Understanding Your IT Needs: Consulting vs. Staffing

I founded Cal Net Technology Group in 1995 to provide small-to-midsize companies in Southern California with technology consulting and IT computer services. When clients choose Cal Net, they don’t simply hire an IT professional; they gain an insourced IT department. Better than a stand-alone in-house IT department, Cal Net deploys ongoing IT services and project management solutions to help companies communicate effectively and protect their critical data while saving time and money.

Our signature services, TECManage and CoManage, give clients cost-effective options to manage the entire IT function or specialized services, such as ongoing backend infrastructure support or IT systems conversions.

When businesses insource most of their IT needs to Cal Net, they enjoy a better level of service and overall lower costs than they would by retaining full-time employees to meet these needs. Using expert consultants for IT insourcing in Los Angeles, Orange County, and Ventura County can save businesses thousands of dollars. There are only two IT needs that a business might be better off having fulfilled by in-house employees:

1) Many businesses utilize custom-built applications and/or databases that require upgrades and report writing. In these cases it makes more sense for a business to hire one or more in-house programmers to constantly work with these applications.

2) For businesses employing more than 200 computer users, it is advantageous to hire one or more in-house technicians for desktop support and help desk services.

Other than these two positions, all other IT-related needs (including consulting, strategy, infrastructure management, upgrades, and repairs) can be “insourced”  through  focused consultants like Cal Net who can provide expert IT support.

Determining whether you should build your own IT staff or hire a consulting firm is not always an easy task.  We believe that providing potential customers with a transparent overview of each option may be helpful in your decision making process.

Below you will find a comparison to help guide your decision:

CONSULTING

• Cost savings via use of services only as needed.
• Staff of 50 employees with a wide range of expertise  for a fraction of the cost.
• Only pay for actual work.
• Highly trained and skilled professionals available for event the most critical emergencies.
• Smooth, on time and on budget upgrades.
• System discovery processes provide all information needed at any time.
• Full time staff always available (24x7x365).
• All upgrades and implementation project work is done outside of  normal business hours and are carefully scheduled so our service teams can be at their best performance level during these times.  Cal Net charges the same rate for scheduled work, regardless of time of day or week.

STAFFING

• Cost intensive as services are available even when not needed.
• One staff person “assigned” to you, and you as the client only get the knowledge of that particular individual.
• Pay for down time.
• No guarantee that anyone in staff will be able to handle emergency situations resulting in extended down time.
• Extremely expensive and inefficient upgrades with lots of downtime due to learning on the job, and general inexperience with the solutions being implemented.
• Knowledge of system rests in the hands of a few or just one person.
• The absence of one or two members can affect the entire staff or department.
• Regular business hours are worst time to work on server and network systems and many engineers don’t want to work late or over the weekend resulting in rushed or ignored work.  In the event weekend work is done, overtime fees will apply to non-exempt employees.

Top 5 Ways to Increase Your Bottom Line in 2010

2009 has been a scary and emotional year for business owners.  Wall Street has been on a roller coaster ride that has affected the entire economy.  While banks and auto makers were getting bail out money the small business community was left to fend for itself.  While some simply closed their doors, most hunkered down to ride out the storm.  These small business stopped any effort to grow and minimized spending in every way they could.

Now that the shock of these traumatic events begins to wear off  business are beginning to show life again.  As business are starting to rebuild themselves, it is important to learn from the past.  Returning to old spending habits will no longer be acceptable in this new economy.  Business, especially small business, need to advance without spending money like it is going out of style.  One way business can accomplish this is my making each person in their organization as productive as possible.  Technology is one tool business owners have in meeting this objective.  Here are 5 ways to increase your bottom line in 2010.

5.    Let’s face it, data loss happens.  Users delete files, over write files, systems fail ETC.  Until now the only protection was to make manual copies of your files or use tapes to backup your servers/computers.  Today disk based or online based backup systems significantly improve the backup of critical data.

For mobile users online backups are a game changer.  If you have a laptop that moves from office, home, or business trips and much of your data resides on that machine look into online backups today!  A small program that runs on the laptop can copies your files to a secure server on the internet is the best way to know that your information is protected.  There are many companies providing this service today, but two popular services are Mozy and Carbonite.  For companies that have lots of laptops in this situation there are services from companies like Symantc.

