The True Cost of IT

Before considering any IT company, it is imperative that you understand the TRUE cost of your organization being down.  It’s not the hourly fee charged by your IT guy.  It’s the cost of your organization being down and being unable to generate revenue while you are still paying your employee’s to stand around!  With this knowledge you will better understand your needs and the value of a good IT company.  Like anything, you get what you pay for.

Hiring an IT Company

There are several things you need to consider when hiring an IT company. Will they just be fixing your computers or do they have the capacity to serve as a trusted advisor?   An advisor understands your business and the true cost of being down.  What services do they offer?  Are their service offerings well thought out and all inclusive?  How are they paid?  Is it hourly when you’re down or are they paid a flat fee?  Flat fee arrangements encourage performance and proactive thinking.  Think about this, a Break/Fix company is rewarded by hourly fees when you are down.  It’s not in their best interest to keep your systems running at peak performance.  The break/fix option may seem cheaper up front but in the end it is always the most expensive option.  The forward thinking business man understands this and acts on it.  Now you know!

Narrowing the playing field

Ok, you understand the cost of being down and you’ve narrowed it down to a few companies that have true proactive flat fee offerings.  Now what?  Now it’s really time to really start digging in and analyzing the contenders.  This industry is plagued with good intentioned individual technicians working out of the back of their trucks.  If they’re good, they get busy and if they’re busy they just don’t have the resources to provide the proactive consulting services I’m talking about.  There’s also a rash of companies out there claiming to be “Managed Service Providers” but really they’re Break/Fix companies just charging flat fees.  Typically they claim to be providing the service but the reality is neglect.  They won’t be in business long operating like this…  So, what size is their company?  Too big can be an issue also as they lose that personal touch.  Will you have a dedicated account manager; will you have a primary engineer?  How long have they been in business, how long have they been offering true flat fee services, can they provide references, is their engineering staff certified, what monitoring services do they offer, what investment have they made in their back office systems?  This is a big one; do they have a help desk that can help you remotely or do you have to wait for a service call?  Will they come on site if the problem can’t be fixed remotely or will they require you to be on the phone the entire time acting as their eyes and fingers?  Typically you’ll uncover the rotten egg when you dig to this extent.

It’s who you know

Another important aspect to consider is the relationships the IT Company has developed with its vendors.  Will they be able to get priority service when you need it?  Let’s face it, the more an IT company sells the better service they get from their vendors.  Example, if the company you choose is the top Dell reseller in the area, chances are they have some pretty good resources.  Another new development in the industry is the relationship between the IT Company and the telecommunications company.  It’s no secret that the smart IT companies are being paid a small residual to introduce their customer to a carrier.  Contrary to the typical initial negative reaction, this is great for you!  Think about it, they are standardizing their base on one carrier.  This gives them leverage and efficiency.  Don’t think for a minute that they’ll jeopardize their customer by introducing them to a bad carrier.  So again, the more customers they have with that carrier, the better service they will be able to provide you!

Hardware as a Service

Does the candidate have flexible service plans and hardware offerings to fit your budget?  Can they provide leasing options on the hardware?  Fairly new to the industry is Hardware as a Service or HAAS.  Besides the obvious cash flow benefit, many companies are forgoing capital investments where equipment is depreciated annually and opting instead to roll these expenses into their operating budgets where the expenses can be written off.  Another hot topic is the Cloud.  Make no mistake, the Cloud is the future.  Does the candidate have a good understanding of the Cloud and its impact on your business?

This is a big decision and the stakes are high.  We are all in business to make money.  When you look at the businesses out there that are considered successful, they all have one thing in common, they didn’t take the cheap route when it came to their technology investment!  They saw it as a tool and an asset.  Get to it, you’ve got a decision to make!

1. Infrastructure – A typical business infrastructure is made up of a combination of a few key components.  Usually there is a central server that hosts your network control settings, applications such as your accounting system and things such as e-mail or some proprietory data base.  Also included in the typical infrastructure are things such as PC’s, Thin Clients (dummy terminals), printers and such.  And finally there is typically some kind of network equipment such as routers, firewalls and such.

We have run through the rest to bring you the absolute best. And so now, without further ado, the top 10 iPad productivity apps on the market today.

10. Notes Plus

This is an app that is only available to iPad owners, and although you might not think that a notepad is the most difficult thing to simulate, you should try Notes Plus. First of all, you will think that you are writing on an actual notepad with the truthful looking lined paper, and it has just about the best mechanism for turning your finger drawings into words that is in any app. However, the add ons that you would not find in an analogue notepad are what set this app apart: the close up writing mode, the ability to add audio notes, vector editing, hideaway control set, and the ability to type and handwrite in the same document

9. Pages

The full featured word processor for the iPad has a completely intuitive interface with the ability for charts, tables and graphics. The app can share easily with Microsoft Word, the above mentioned Notes Plus, and the PDF document format. A highly usable, powerful word processor in a box for a great price.

8. PDF Reader Pro Edition

PDF is how the business documents of the world are shared, and the iPad app for reading them is also top notch. There are many ways to easily share the PDF format with this app, including, but not limited to email, iTunes, and through USB file transfer.

7. Things for iPad

This beautiful and intuitive program is an organizer’s dream, including features that allow a user to sort tasks and arrange lists into project forms. Tasks can be kept together like no other app out there, and it is easy to sync this app to the desktop version.

6. Evernote

The highly popular Evernote, with many votes for the best productivity app (which is also one of the top iPad 2 apps) is a notetaking application which modifies itself to your will. Want to take notes in audio? Evernote can do it. If you want to take notes in photos, it can do that too (as well as text, of course.) The app syncs seamlessly with Macs, PCs, and the Internet.

5. Desktop Connect

This is the app to have if you like remotely controlling your desktop or laptop computer from your iPad. Whether Windows or Linux, the Desktop Connect app can control it. You can fully browse the Internet, including Flash web sites, which is a step up for apps in general. It also automatically discovers a computer that is accessed in a network. Connecting is all that Desktop Connect does, and it does it with perfection.

4. Papers

One of the best apps for productivity when it comes to science is Papers, which allows scientists to organize their scientific papers in your personal library and also retrieve them from anywhere on the go. There are also many wide and deep scientific databases at your disposal, eight to be specific. These articles can also easily be shared with other iPads over Wifi.

3. iQue

iQue mimics the associative functions of the actual human brain to allow you to store and retrieve information more quickly. Even if you forget what you are looking for, this app can help you find it – it is actually better than a human brain because it literally can not forget (unless you drop your iPad into the lake!)

2. Deskpad

Office You can’t get tired of these post it notes, because you do not have to throw them away or remember if you have actually accomplished the task on them or not.

1. Office Squared

This is the fallback – very simply, this is Word and Excel on your iPad. There are better things than Microsoft, to be sure, but this is the standard.

TaskRabbit.com

Located: Boston, SF Bay Area, New York City, Chicago, LA & OC
Task Rabbit is expanding faster than any other Task Site I’ve looked at. I heard an interview with the founder on the Foundation Podcast, and she said that they are looking to expand in bulk very soon. Task Rabbit has a very broad selection of Chores, Tasks and Errands, from Business Data Entry and office cleaning to food delivery and painting your dog house. They are definitely the one to watch. Task Rabbit actually screens their “rabbits” or runners, so your sure to get quality service.

Coffee & Power

Located: US
This is my personal favorite. They also have a brick and mortar coffee house where you can take jobs from a large screen monitor and do them right in the shop. They cover a broad spectrum of small jobs and errands but unlike task rabbit, this service is two sided, you can offer to do a job or you can hire someone else who has offered something you need done. Each time you buy a service or do a task, you hopefully get a “trust” from the person you did business with. All money is exchanged with credits, C&P cash, to reduce the chance of you getting ripped off.

Agent Anything

Located New York, New Jersey
Agent Anything is different because it targets a certain group to run the errands and jobs, namely university students. Agent Anything brings hard working business people and broke students together for one common purpose: Getting small jobs done. Maybe you have a pile of work to do and you need someone to run to the pharmacy to pick up your prevacid, or maybe you need your yard raked before the neighborhood committee send you a nasty letter.

Craigslist

You might have used Craigslist in the past to sell that old PC, but did you know it’s great for odd jobs and tasks? Craigslist does not have safety nets in place for payment processing like the three above. I feel much safer using TaskRabbit or Coffee & Power because of the rating systems and screening that you don’t find on Craigslist.

Ask Sunday

Located: online
This really does not belong on this list but I needed five  and it’s a good outsourcing service. Ask Sunday will assign one personal assistant specifically to you so that they can learn your requirements, working style and outputs. This of course is a “virtual” assistant, so the tasks will have to be able to take place online. They charge by the hour. You buy a block of time and your assistant goes to work.

