Small Biz Tech Talk ™

Those in the virtual IT world have been long awaiting the release of the Longhorn Windows Server.  The public release of the Beta 3 version last Wednesday brings the product closer to releasing.

Microsoft announced initially that it would ship Longhorn during the second half of 2007.  The company announced to the virtual IT world today that Longhorn would not be released for manufacturing until the end of 2007.  

For those involved in virtual IT and small businesses, the Windows Server beta is now complete with features, except it does not yet have the virtualization hypervisor – named “Viridian” – and will not have this feature until 2008.  Viridian will be shipped separately from the rest of the Server package as an add-on.  

For virtual IT specialists and businesses, Longhorn Beta 3 adds some important features to the pre-existing product.  It offers the Windows PowerShell command language interface and also new server roles such as print services, Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Services and Active Directory Federation Services.

Longhorn will be important to the virtual IT world because it is the first product of its kind to provide such high levels of virtualization.  Longhorn also has advanced security and protection that works with Windows Update and Microsoft Update.  Some in the virtual IT world are anticipating issues with the firewall, but most are excited about the prospects of increased capabilities.    

Microsoft is expecting hundreds of thousands of copies of Longhorn Beta 3 to be downloaded by those in the virtual IT world.  The Small Business Server edition of Longhorn, named Cougar will ship in 2008.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

As a computer consultant, you need to clearly define the terms of your IT service agreements.  IT service agreements need to have pre-set monthly fees, allow for travel charges and outline specific policies.  You need to set your conditions and terms before customers sign IT service agreements.  

IT Service Agreements:  Plan Ahead

You need to plan ahead with IT service agreements so your customers will trust you.  What benefits and prices will you offer to customers?  Set a rate card and determine your terms so you can please current customers and create a strong case for why future clients should sign IT service agreements.  

IT Service Agreements:  The Rate Card

A rate card is simply a one-page document that displays typical prices vs. service agreement prices.  This card acts as your marketing summary for benefits.  You should spend time coming up with a list of half a dozen really strong benefits for why someone should want to sign IT service agreements instead of paying your hourly rate.  

The Bottom Line About IT Service Agreements

Plotting out the terms and conditions of your business agreements will help you know what you are doing when you are on sales calls.  If you don’t have clearly defined terms as part of IT service agreements, you will be announcing to the world that you don’t quite know what you are doing.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Solution provider Digitiliti, a company offering remote enterprise data services will release unlimited data storage options for customers this week.  The company was formed by a former storage solution provider and last week went public when it merged with the former company, Storage Elements and Cyclone Holdings.

Digitiliti will also be recruiting other solution providers in order to better serve its customers, according to Brad Wenzel, CEO of the Minneapolis-based solution provider.  Wenzel previously ran solution provider company Wenzel Data, based I Stillwater, Minnesota.  He states that the new Digitiliti will offer volume-level and file-level data recovery in its data center, located in the basement of the former Federal Reserve Bank building in Minneapolis.  

Digilititi’s new service will work with all types of customer hardware and software and will store data ranging in size from multiple gigabytes to multiple petabytes.  The solution provider uses compression and backups in order to decrease the space taken up, and is protected using encryption.

Solution provider Digitiliti also offers its solutions in a software application.  Customers can use it to set up their own storage solutions and backup for both on-site and off-site capabilities.  

Currently, Digitiliti works with 50 solution providers.  It is searching for solution providers that have experience selling tape and WAN technology and expertise in storage.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Your IT sales call should not be a long and free session.  You are not available to prospects for free information sessions and need to direct the purpose of IT sales calls to actual sales.  

The purpose of an IT sales call is to see if you and your prospect could work well together and to try to suggest the next step in the process.

IT Sales:  Could You Work Well Together?

The point of an IT sales call is to verify that you and your prospect could have a good working relationship and that the prospect resembles other clients with which you’ve had successful relationships.  If the chemistry is right, you want to spend about an hour or so learning about the prospect’s needs and offering some advice within reason.  

In order to get to IT sales you have to be ready to stop the free advice and shift the conversation towards the process of hiring your firm for an IT audit or tech assessment.

IT Sales:  If You Work for Free, You Will End up Poor

You can’t offer things for free if you want to be good at IT sales.  You need to make a profit, so you need to draw the line at a certain point.  Many small businesses will continue to make you come back time and time again for free if you don’t quickly move the process along to IT sales.

IT Sales:  What Service Are You Selling?

You need to assess your client’s needs and hot spots before you go on the IT sales call.  Think of how you can solve problems before even meeting with prospects and be prepared to offer very quickly a tangible, fixed cost half-day audit for a discounted couple hundred dollars.

If there is a larger opportunity for services of $50,000 or even $100,000, you can afford giving away time more than an hour.  But before each IT sales call, you should count on an hour until you find out more information.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

A course taught in Bushkills, Pennsylvania is teaching IT consulting professionals how to protect client systems by hacking into them.  The course is taught by Steve Kalman and is called Certified Ethical Hacking.  It teaches IT consulting experts about many different topics, from wireless hacking to how to avoid getting trapped by systems set up to attract and catch hackers.

The hope with this IT consulting course is that professionals can learn how to better secure systems by learning how to break into them.   A course is offered by a Northeast Philadelphia company, “Training Camp” that employs 40 people and has many classes for computer professionals.  The students  learn how to break into mock-up bank systems and other high-security fictional organizations.  It is called “Hacker Boot Camp” and is designed to help IT consulting firms better protect their customers’ computers.   

Students of this IT consulting course learn to create fake records in databases, create $1 million accounts with fictitious banks and commit other phony crimes to learn more about what is behind them and what is behind security procedures that can help protect users from them.  