For small business that have servers to protect, disk based backups is something everyone should be considering.  Tape technology is nearly 40 years old, and although the technology and storage capacities have improved, there are still limitations.  Generally tape solutions only backup your data once per day, in most cases at night.  If there is a data loss in the middle of the day only the data from the previous night is recoverable, anything created or modified that day is lost.  In the case of  an entire system failure tape recovery can be very slow.  In some cases it can take anywhere from a day to a week to recover an entire system from tape.  With disk based solutions recovery times are significantly reduced.  In some cases an entire system can be recovered and users working in less than one hour.  Now there is a productivity improvement that effects the bottom line!

4.    The cloud is coming, the cloud is coming.  The technology business is in the middle of another major evolutionary transformation.  We have all gotten use to having servers that house our data.  We have also learned that technology needs to be refreshed every three to five years and that refresh is expensive.  Putting new technology systems in place can be one of the largest capital expenses a company has.  This is where cloud computing comes in.

Cloud computing replaces the traditional server in your office with a service provided securely over the internet.  Instead of spending thousands of dollars up front for that server in your office that has to have growth plans built in, cloud computing gives business the ability to pay for only the computing resources they need today on a per user basis.  This change in purchasing behavior moves computing cost to a operating expense and helps with cash flow.

3.    Most executives have had the ability to work remotely for years.  This flexibility allows the ability to be with family and friends, but still have the ability to get work done, when ever, where ever.  If you are using any kind of remote access tools today, think about the productivity gains that has meant for you and your business.  Many business have not extended this ability to the rest of their staff.  Would it be nice to have Joanna, your top service rep, able to get her work done without coming into the office with a cold and get others sick?  What about Bill, who has that big project to finish but should be home tucking his kids into bed?

There are many ways that remote access can help business become more productive.  It can also be a benefit, like health care and 401K, but this benefit does not care the expense that the other examples do.

2.    Having the right communication tools is critical in today’s fast moving business world.  New Unified Communication platforms enable your employees to communicate with customers, coworkers, and business partners whenever and wherever.  Unified Communications include email, instant messaging, voice calling, and presence.

Email has become a staple of business over the last ten years or more.  Instant Messaging has been around for years as well, but it business application has grown in recent years.  Many people consider these tools to be very similar, however with the introduction of presence these powerful tools have very different uses.  Email educate is that messages should be returned within an hour to a day.  That’s not a very good response when a very quick question of a coworker could be answered in a matter of seconds and can delay progress of project.

With today’s Unified Communication tools, the user can tell the status or presence of their coworkers based on their calendar and other indicators.  If Bob has an appointment on his calendar his status is marked as “in a meeting” and email may be the best communication choice.  If he is away from the computer his status will be marked “away” so calling Bob’s cell phone might make more sense.  If Bob is at his desk an simple Instant Message can get the information needed in seconds. These tools empower users and help make better decisions on how to communicate with Bob and ultimately increase user productivity.

1.    All of these things sound great but without good Technology Management getting meaningful and impacting usefulness out of these tools in your business will be difficult at best.  Most small business have grand plans and technology is often a part of those plans, but without someone that knows and understands business and how to map the technology to business most of these initiative often come up short.

Many small business have someone that takes care of their computer systems and fix them when they break. That might be someone in the company who’s second set of responsibilities are the computers because they just know the most about it.  In other cases a consultant or company plays that role.  Slightly larger companies have a person on staff that takes care of everything “technology”.

What most small business lack is that forward looking vision that will take budget and business need and make decisions educated decisions based on that information.  This kind of thoughtful decision making can be the most impacting tool to the small business owner because it is what makes these other technologies come to life.

Increase in Business PC Sales Due to Windows 7

A recent report by Dell revealed that there’s been an increase in demand for business PCs.  Right before the release, Dell had actually seen their sales in business PCs fall.  Windows 7, however, gave businesses a reason to purchase them sooner than later.  Not only that, but the demand has remained steady for about a month now–with an increase in sales expectations running from 80% to 110%.  Prior to the release, many were speculating that businesses wouldn’t bother updating their machines for Windows 7.  Looks like they were proven wrong.

CLICK HERE to read more.

2009 Overview of the IT Industry

There was a time when, if you were an “IT guy,” you were guaranteed a job.  But when the economy fell, so did IT jobs.  Those who have kept their jobs have been met with salary cuts or higher workloads with no additional pay.  But enough about the economy–I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about it.  ComputerWorld just released the “Salary Survey 2009“  and it’s pretty impressive and neat to browse through. They have included:

• A Smart Salary Tool to compare your pay with IT workers in similar jobs across the U.S.
• Coverage on the economy’s impact on IT (sorry!).
• Advice on which industries and jobs are poised for growth.
• An overview of trends in workers satisfaction, job security, stress levels, etc.
• A view of salaries by industry and by region.
• A view of 40 job titles based on level.
• And more including opinion articles!

So as you can see, you could probably spend quite a large amount of time browsing through the various sections.  I hope you find it useful and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Cal Net Technology Group CEO Zack Schuler Will Present Findings for Solution Providers 3.0

LOS ANGELES (November 2009)–Cal Net Technology Group, Southern California’s leader in IT computer services and IT consulting, has announced that Founder and CEO Zack Schuler will Chair Project Nimbus, a collaborative community-based research project sponsored by Channel Insider. Members of the project are comprised of IT industry professionals, the Channel Insider editorial team, and members of HTG Peer groups.

On November 4^th, 2009, Schuler will be co-presenting the team’s Solution Providers 3.0 findings at the Heartland Technology Group’s conference in Orlando, Florida. The presentation will include the best due diligence practices for solution providers and managed services providers in identifying, adopting and building cloud computing practices.

Project Nimbus was developed in order to achieve three goals:

1. Identify the various go-to-market channel models for cloud computing and how they apply to solution providers.
2. Explore the issues, opportunities, concerns and obstacles in cloud computing as they relate to the current and future IT reseller and managed services channel.
3. Provide the channel community with directional guidance on navigating into the cloud computing era.

“As the Solution Provider 3.0 model develops, largely due to our collective influence, Project Nimbus aims to keep everyone apprised as to what the future landscape entails,” remarked Schuler. “I am personally looking forward to helping everyone succeed in this next era of computing.”

About Cal Net Technology Group

Founded in 1995, Cal Net Technology Group provides Southern California’s businesses with technology solutions expertise ranging from outsourced I.T. services to ongoing support and consultation. Their signature services include TECManage, designed to provide a cost-effective option for companies who need the services of full-time I.T personnel, and COManage, best for those in need of part-time and support services.

Study Reveals IT Employees Need Help Handling Stress

Could it be true? Are IT employees that stressed out? According to a study conducted by a Canadian grad school, companies should invest in programs or provide “peer support” for IT professionals experiencing high levels of stress.  The research was done through 14 in depth interviews rather than a survey sample.  I’d be interested to know how the stress levels of IT professionals compares with professionals in other fields (i.e. investment bankers, lawyers).  Unfortunately, the study focuses only on IT professionals, but the results are interesting nonetheless.  CLICK HERE to learn more about the study and its results.

“Top 10 Corporate Information Technology Failures”

Yes, the sad truth is that us IT people fail too. CLICK HERE for a list of the “Top 10 Corporate Information Technology Failures.”  The projects are listed in alphabetical order, rather than actually being ranked.  The selection was based on the amount of financial losses or damages sought in lawsuits.

Building Conversations Around ROI

I recently read an interesting article I wanted to share with you on the challenges businesses face when dealing with IT and ROI.  Naturally, every endeavor in a company is going to raise the question, “How much is this going to cost and what will be my return?”  IT services are no different.  CEOs will often wonder how necessary the latest software will be to the advancement of the company, or if it’s just something the “computer nerds over in the IT department” really want.

The author does, however, offer an interesting solution.  The key is in building a conversation around the ROI of the project in order to build trust.  And in order to build trust, the IT department will have to remain involved well after the money has been spent and analyze the actual data, rather than present some numbers in advance, spend the money and simply hope no one will care.  Click below to read the article in its entirety:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/20/return-on-investment-technology-cio-network-roi.html