesses face the challenges of growth and the burden of scaling back. Both cases present a genuine HR problem when relying on in-house IT resources. Small businesses need the agility of just-in-time resources for emergencies and the flexibility to adjust technology support levels. With a professional technology services provider, sudden changes won’t affect the livelihood or morale of employees.

Benefit #6: Help Employees Innovate and Stay Productive

Communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing allows employees to innovate. These capabilities are delivered through a multitude of technologies including file servers, central databases, broadband connectivity, mobile platforms, email communications, and many others. However, true productivity and business benefit can only be realized when this complex technology is properly planned, implemented and maintained. The best practices and comprehensive experiences around planning, implementing and maintaining such systems allow technology services providers to successfully deliver these productivity improvements.

Benefit #7: Reduce Downtime

Even a few minutes of systems downtime carry enormous business costs. Maximizing uptime must be a high priority. Small businesses can longer afford issues with internet connectivity, email communications, corrupt data or systems failure-the cost of reacting to these events is just too high. Professional technology services providers offer planned, measured approaches to pro-active systems maintenance, security, backup and disaster recovery.

Benefit #8: Get A Technology Edge Over Competitors

Don’t just level the playing field: take advantage of new technologies for a competitive advantage. Technology services providers keep up with the latest solutions through ongoing training and real-world experience. They know how to implement the latest hardware, software, and network applications available. Just as important: they know which technologies are not worth the investment.

Benefit #9: Attract and Retain Employees

Employees want to work in an environment where their computers are up and running. Employees want to be competitive with their rivals and they want the technology tools that really help them deliver. Potential new talent will weigh your company’s technology prowess. Utilizing a professional technology services provider allows small businesses to meet these expectations and increases the ability to attract and retain employees.

Benefit #10: Access Otherwise Unavailable Vendor Support

Access to manufacturers is crucial in effectively supporting complex technology. When available, technology manufacturers traditionally provide basic or unreliable direct end-user support. With a well-established professional technology services provider, small businesses enjoy the benefits of priority access to Microsoft, Cisco and thousands of other technology vendors.

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Small Business and Technology

Traditional business management has had to make room for a new facet of business: technology. Through the years traditional business management has had to marry its strategies with the proliferation of technology where every business owner from Starbuck’s to Jim’s Auto has had to incorporate technology into its everyday operations.

The problem is that in the late nineties business believed technology was going to be the solution for every business problem, but it wasn’t until recently that business managers realized that technology will fail if not implemented properly. That is, traditional business management must seamlessly marry itself with technology.

Traditional business management is pretty self-explanatory; it’s managing business through traditional methods that have been used for many years. Traditional business management takes into account all aspects of running a business, large or small. Whether it is a million-dollar company or a billion-dollar company, all companies run the same. Those traditional methods incorporate three aspects of business: sales and marketing strategies, efficient operation and production methods, and manageable finances (SG&A). I believe all businesses should pay attention to these areas of business management.

So, now you have this traditional business model to think of, and you also have to think that the model has incorporated technology. You see, managing a business is not as easy as it sounds, and I know you have never looked at your business in this way before.

Believe it or not, graduate schools teach this stuff and larger companies obviously have the money to pay someone to think of this stuff. But most businesses do make the mistake in believing technology will solve all of their business problems. This is simply not true; technology cannot solve every business problem.

Many large corporations install and implement technology as quickly and arbitrarily as they would a new desk or a new lamp, not taking into consideration the stress new technology places on both business processes and human nature. Humans inherently do not like change, especially at the work place where they might feel as they might lose their job or were not consulted in helping determine which technology is best for their task or function.

Business processes do not like change either as the processes a business must go through to operate are much more complex than people might think. Most technology consultants want to “go live” with their implementation as soon as they can so they can share the praise of a successful launch. What most technology consultants don’t realize is that their eagerness to “sell” the job puts a business in a precarious operational bind.

It only makes sense to understand that as technology can be customized and most business processes cannot, basic technology implementations will hurt a business’ process as opposed to helping.

Some of the technology solutions out there can be very complex and some can be very simple. For example, I recently helped a client realize that developing a method of capturing labor time per phase of each of their projects allowed them to better understand and account for costs associated to labor and materials, per project. This allowed their sales team better cost data related to profit margins required per project. Initially the client was looking to spend money on purchasing one of those electronic card readers that each of his employees would have to swipe as they moved from station to station. We were able to solve his process issue at half the cost of that electronic clock by simply creating a custom process document from Microsoft Excel. The fact that the clock was not customizable would require the business processes to change just to accommodate the clock.

In this case we are trying to convey the importance of understanding your business and its processes before you move into technology. It is less expensive and less burdensome on your business processes. What we accomplished in the case above was that we were able to ‘tweak’ the business processes at will, where had we purchased the clock, we would have been forced to comply with what the clock required, not the business.

In the late nineties the hype of technology and the Internet fueled the belief that plugging technology into your business or developing your business around technology was the best way to run a business. A great example was WebVan and HomeGrocer.

These companies spent over a hundred-million venture capital dollars building the infrastructure that was going to give them the warehouse space to buy food products to fill all the customer orders that were to come via the Internet.

The mistake was that the company put all of its money into the assumption that its idea would work because the American grocery shopper was ready to buy groceries online via state-of-the-art technology. The orders never came.

Actually, the orders did come; the problem was that both companies were in so much debt because they couldn’t generate interests in their business model and they went out of business.

Today, the traditional grocery chains such as Albertson’s and Vons in the western U.S. have capitalized on earlier business models and realized their traditional way of doing business could was a great foundation to build their technology around their current processes.

I had the privilege of touring the WebVan warehouse in Oakland, California. It was impressive. If I remember correctly, it was an 80,000 square foot building equipped with a technologically advanced conveyer belt system worth millions of dollars. It looked like the inside of a United Parcel Service (UPS) warehouse, but much more expensive. For those who have never seen the inside of a UPS warehouse, it is just a bunch of conveyer belts.

Interestingly, about 50 people were milling around the WebVan warehouse; their main task was making sure the computers were pulling the right products and putting them on the conveyer belts. Great operation, but they ran out of money after just a little over a year.

So, what failed here, technology or money? Lack of money failed at WebVan, and lack of money fails almost every business that goes out of business. Lack of money fails business due to lack of business knowledge.

Business owners, make sure that you understand technology and that it can be customized and should be customized to meet your business process requirements. You can see the most successful implementation of technology in companies such as Wal-Mart and Toyota and we can see failures in technology such as WebVan.

We make sure we know how our business operates and what those operations require when making your businesses more efficient and effective. We look at understanding what your business requires before we recommend technology.

In the long run, you’ll spend less and profit more.

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