Small Biz Tech Talk ™

In recent news for systems integrators, JMR Electronics announced it would be making its new BlueStor Storage Server, based on an AMD processor, storage solution available to systems integrators and VARs.  This storage solution works in RAID environments to provide the best performance available from any platform.

JMR provides storage systems for systems integrators, and its new BlueStor storage systems have PeSAN technology that can sustain over 1,000 MB/s – as many as 1,300 MB/s – using only three disk drive shelves.  This product for systems integrators has been in process for five years.    

JMR exhibited in AMD’s booth at Storage Networking World in Dallas, Texas.  The show was held for systems integrators and VARs starting on Monday, October 15 and running through Wednesday, October 17.

JMR has offered resellers and systems integrators technology solutions since 1982.  Its roots are in data storage systems and it works with mostly commercial, industrial and military electronic design and manufacturing as well as with sophisticated computer server and storage systems.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Personal referrals are your ticket to great prospects with IT marketing.  Typically, these types of referrals will be pre-sold – they already trust you.  Trust is really important and is one of the major goals of any IT marketing campaign.  But how do you get more personal referrals?

Trust and IT Marketing

An IT consultant is a trusted professional, not unlike a good internist, attorney or accountant.  Some people go to the Yellow Pages for any of those things, but mostly they will put a lot of faith in personal word-of-mouth referrals when looking for this type of professional. 

Are You Well Known?

If you want to get to the decision makers that will hire you and target them with your IT marketing campaign, you need to increase your profile within the community.

One way to do this is through networking.  Networking is a huge IT marketing strategy and one that can really mean the success or failure of any computer consulting firm.  With this type of IT marketing campaign, as with others, relationships are key, and these relationships are about trust.  

Use IT Marketing to Get More Recommendations

How can you get more personal recommendations?  The answer is – know more people.  This means you have to join organizations and attend events regularly as part of your IT marketing strategy.  You don’t need to go to every single breakfast and after-hours function, but you do need to be active.  The more active you are, the more people you will get to know.  And you will get better at noticing the types of people that will lead you to the best opportunities.   

The Main Idea with IT Marketing

Personal referrals – and those you get through IT marketing activities related to organizations – are key to the success of your computer consulting business and will help get you noticed as a trustworthy professional within your community.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Computer business IBM announced recently that it would be expanding its partner program to include new tools and incentives to help with resource sharing and help foster best practices.

The SOA Business Partner program began in June of 2005 and was designed to help connect consultants, systems integrators and resellers into a computer business community.  The professionals are able to share SOA tools and resources and have grown into a community of 4,200 members.   
IBM’s SOA Business Partner program was set up in June 2005 to bring together consultants, systems integrators and resellers into a tight-knit community by giving them shared access to SOA tools and resources.  In the past 2 years, the computer business has expanded its usable Web resources to 4,600.

The computer business added the user interface of the Web 2.0 collaboration and other tools.  As part of its computer program it now offers customer ratings and reviews in order to help offer partners and sales reps better exposure.  

Also part of the computer business’ new partner program is its WebSphere Knowledge Center which boasts that it offers a single location for all SOA tools and strategies.  It offers Webcasts, Podcasts and demos courtesy of IBM.

As part of its expansion, the computer business has also decided to partner with some organizations to offer “localized SOA events.”  The workshops will be one day in length and be held under the idea of “Impact Comes to You” at more than 65 global locations.

For more information on this computer business story, visit the attached link.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

When you run into prospects with IT emergencies, you can really bring things together for your business.

But how can IT emergencies help you?

First of all, the customer feels acutely what happens when he/she ignores IT issues.  When a virus hits and a customer finds the anti-virus license renewal wasn’t handled and nothing was updated, the pain is immediately felt.  During IT emergencies such as these, a customer’s main client may want on-line access to an account, but it’s not possible.  This is your opportunity to swoop in and save the day.

The second way IT emergencies can present opportunities is that when you have saved the day, you will find yourself with access and also instant credibility.  You are already there, and the customer wants to hear what you have to say.   

When and How Do You Handle IT Emergencies?

When you respond to IT emergencies, you have to keep in mind that your customer will be looking for immediate assurance that the pain of the problem is about to end.  This means you need to solve the problem with a clever workaround to get it immediately running or find a quick and direct solution.  Your customers will want to know the meaning of “as soon as possible” to you, and it’s your chance to define it.

In reality, within an hour or two of your arrival in response to IT emergencies, your customers want you to explain the problem and prioritize the situation with them in regards to their business.  They want to know you are resourceful enough to find solutions quickly and responsible for what happens.     

What about Emergencies that Can’t Be Fixed Right Away?

Not all IT emergencies can be fixed right away.  You have to think in terms of “triage.”  You need to figure out what has to be done today and what can wait until a bit later.  You also need to know the quickest way to getting results.  Fixing the situation is not always about solving the biggest problem first.  Sometimes you need to know some workarounds and how to prioritize issues affecting the entire company – the LAN being down – above those that are just affecting one person.  

It Just Takes One Computer …

Sometimes just a single computer can cause IT emergencies.  You may find that one computer is down and a clerk cannot submit the necessary online information to make payroll.  This will become a top priority for you.  Often you can arrange simple, temporary solutions to these types of IT emergencies, such as a direct dial-up connection that can get past the LAN and help you work on the problem and establish the beginning of a good relationship.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Recently, computer business IBM and Google, Inc. said they would be developing a program to help promote new computer programming techniques for the processors known as “clouds.”  IBM executive Samuel Palmisano and Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced via telephone interview that they would each be spending $20 – $25 million for hardware, software and services to be used by professors and computer science students.  