With the rise in Android phones comes a subsequent rise in the business applications for the phone. Below are the top 5 business apps for Android, useful in any situation.

1. Currency Converter.

The Android currency converter is the number one app for international business travelers, especially with the current economic volatility that we are experiencing throughout the world. The Android app is a doozy, giving accurate up to the second exchange rates for the most types of currency of any app with its function. It has even been touted as good enough for a professional currency trader to use in place of an exchange platform in an pinch.

2. Adao Task Manager

We have all been caught in that situation – no charger or outlet, some important correspondence set to come in any minute, and the low or flashing battery bars on the phone are about to give you a heart attack. Give yourself a fighting chance with the Adao Task Manager. The Adao Task Manager can stop the programs running in the background of your Android one by one for more efficient use of your battery, especially in a tight spot. A must have for commuters and travelers in areas of low signal (that drains the battery more quickly, in case you did not know).

3. Open Manager

With Open Manager you are able to easily see which programs are running on your Android and which are not, you can attach files to an email, back up your applications, and perform various word processing techniques, such as copy / paste, cut / paste, search, delete, rename, even unzip files, all on an incredibly attractive viewscreen.

4. Open Office Document Reader

The Open Office Document Reader gives you the power to quickly view the documents that you have created in Libre Office or Open Office. The Open Office Document Reader is an especially quick and simple app, which can view all types of files, including but certainly not limited to .odt-files and .ods-files on Android, including Dropbox, File Expert, GMail, Box.net, ZumoDrive, ODF / OpenDocument, and EStrongs File Explorer.

5. Contacts Plus

With Contacts Plus, you have a simple and intuitive app which allows you to manage your contacts according to your profile. If you want to put your contacts in a different language, this is your app as well. It supports Czech, Swedish, and many other languages as well as English.

The Social Search

Although Google Real Time, which allowed you to search twitter posts, has expired, you can be sure that searching will become a more social experience in the future. Even now something like word-of-mouth search (WOM) is gaining speed. Just think you’ve probably done it already on Facebook or twitter when you say something like, “anyone know a good Mexican restaurant on the south side?” More and more, people will be finding services through a social experience online. What does this mean to you? It means you need to be there when they come looking. At the very least you should secure your brand name on all the major social sites.

Social Marketing: Mind your P’s and Qs

Think of your social networking like a party you’ve been invited to by a friend. You don’t know anyone so you’re not going to walk around yapping and carrying on about your business or product… No, if you’ve got any social savvy, you’re just going to get to know people. Get to know someone and maybe pass your card after a conversation and say, “If you’re ever looking to buy a house, I’ll set you up”.  You will be frowned on if you spam your product all over the place. Rather, work on getting a good name for yourself. You probably have information to share that’s relevant to your target market. Make sure you give back; it’s always nice to respond to other peoples posts.  When someone’s looking to sell their house, someone that’s had good dealings with you will say, “Bob over there is a realtor and I really like him”.

Give them something they want to know

When you’re networking, it’s always good to have a relevant source of information available as often as possible. You want something that your customer might like to read. It’s best if you can send them to a blog that is a part of your main site. On that blog you can have advertisements or links within the blog post that direct them to your services…as long as it’s not spamy. You could also be an information miner, where you go digging through the thousands of blog posts in your niche and post the most relevant ones on your social network. People will begin to keep a close eye on your posts if they are always relevant and informative. When they least expect it, slip in some self-advertisement in a neutral informative way.

Never out of touch

Social Networking can also be a way for your existing clients to receive news, and updates. Let your customers @you on twitter and respond fast, publicly. This is good PR when you’re seen out in the open taking care of your customers. Hold contests for your followers and win new ones through re-tweets and word of mouth.

Your the Expert

Whatever you do in the social sphere, remember to be the expert!  Wait, you are the expert…  That’s why you have this business and serve your clients well. Don’t be afraid to share some of that wisdom you’ve learned. You’ll be surprised at how many people want to know what you know. You don’t have to give away trade secrets, but give away more than you want to. Information is the currency of the web, and the more you give, the more indispensable you will become to your niche.  Make Google start to view you as an authority!  For instance, if you’re a real estate agent, start a blog on common pitfalls in the housing industry. Tweet and Facebook every thought or bit of information with your followers around the world.  Google will began to see you as an authority.  When someone starts searching for a service, you’ll show up a little higher in the results because of your clout.

Social Networks will become the new search engine soon. So, it’s best to make peace and get involved!