What's your price?

How does a company find the best value when shopping for technology solutions? Over the last few years I've been fortunate enough to be involved in some large scale initiatives for some of my customers where we've been able greatly improve redundancy and reduce their risk. I've also been witness to some organizations that have chosen to take more risk than they should and sadly they have had to pay a major price to recover. Whenever I'm working with someone, my biggest challenge is to get an accurate understanding what their risk tolerance is and how we can match it to their budget. My observation is that the solution that works best is the one that fits the customer's business requirements and takes short and long term business requirements into account. It's good to look out a ways and try and figure how long you will have this technology. That seems to be the hardest thing for SMB (Small and Medium Business) decision makers to hone in on. It's hard to look out beyond 3-5 years. Sometimes the cost to eliminate the appropriate amount of risk is simply too high. In that case there are reasonable compromises to make. In all cases it' my job to help my customers understand the impact of making a compromise. It seems when there is good honest communication up front, there is a foundation for a high quality buyer seller relationship. So if you are hunting for a technology solution for your business here are a couple of things to keep in mind :

1. Shop for a provider you can trust to give unbiased evaluation of different technologies.

2. Find someone who will present you with options and flexible pricing.

3. Take the time to look down the road and think honestly where your business will be in the 3-5 years.

4. Evaluate how you will balance the risk you are taking with technology with the other risks you must take in your business.

5. Make a road map for action and regular evaluation.

It's hard to take the time to make sound decisions that you feel good about when you are running a business. There are so many decisions to make that have an element of risk associated with them. Developing an IT road map and carefully choosing a technology partner is just one of many challenges facing SMB decision makers today. I hope the ideas I've offered on how to get that done are helpful.

Thanks for taking time to read my blog.