“Cloud” computing has recently garnered attention from a lot of major computer businesses such as Microsoft and Sun.  It lets computers in remote data centers run parallel to each other.  The “cloud” concept is able to run a lot of different software applications and be used simultaneously by many users without expanding data centers.  But what about security and reliability?  Those questions still remain as the concept is developed within the computer business.

IBM and Google plan to give 400 computers to colleges throughout the U.S. and then expand to 4,000.  The computers will be available at six universities, the first being University of Washington in Seattle, where these programming abilities within the computer business were first developed.  Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley and University of Maryland will also be involved.  

Palmisano stated that this concept was developed last December when they realized Google and IBM shared opinions about cloud computing.  This concept is actually the foundation for the Google search system.

Both the companies are concerned that computer science programs will not allow students to learn about important parallel programming techniques.  What also unites them is their rivalry with Microsoft.  Both the computer business Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have recently stated they are developing their own plans for cloud computing.

For more information about this computer business story, visit the attached link.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Solution providers have to work hard to grow their businesses and make very calculated decisions in order to set the process in motion.  According to many solution providers, making the right decisions and creating a plan can be a real challenge for a variety of reasons.

More than 50% of solution providers work with a net income of 5% or less, according to experts.  And just 10% of all companies are able to keep above-market growth rates for periods of longer than five years.

Three Ways to Grow Profits as Solution Providers

There are three ways for solution providers to grow profits, and taking them in the proper order is important.

1.     They must know their business model inside and out.

2.    They have to know how to get the business model so that it is most efficient for their specific business.

3.    Solution providers, finally have to use #2 and #3 to start to grow their business.

Three Different Categories for Solution Providers

1.     Lifestyle Companies:  Solution providers that are happy with where they are and are just about to experience higher growth but want not to grow any further. 

 
2.    Moderate Growth Companies:  Those solution providers that expect to grow between 5% and 15% in the next year through specialization.

3.    Hyper Growth Companies:  Those solution providers that want to grow more than 15% in the next year through specialization, new practices and new vendors, all of which will help them get new customers and clients.

Which Are the Most Financially Successful Solution Providers?

According to many experts, the solution providers that make the most money are those that focus on SERVICES and get 25% of their revenue from solutions that are new and innovative (aka, those that were not part of their solutions package two years ago).  Complex and customizable solutions are one of the keys to the success of these types of solution providers.    

The Top Four Factors of Successful Solution Providers

In March, IPED conducted a survey that determined that the most important factors in business success include finding new businesses, customer service, technological changes and marketing.  Experts also added a fifth to the list – cash flow management (and also basic financial management).

For more information on this story for solution providers, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Elevator pitches are meant to be quick IT marketing strategies you can use on a daily basis.  Say something fast and memorable when the time is right to talk about your business.  

How do you make your IT marketing elevator pitch memorable?

What is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is something you say about your business to appropriate listeners.  The deal is, you should think about the following scenario:  you get in an elevator on the 20th floor and are with a man or woman that is well-dressed and looks like an executive that might make a good customer.  You are leaving the same cocktail party, and he/she looks down at your name tag and acknowledges you and asks how you are doing and asks what you do.    

This is your opportunity to tell a person a little bit about yourself.  You can now pull out your IT marketing elevator pitch and say something about your business.

Examples of Elevator Pitches

“I own a company that repairs, builds and upgrades computers.”

“I’m John Doe with ABC Computer Consulting and we make it our business to help small and mid-sized businesses learn how to get great benefits out of their computers, the Internet and networking productivity.”

If the person you are with is having problems with computers, he/she may very well ask for your card, and you’ve just produced a very positive IT marketing outcome with little effort.  

It’s All about Benefits

Any part of your IT marketing strategy needs to stress benefits.  You should be talking about providing business services and network consulting.  If you can spend some time talking about the types of problems you help people solve, you can probably capture even more attention.  A call to action at the end of this IT marketing tactic is also wise; ask them for an appointment for a consultation if they are interested.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Last week IT consulting firm THINKstrategies showed its commitment to teaching about software and its relationship to services when it held a webinar with Inforonics.  The webinar on September 28 was designed to explore the ideas behind offering software as part of a comprehensive IT consulting solution and was open to IT professionals across industries and was scheduled for noon.  

Earlier in September, the IT consulting firm announced a new set of packaged services that would help sell software as part of a complete business solution for clients.  The packaged services were designed to help managed service providers be sure to have a well-designed system for delivering their web-based solutions.    

Friday’s webinar was entitled “SaaS:  It’s all about the Service and Support” and was hosted by Jeff Kaplan, principal of THINKstrategies and Bob Murphy, the director of sales at the IT consulting firm Inforonics.  They talked about all the talk surrounding how easy SaaS applications have become to use and that technical support difficulties can crop up because of the actual complexity of these applications.  They also talked about how broad the software industry and the technical support surrounding it has become and helped identify challenges IT consulting firms face and also what the industry considers “best practices” for tech support in this arena.

For more information on this story for IT consulting firms, visit the attached link.

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg