Any idea who's in your system?  I'm not sure how many people really think about this and if so, usually not until it's too late.  The reason I ask this is one of the hot topics floating around in our industry these days is outsourcing.  And by this I don't mean outsourcing your IT services.  I mean IT service providers who outsource some of the services they're selling to their clients to 3rd parties. 

I don't know how many clients we talk to on a daily basis who decide things based only on the risk involved and NOT truly taking into consideration the impacts of that risk.  And further, that "risk" they're usually basing their decision on is the statistically incorrect assumption that since "we've never had a crash therefore we never will".  Or, when it does happen "we have a backup so we'll be fine".  More often than not... 

When it first came out, the iPad had everyone stumped - at least from a business perspective. How can we use this great new technology in a real and meaningful way? I recently ran across one of the most creative ways to take advantage of all that the iPad has to offer. And it's being done by none other than the... 

“But these go to eleven ”  If anyone’s seen Spinal Tap, you’ll know what I’m referring to.  Everyone has a Top 10 list.  But, I couldn’t quite narrow things down to just 10.  So, here are our top 11 questions to help evaluate a prospective IT Solution Provider: 

While on the surface having a friend, neighbor, relative, or someone at work in charge of your IT may not seem like that bad of a move, I would think only when it comes to dog walking would you think this is ok in any other aspect of your life.  Imagine having... 

This one actually ties in quite nicely to Mistake #3 (Going Cheap), although it may be the chicken and the egg syndrome - not sure which comes first.  Are you going cheap because you're overextending the lifecycle of your technology or are you overextending the lifecycle of your technology because you're going cheap?  Because many businesses tend to "go cheap", their first inclination is the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  With technology this actually turns out be a more costly approach. 

This mistake is one of the hardest for some clients to get past.  Some don't get past it until they get burned by it themselves, while others may never get past it.  I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for" and this turns out to be no truer than when spending on technology.  

Second to the "Set it and Forget it Mentality", we see this mistake in way too many new prospects (and some clients too!). Maybe that's why they're calling us in? While they're trying to save money by using inappropriate or outdated levels of a particular technology solution, they end up costing themselves more in the long run. 

This is probably the most common mistake small businesses make with their technology and probably one of the hardest habits to break. Make no mistake about it: hardware and software require routine and regular maintenance.  

Talk about proof of concept. While there's always stress when a server crashes, this week we clearly saw proof of concept both with regards to our BDR Solution as well as our Managed Service approach to IT management and support. The hard part is seeing the positives during the stress of dealing with a crashed server. Now that the dust has settled a little, we can see success from failure...