Students of this IT consulting class agree that understanding different tricks is truly helping them understand how hackers get into systems through vulnerabilities.  Training Camp purposely does not offer information that could really help hackers to ensure there is no foul play.  Most of the tricks taught are those that have already been patched and fixed.

Those IT consulting professionals that pass the course get a certification of a “Certified Ethical Hacker,” which is becoming in higher demand than ever before as data security becomes incredibly important to the life of every business.

For more information on this IT consulting course, visit the attached link.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Even though you can never plan exactly for IT emergencies, you need to have a plan in advance to handle them.  Make sure your staff is not overbooked so the members can be ready to handle any IT emergencies when they occur.  

IT Emergencies:  Necessary in any Computer Consulting Business

If the world were ideal, IT emergencies would never happen.  Unfortunately, even technology can be unpredictable, so the ability to deal with IT emergencies is necessary in order to keep a steady base of customers and also to get more business.  Booking your staff to maximum capacity is not advisable, but you also have to create a balance of availability so your current clients are happy and their needs are fully served.  

IT Emergencies:  Never Overschedule Staff

The ideal scheduling capacity for staff is about 75 percent for technical people without sales functions or management positions.  This means there is 25 percent flexibility leftover for IT emergencies and non-billable projects along with new business prospects.  

The Bottom Line About IT Emergencies

There will be peaks of business you cannot meet, and times of stress during IT emergencies.  This is the time to get the most out of your staff and do serious emergency work as well as build relationships with individual clients.  IT emergencies are a fact of life in the technology business, and you have to be ready to deal with them whenever they may arise.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Last week IT channel, Alexandria, VA-based company Vonage Holdings Corp. was told by a judge that it would not be permitted to add new customers while in the midst of a lawsuit that found the company guilty of infringement of Verizon Communications patents.  This infringement was based on systems used for phone calls made via the Internet.

IT channel company Vonage will appeal to U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton’s recent order allowing Vonage to only provide service to current customers.  Hilton stated this decision could potentially put the company out of business if it cannot use the Verizon technology.  However, Verizon could also suffer losses if the decision goes the other way and IT channel business can continue to use the patented technology.  

Vonage’s lawyer, Roger Warin stated that the court ruling for the IT channel company would be a way to slowly kill it.  Even just a partial limiting of the patent use will have the same effect as totally cutting off the company from using patented technology.   

Hilton will sign the order officially on Thursday, at which point Vonage will be able to take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals.  On March 23, Hilton announced that he would be issuing an injunction that would completely prohibit use of all Verizon technology by IT channel company Vonage, which send the company’s shares down 26 percent in one day.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

Referrals make the process of IT marketing much simpler.  Asking clients if they know someone that could use your expertise and using those referrals to advance your business are excellent IT marketing tools.

The Main IT Marketing Question

Ask clients, “Do you know anyone else that might be helped by our services?”  Write down their responses anywhere you can and look at the answers often when dealing with your marketing plan.  Get used to asking clients if they know anyone in their immediate circle of friends, family members, colleagues or business acquaintances and even vendors that you could help.  

IT Marketing Means Teaching Clients How to Find Referrals

IT marketing means training your clients how to tell whether or not someone might be able to use your services.  Tell them to listen for people complaining on the phone about slow computers or inability to email back because of a regularly down system.  These are the leads you need clients to look for as referrals so you can unlock IT marketing opportunities.  

IT Marketing:  A Client Survey

Survey customers once a year as part of an IT marketing strategy and during the survey ask if they would list people that might be able to use your services.  A statement stuffer is also a good way to show appreciation for referrals and give client tips on the types of businesses with which you work.  

IT Marketing:  Rewarding Referrals

If you want to increase your IT marketing efforts with referrals, start a forma referral program.  Tell customers they will be rewarded for referrals that become customers.  Rewards might include $100 credit on their accounts, a $100 gift check or $100 donation to their chosen charity.  

When you reward clients for improving your IT marketing efforts, you will get better referrals.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Top solution providers are always looking for the latest technologies and opportunities to most efficiently solve customer issues.  The 2007 VARBusiness Alternatives Survey showed that solution providers are on the lookout for secondary, alternative vendors.

Solution providers will typically explore alternative relationships when they need extra support, when they find opportunities or when a customer or trend within the market shows them the value of a specific alternative vendor.  Some solution providers are starting to look weekly and monthly at alternative new partnerships with vendors that will help their businesses grow.

Choosing a Vendor

Selecting an alternative vendor is not easy for many solution providers.  The best practices listed below are based on solution providers interviews and can help solution providers find, evaluate and choose the best alternative vendors.  

1.    There is no one way that is best for selecting an alternative vendor.  Many solution providers view the process opportunistically and let people on their staff talk to vendors about emerging products and technologies.  Others choose to have committees designed to evaluate alternatives formally.  

2.    Alternative vendors actively pursue new partners, so many solution providers receive calls from vendors and take meetings several times a week.  Alternatives are becoming incredibly competitive and technology changes regularly, so solution providers need to have a clear policy for evaluation.

3.    Different shops have different needs, so solution providers need to put the appropriate people in charge of new partnerships.  In small shops, the owner or CEO should make the decision about alternative vendors, whereas in midsize or large companies, line-of-business managers or sales executives and technical teams might be qualified to choose.  

4.    Formal vendor evaluation committees are an excellent way to stay competitive with other solution providers.  The committee can be comprised of representatives from the executive staff, IT/engineering staff and sales and marketing staff.  Regardless of who is on the committee, committee members need to review the company’s specific technology needs before selecting appropriate partnerships.  

The Bottom Line about Alternative Partnerships and Solution Providers

No solution provider should ever rush into a relationship with an alternative vendor without first exploring the many options.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit