HP to buy 3Com!

I just learned this weekend that Hewlett Packard intends to buy 3Com.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091111/bs_nm/us3com_hewlettpackard.  This is exciting news for the SMB (small and medium business) market place.  My experience providing HP solutions to my customers over the past 8 years has been extremely positive.  Also, whenever HP has goofed up they have come back and made improvements to fix the problem.  This is a sign that this company understands the marketplace.  Recently, I've been working with the HP wireless LAN (Local Area Network) solutions and they are a terrific solution.  What I love about HP is they find a way to make everything work better together for the customer.  You can start your HP wireless network with just one access point and no expensive controller.  When needed you can grow that network to enterprise levels and have the highest levels of security and compliance.  What does the acquisition of 3Com mean to the SMB market place?  For me, the most exiting part has to do with the potential development of an SMB offering of VOIP (Voice Over IP).  For the last several years phone systems have been inching their way on to the data network but have still remained a separate purchase decision.  Cisco and 3Com have been making inroads but I think HP will do it better and cost effectively.  This means that a customer can have a network which is HP end to end.  I'm generally cautious when thinking about putting all of my eggs in one basket.  So I'll watch this closely, but guy can hope can't he.  If they execute on this they way they did with wireless they should have a technology solution that is hard to beat.

The Local Hardware Store Experience

Today I went to the local hardware store in majestic down town Chanhassen (#2 rated best place to live in the country). I've realized I look forward to going to the hardware store and I dread making a trip to Home Depot.  I get satisfaction out of being well served.  I also derive pleasure in knowing that I'm supporting a local business and the high school kid who is trying to make money for college. In my desire to understand the buyer seller relationship on a deeper level I've been observing the market place.  When I buy and when I sell I'm always trying to figure out what makes some relationships work and what makes them fall apart.  What makes a customer experience great?  What helps them trust the person or business they are working with?  What are the factors that erode trust?   I've come to the conclusion that in many ways I want my customers to experience what I experience at the local hardware store.  I asked where something was and they knew the isle.  I went to that isle and they came and made sure I could find what I wanted (I was purchasing rope).   I have a question about the different types of rope and  they can tell me about the differences.  If they guy I'm talking to does not know.....he has a more senior guy or specialist who can get the right answer.  Can you get this at Home Depot?  I think not. Not as frequently at least.  One out of every 10 times I'll have that experience at Home Depot or Lowes.  For all of their flashy advertisements with happy smiling employees, they just don't deliver.  When I go to my local hardware store I may be working with a kid from the local high school, but somehow, he helps me find what I'm looking for.  How does this apply to purchasing technology solutions?  I think that the main message is that price and name brand are not the best determiners of solution quality.  If you are a small to medium local company looking for a solution.....think about choosing a small to medium local provider.  They may not have flashy advertising with the bargain basement prices. They will be there to get you the answers you are looking for at the time you need them.  You will look forward to the experience instead of dreading it.  You'll also find the best solutions for your business while helping to grow the local business community.

Thanks for reading.

A Different Approach

When Managed IT services became popular 5 years ago it seemed like it would be great for everyone.  The customer would have a fixed monthly cost for their IT support and services and the IT vendors would be able to level out there revenue streams and become more profitable.  That is not exactly what happened.  This new model works well for some companies but not for all.  First, the IT companies had a hard time controlling the environments they were managing well enough so that they could level out their costs to stay in line with the revenue(fixed monthly charge to customer).  Second,  not everyone wanted the "all u can eat" model.  A lot of companies want an onsite person in house who can help out or be the point of contact.  In these times companies want to keep good people on staff to help with many "loose ends" of running a business.  Some of the promises of Managed IT services did come true.

There are many basic activities which make very cost effective managed services:

1. Assuring anti-virus definitions are up to date 
2. Performing regular system scans  
3. Proactive windows patching (patches being tested in advance) 
   
4. Automated backup 
5. 24x7 helpdesk support for 90 percent of desktop support issues
6. Server monitoring with proactive remediation
7. Asset management (managing and reporting on all IT assets)

Here are some items that don't necessarily fall under the fixed cost managed support model:

1. Custom business application troubleshooting
2. Custom application development
   
3. Expansion projects
4. On-site support of network infrastructure

No matter how much you may want to have it all covered for one monthly price, that may simply not be possible.  Of course if price is no object..........   Well in these times companies are looking for ways to be lean.  The way to do that is to make sure you break down the costs of your services so you know what is included in your charges.  An "all-u-can-eat" model with no detail on whats covered is probably not a good deal.

In the IT world there are multiple levels of engineers.  The large businesses pay one rate for the level 1 or 2 (typically helpdesk) and a higher rate for level 3.  Some companies have level 3 people doing level 1 work and also the reverse.  When this is the case I typically hear level 3 people being overloaded with work that is not appropriate for them and level 1 people who spend too long on a problem.  Which ever IT support company you choose make sure they have this figured out.  They should be putting the right people on the right work.  If they don't they will have a hard time servicing you on a timely basis and providing quality workmanship. 

The Managed IT Services providers are growing in number every month offering a wide variety of programs promising smooth sailing for your IT.  I hope these ideas help you pick the right one.

Thanks for reading

Practical Application

In my goal of becoming a resource for small business owners who are searching for technology solutions I'm always trying to discover practical, real life, examples of how technology really changes things. My wife and I recently had such an experience. So please bare with me as I offer you this simple but practical example of how my family is benefiting from cloud computing. Not too long ago my wife and I finally got on the same page in budgeting our family finances. We were fortunate enough to take part in the Dave Ramsey program called Financial Peace University. It was a great experience that I would recommend to almost anyone. In my opinion the single greatest benefit of the program is that it gets you and your spouse working together on planning for the family finances on a regular basis. You do this by having a budget and regular meetings. These meetings need to accommodate the geeky types that want to spend all day poring over numbers and spreadsheets. They also accommodate free spirits like myself who want to run through the numbers in 17 minutes and then move on to something more interesting.

What does this have to do with cloud computing? Well, when we have our weekly meetings we gather together and review our spread sheet. With Google Documents we were able to create a spreadsheet that we could both access separately and make changes to and those changes were saved to the same place. The fundamental problem with most spreadsheets and financial programs like Quickbooks is that they are not easily shared between 2 or more individuals. Historically the only way to share a common document or application in a home computing environment has been to log on to the same computer using the same user name and password. Usually one person is the super geek and strives to understand how these applications work. They hold the log in credentials or the spreadsheet on their local computer. In our family I'd sit down and create this really cool spreadsheet and then my wife would end up being the one to make all of the updates. She would get frustrated because I had the original version and had not made any changes to it. I was great at creating record keeping systems but horrible at the daily discipline needed to keep them up to date. So she'd get frustrated because she did not know how to use the system I'd created and was not invested in it. Especially because I was not keeping it up to date. We were having the same problem when we completed the Financial Peace University. I created a spreadsheet in Excel 2007 and she wanted to make changes to it but could not because it was on my laptop. I'd email it to her hotmail account and then we were both frustrated when we both made changes but they were on separate sheets.

With Google Documents we were able to eliminate all the frustrations and we did it for free. To create a Google Documents account you simply have to have a Gmail account.....Easy. I already had that. I logged into my Gmail account, clicked on google Docs, and uploaded my document. Then, we created a Gmail account for my wife, I went back to my account and shared it to her and that was it! Now we both make updates, mostly her, and the document is always up to date, always saved, always secure. More importantly we work more easily together and can accomplish our collective financial goals more easily with the use of technology. These are the kind of applications of technology that get me really excited. I hope that you try out Google Documents. I think this is a great innovation for the common man.

Thanks for reading

More or less for your money?

What I love about being in the technology business is that I get to work with all kinds of cool new technology. I get the biggest buzz when I can take that technology and help a business achieve a new level of effectiveness and efficiency. I have to be careful that I don't too fascinated with the technology and lose sight of the goal. When I am working with a new customer we spend a lot of time dancing around the dollars and trying to find the balance between the right dollars and the right technology. It's hard to lay out $10,000 for a new solution when you are a small business owner. It's a big risk when you need to lay out big bucks for payroll every month, not to mention health insurance and all the other costs of running a business.

When I had my first company we were young and we thought we were pretty smart. We figured that if people were coming to us for solutions that we should come down from the mountain top with the right answer. In retrospect I think we were is little insensitive to the customers budget. I think we could have done more to earn our $150.+ per hour consulting fee. When customers pay $150.00 or more per hour for consulting what do they expect? Do they want to have me recommend they buy a Lexus when all they need is a Toyota? Do we try and sell them a hybrid with new relatively untested technology when they need a reliable low cost car that still gets high gas mileage? I think if you are paying a high rate for your consultant they should be recommending solutions that are the right fit. If you came to me tomorrow and asked me to sell you a great car its pretty easy for me to set you up in a Lexus and know you'll like it. But that car will likely break your budget. How about a used Toyota Camry with 30,000 miles on it at 1/3 the price?

So what I am trying to say is that if you are paying a high price for your consultant. They should be able to help you by reducing your overall cost of technology and supporting the technology. The right solutions fit right, they are stable, and they should have lower overall total cost of ownership. I've seen the opposite where companies are paying a super low price for their consulting but when you look at the over all picture there are a lot of band aided and constantly breaking solutions in place. What you also see in that picture is lost productivity and frustrated staff. I see this time and time again and it takes a while to fix it. It takes a lot of experience and time to be ready to take these sorts of projects on. This is the type of situation where that is also the most rewarding when solutions are put in place and systems are stabilized. In the end its why I'm in the business.

Thanks for reading.

Collaboration question?

Collaboration of voice, video and web has been on my mind a lot lately. Many of my customers have been talking about it but more importantly the business community is changing the way they do business every day towards an ever increasing use of collaboration technology. Companies like Cisco's Webex http://www.webex.com/ and GotomyPC from Citrix https://www.gotomypc.com/en_US/entry.tmpl?Action=rgoto&_sf=2 are changing the way we meet, communicate and present information. How much collaboration is enough? Well, the great part is that you can put your "big Toe" in the pool before taking the plunge. I think that if you like the experience and it improves your interaction with your employees and customers it is worth making a major move. In today's business environment it is becoming harder and harder to get face to face with clients. They simply have too much information coming at them. They don't have time to sit down with everyone. What if you could provide a way to talk with clients that differentiated you from your competitors and still brings you face to face. How about a video conference where you present your solution succinctly and you are face to face? You are also progressive. The trick, of course, is getting everything to work. Whats nice is that there are a few phone systems today that are IP (Internet protocol) based that come out of the box with some pretty great collaboration technology. If you are already using something like Webex or GotomyPC regularly and paying the recurring fees its easy to show whether or not there is cost justification. As you would expect, my recommendation is to find a solution provider you trust to provide you with options. I also recommend that you make sure that the solution provider you pick has a strong grasp of IT networking technology.

See you on the web.

Share the Point

I think Microsoft Sharepoint server is a tremendous value for small businesses. With small businesses owners being more and more mobile they need IT platforms that can meet them where they do business. Most importantly, the coffee shop. Sharepoint is included in Microsoft's base server product Small Business Server. It simply needs to be turned on and configured. It allows a person to log into a website using their existing username and password, which is connected to their server, they can access all of their files on the server. I've been in some form or another of sales for the last 15 years. My most common challenge is having the right paperwork with me when I working with clients. Imagine this, you are on site with a client and they want to sign an agreement to use your services. You say, "I'll drive back to the office, prepare the paperwork and stop back later today". or you could say, " just a minute I'll log on your computer download it and print it out". Which one is more efficient? The applications for people who travel the world to do business are even more apparent. This product provides for remote access to files and security. Sure you can just keep all your files on your laptop, but what happens when you spill coffee on the laptop? Lets hope you have your files backed up. lets hope you have them with you. The ease of which you can impliment this solution again falls on the back of your solution provider. This is a prodcut which can grow to be immense in size and complexity. I think that is why it scares many consultants and customers away. The good news is that it is easy to turn on the basic services and put your "big toe" in the pool before jumping in.
If you are a small company and you need a great remote access solution, I would suggest considering using sharepoint as a part of Microsoft Small Business Server. If you already own Small Business Server 2003 you are in luck. A solution provider can lay out a plan and get it turned up for you affordably.

Check it out http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx