Introduction

In today's information-intensive business climate, small businesses confront a number of technology challenges.

On one hand, your company needs to be absolutely sure it's spending its time and financial resources in the right places.

On the flip side, cutting back too much on tech expenses in the wrong places can lead to missed business opportunities, a decay in competitive positioning, abysmal employee productivity and morale as well as a high risk of severe damage to both physical and intellectual property tech assets.

Why You Need This Book Now: Take Control of Your Technology

My goal is quite simple: to show you ways to save money on common computer support problems and related technology expenses.

To do that, I have to let you in on many insider secrets that your highly paid computer consultant doesn't want you to know. After all, the longer you're in the dark, the more billable hours your consultant can rack up on mundane tasks that very well may be within your company's scope of expertise.

Don't let another week pass in which your consultant is building up job security on your nickel, and a hefty invoice, by withholding key training and system documentation.

What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know will help make sure:

• Your company can begin saving money right away.

• You can provide a more immediate response to your coworkers' tech support problems. No more waiting for return phone calls, pages or on-site visits.

• You'll learn how to improve the reliability of your company's computer systems.

• You'll become a more valuable employee to your company.

• You can improve your company's individual employee and workgroup productivity.

• You'll be able to better distinguish among fact, opinion and pure fiction.

• You'll be able to figure out which tasks to continue outsourcing.

• You'll be able to support today's problems with a clear vision of what you need to accomplish down the road.

And the best part, these tips are organized into simple, bite-sized chunks for busy people.

Why This Book Is Different: The Secrets of Expensive Tech Consultants Revealed

Most conventional computer books contain a technical discussion of software features -- assuming that you want and need to achieve expert proficiency on the topic at hand.

Computer books very rarely even touch on opportunities for cost savings, such as out-of-pocket expenses and soft costs, or training, installation, customization and troubleshooting. So you're on your own to figure out how various software and hardware features affect your technology budget. This book is very different.

Small business owners and managers are a price-sensitive group. So any opportunity to trim expenses, without cutting into muscle, is certainly worth exploring. Add 101 money-saving opportunities to the mix, and the possibilities become even more exciting.

What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know will help you plan innovative ways to start curtailing your technology spending almost immediately. Simply "in-source" many computer support projects that were formerly handled exclusively on an outsourced basis by expensive computer consultants. As you'll see, this book is truly a unique tool.

A Few Words About Tech Consultants

In my first book, Building Profitable Solutions with Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 (Microsoft Press, 1999), I taught computer consultants how to constantly add high-level value to client engagements by regularly evaluating and upgrading their consulting skill sets.

I've been a long time proponent of the need for computer consultants to plan for next year's big opportunities. Most progressive, forward-thinking technology providers agree with this practice and actively seek ways to phase out entry-level, low-margin technical support tasks, so their companies can concentrate on higher-level projects and more lucrative niches. This gives consultants a way to combat obsolescence and build a more solid relationship and partnership with their small business clients.

But, some computer consultants out there still believe self-servingly that clients are best off being kept in the dark on self-help technical support information.

Computer consultants offer small businesses an excellent way to tap into experienced IT (Information Technology) talent, without the overhead of a full-time IT manager on payroll. However, many small businesses call on their computer consultant too quickly, too often, when small businesses could just as readily and easily handle many basic, routine computer support problems on their own.

If these scenarios in any way describe your existing technology provider relationship, you need What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know to help you become more self-sufficient and lower your overall computer support costs. If this sort of discussion offends your computer consultant, perhaps you should start interviewing replacements.

Who This Book Is For

• Small Business Owners, Managers and Internal Gurus

• Trusted Advisors to Small Businesses

• Technology Consultants for Small Businesses

In sharp contrast to workers in a Fortune 1000 enterprise, small business employees wear a lot of "hats." There are no hard and fast rules on when a small business must put an IT manager on payroll, but with fewer than 25 PC users, it's difficult to rationalize or cost-justify having a full-time salaried computer support position.

So daily computer support tasks and ongoing tech projects typically are handled part-time by an employee who has another job with the company, call it his or her "real" job -- such as being an accountant, bookkeeper, controller, executive assistant, office manager, sales rep or some other non-IT career. I call this person the internal guru - the one everybody instinctively yells for when the fax machine jams, the Internet connection goes down or the database locks up.

In addition to the internal guru, many small businesses have a "P&L" decision maker, responsible for the firm's Profit & Loss Statement, who presides over the more strategic, financial decisions of which technology projects merit investment. Sometimes the internal guru, acting in a tactical or operations capacity, is authorized to sign off on all related financial decisions. However, often an owner or high-level manager such as a controller or CFO, is actively involved with the major financial decisions on technology spending and ultimately signs the related contracts and purchase orders.

Although this book is built around the needs of both the small business internal guru and the P&L decision maker, at least two major constituencies of professional service providers who work with small businesses also can benefit tremendously from the subjects explored here.

• Trusted Advisors to Small Businesses - such as Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and their equivalent outside the USA, management consultants, attorneys and financial planners

• Technology Consultants for Small Businesses - such as Application Service Providers (ASPs), computer consultants, integrators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Value Added Resellers (VARs)

Although this book emphasizes cost-reduction issues, it is not a substitute for the sound advice of other trusted small business advisors. Before implementing any major changes to your company based on suggestions in this book, check with an appropriate small business resource such as your accountant, attorney, financial planner or management consultant.

What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know is consciously a PC-centric book and assumes that the reader is largely committed to Intel-based desktop PCs, notebook PCs and servers, Microsoft Windows operating systems and the Microsoft Office productivity suite. Because of their limited following among small businesses relative to the above market-share desktop dominators, only minimal discussion is made of alternative products such as the Apple Mac OS and Linux.

Most of this book deals with the desktop and notebook PC side of the network, with limited discussion of server and networking issues. Because most small business internal gurus are approaching their part-time IT responsibilities with only a limited amount of time in a given week, their scarce resources are best spent first concentrating on the simplest technologies and surrounding issues.

Although monetary estimates in this book are listed in U.S. dollars, the majority of this book is applicable to both U.S.-based and international small businesses.

How This Book Is Organized: 101 Tips...Bite-Sized Chunks of Powerful Knowledge

What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know is based on dozens of related computer support topics and challenges faced by most small businesses.

The tips are presented as easy-to-digest, well-organized nuggets of knowledge you can refer to over and over again, as needed.

Each tip provides either an opportunity to save money on a direct technology expense or the background to mitigate a soft cost, such as the time spent on a given task. In addition, many tips warn of potential pitfalls.

In Part I, Hardware Cost-Saving Tips, we'll dive right into more than 40 money-saving tips on common PC hardware issues with desktop PCs, notebook PCs and servers (Chapter 1). Then, in Chapter 2, we'll concentrate on two PC peripheral devices that can cause an astonishing amount of support headaches: modems and printers.

In Part II, Software Cost-Saving Tips, we'll shift our attention to money-saving opportunities with Microsoft Office (Chapter 3) and Microsoft Windows (Chapter 4). We'll round out our look at software with Software Purchases and Maintenance in Chapter 5.

Part III, Data Protection Cost-Saving Tips, is all about reducing costs by protecting your company's information assets from the "bad guys" and various other significant risks. First we'll delve into saving your data from malicious and accidental losses in Data Backup (Chapter 6). Next, we'll survey techniques to prevent your computers from getting fried by utility power damage or your data from getting zapped out of existence (Chapter 7). Then, we'll wrap up in Chapter 8 with an overview of virus prevention techniques.

At the conclusion of What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know, you'll find a comprehensive glossary that pulls together more than 160 terms used throughout the book and contains both extensive cross-references and chapter references. There's also a consolidated resource directory recapping suggested Web sites.

You'll not only learn how to achieve world-class tech results on a small business budget, but you'll also gain a much better understanding of how to approach many common computer support issues - without always having to call in an expensive professional computer consultant.

Cost-Saving Emphasis

Each tip begins with a summary of whether you can expect to save money on soft costs, out-of-pocket expenses, or both.

Soft costs are any expenses that cannot be directly accounted for and itemized as out-of-pocket expenses for product and service purchases. In addition to installation, configuration and troubleshooting, soft costs encompass needs analysis, product selection, procurement, testing, customization, training, documentation, ongoing maintenance and upgrading.

Out-of-pocket expenses are much easier to quantify as direct product or service purchases - such as buying a desktop PC, monitor, modem or a year of Web site hosting.

In areas where alternative solutions are presented, you'll find a Relative Cost Indicator, in addition to a discussion of each solution's pros and cons.

What You Should Already Know

What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know is written primarily for the small business internal guru: someone whose IT endeavors are basically part-time and sustained with little, if any, formal classroom training on hardware, software or networking.

Many of the people who can benefit from this book often don't give themselves enough credit for as much as they do know about computers.

If you've picked up this book and feel comfortable using a PC, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and a Web browser, you can learn a great deal from What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know.

And, better yet, you're already well on your way to becoming a more effective, cost-scrutinizing internal guru!

My Unique Circumstances That Made This Book Possible

Since 1989, I've been in the trenches supporting thousands of PC users, as well as their peripherals, software applications, operating systems, network environments and unique configuration choices. What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know is based on my years of observing these best practices among small business PC users.

Several years ago, I started to notice a trend among many of the local internal gurus I trained. During each service call at a client site, I always spent 15 to 20 minutes providing some kind of highly-targeted hands-on training for the internal guru. Over the course of 20 to 30 site visits in a given year, these internal gurus became remarkably self-sufficient - almost rivaling a full-time, junior systems administrator. My unique approach cemented client relationships, leading to incredible amounts of loyalty, while freeing me up from basic how-to questions so I could concentrate on true high-level consulting.

In 1997, I began writing a series of monthly columns called Small Business Smarts for a trade magazine read by computer resellers worldwide, Selling Windows NT Solutions, as well as their parent publication, Windows NT Magazine. Shortly thereafter, as a contributing editor I started getting e-mail from both U.S. and international technology consultants. E-mail after e-mail validated the same trend: technology providers felt strongly that training internal gurus was an integral part of any successful small business project.

In 1999, I was hired by the Microsoft Corporation to create and produce an online bi-weekly column for small business technology providers. With a circulation approaching seven figures and translations into more than a dozen languages, my Notes from the Field articles confirmed in even greater volumes that small business internal gurus desperately needed more targeted training.

In 2001, I launched Small Biz Tech Talk to show small businesses directly how to save money on computer support costs. This book is the culmination of my years of experience as a small business technology expert.

My Pledge to You

In this easy-to-navigate guide, you'll learn to outsource less and in-source more. So next time, you won't need to call an expensive outside consultant when approaching a routine or relatively simple-to-grasp tech problem.

You'll discover how to tackle everyday, repetitive, relatively low-risk computer support tasks on your own, as well as field-tested techniques to become more self-sufficient.

You'll also see lots of opportunities to leverage existing employees to successfully bring many computer support functions back "in house." These are the tips, hints and insider secrets that many highly paid computer consultants don't want you to know.

Feedback

I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. My even greater hope is that you use the advice and tools in What Your Computer Consultant Doesn't Want You to Know to lower your computer support expenses and become more self-sufficient.

Best of luck and keep in touch! I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a line and let me know how you're making out with your company's tech support tasks.

All the best,

 

Joshua Feinberg

Small Biz Tech Talk

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

www.smallbiztechtalk.com