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5 Ways Small Businesses Leverage I.T. to Save Big Bucks With uncertain economic times, I.T. departnments and outsourcing companies have shifted their focus to reducing costs.  Experts agree that when times are tough, businesses who cut costs in I.T., marketing, H.R., and other critical functions often suffer the most.  The key to cutting cost with I.T. is to leverage technology to do more with less, and make sure that tech projects show a return on investment.  Here are a few ways how small to medium sized organizations are saving money by leveraging technology: - Reduce down-time:  One way business researchers calculate the cost of downtime is this formula.  Example numbers for a downtime event at a 15 person services business where the average network user's salary is $35,000/yr would look like this:           Average Hourly Cost Per Employee with 35% tax and benefits load: $23.63          x Number of Employees: 15          x Percentage of productivity lost by down-time:  Studies show at least 65%          x Number of Hours of Downtime:  3 hour example          + Cost of I.T. Response: $100-175/hr for Business I.T. Firms @ 5 hours for work and followup ($750)          + Lost Sales "Our system is down, can I call you back another time?"  $500 for this example Example total cost of down time event would be around $1,941.18, or $647.06/hr. While it is difficult to predict the amounts, you can easily see the point is that down-time's hourly cost can easily be very high. Ways to reduce downtime include: - Managed Services (On-going proactive professional I.T. maintenance with a monitoring component).  Studies show decrease of 45% or more down time - Newer/more reliable equipment - Quick response by internal or external I.T. - UPS-Backed Power Supplies - Redundancy (RAID, Virtualization, spare parts/computers, etc.) 2.   Reduce Office Space and Travel Costs with Telecommuting: Many businesses are finding that telecommuting gives them a competitive advantage by allowing more flexibility for staff, giving those companies a recruiting advantage as well.  Additionally, telecommuting saves money by reducing the amount of office space that is needed to operate.  One Vail Valley based international P.R. business operates without a brick and mortar office.  Employees live across the world, and collaborate online via servers hosted at a data center.  While this extreme is not for everybody, technology is quickly evolving that benefits telecommuters.  Telecommuting and use of data center services can also reduce cost by centralizing management tasks. Ways to reduce cost by leveraging telecommuting include: - VoIP for telecommuter integration into business phone system - Collaboration tools like M.S. Sharepoint, Groove, etc. - Co-Location services (data center hosting of servers) - SaaS "Software as a Service" for Internet based applications for telecommuting - Remote virtualization tools like Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Services - Online meeting, teleconferencing, and video conferencing technology can reduce meeting travel 3.   Reduce cost by "in-sourcing" certain tasks:  Many businesses are finding ways to bring tasks in-house that used to require costly outside services.  A good example of this is printing services.  Printing promotional materials traditionally has been costly.  While there will always be a need for outside printing services, many businesses have found ways to leverage technology to print their own promotional materials on-demand. Ways to reduce cost with in-sourcing include: - Utilizing professional grade printing technology to print marketing materials in-house - Leveraging tools for deploying web content 4.   Reducing cost by out-sourcing I.T. Functions:  Much of the growth of our quality of life and technology in the past century or so is based on the concept of specialization.  Henry Ford learned that the sum is greater than the parts when creating the assembly line for the automobile industry.  It was more efficient for each specialist to be really good at one task, than to have 100 people each trying to build a car by themselves.  A real-world example of this principle for small business I.T. is the sales/I.T. guy.  A true story from the Vail Valley:  Chris could sell $1000 a day easily for his employer.  He also servered as the ad-hoc I.T. department.  One day Chris was working on a computer problem that took him 8 hours.  He called in an I.T. person for help who fixed the problem in about half an hour at a cost of around $50.  In the mean-time, Chris missed a $1000 sales day. Ways to reduce cost by outsourcing I.T. funcions: - Managed Services flat rate I.T. management and monitoring (see down-time section) - Using the right person for the job - Leveraging systems, techniques, and processes that are already developed by your I.T. partner (not "re-inventing the wheel") - Outsourcing tasks or functions can free up internal I.T., or can make it possible to avoid hiring additional staff 5.   Reduce telecom costs:  Re-curing costs of telecom services can add up quickly.  One local business saved $1000/month just by disconnecting phone lines that were no longer being used.  Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) also offers huge cost savings advantages, especially for businesses with multiple sites while streamlining communications with customers. Ways to reduce telecom "phone company" costs: - If your phone service is complex, have it audited for services that are no longer needed - Shop long distance providers for the best rates - Use VoIP trunking services to save money on both local and long-distance services - Use VoIP phone systems to network geographically disperse sites together.  Free long distance between office calling areas! Would you like to learn more about cutting costs?  Call 970-328-1699 or [mailto:ddempsey@managed-data.com?subject=I want to save money with I.T.] send us a note for a complimentary consultation from Managed Data. Is My Business Ready for Windows Vista? We've all seen the ads:  "I'm a Mac and I'm a P.C."  Apple has capitalized on a lukewarm reception by businesses to adopt Windows Vista as their operating system of choice.  Several months ago, Microsoft officially made the switch to Vista as its primary client operating system.  Computer giants like Dell and HP followed suit by offering Vista-centric options, and following Microsoft's directive to phase out of Microsoft's successful Windows XP operating system.  The problem is, businesses weren't ready for the switch, and weren't happy with being forced into the unproven Vista operating system.  After some time, the computer companies came up with a way to bring back XP as a "downgrade" option, in most cases for a fee of $99. Businesses were reluctant to upgrade to the controversial Vista operating system after reports began to surface of compatibility problems with line of business software packages whose developers were still trying to catch up with the Vista release.  Other problems were surfacing:  people were complaining of performance and reliability issues after trying Vista.  The battle cry began:  "Bring back Windows XP!"  Infoworld even collected several hundred thousand signatures for their petition at [http://www.savexp.com] savexp.com. So where does that leave things now?  While Microsoft won't give up on Vista, many business people have decided to hold off on the upgrade.  You can still buy XP pre-loaded on certain models of PCs from the major computer manufacturers, especially on business oriented models, but should you? Here's our take on Windows Vista, and who should consider switching. Presently, while we've been experimenting, we have held on to Windows XP Professional as our platform of choice at Managed Data's office.  That doesn't mean that some people can't benefit from Vista.  Here are the pros and cons, in our opinion: Possible reasons to switch to Vista: - You are switching to Server 2008.  Vista is the first platform designed for full integration with Server 2008.  We are very excited about then new server platform, and think that Vista may be worth considering in a Server 2008 environment. - Vista has some powerful security features not available in Windows XP - If you use 64 bit applications (if you don't know what these are, you probably don't use them) Vista's 64 bit platform may be worth looking at - If you are replacing most or all of your desktops, and you plan on keeping them a very long time, Vista will most likely be supported long after XP is fully retired - More and more drivers and software now support Vista, and improvements have been made with Service Pack 1 - New PCs come with Vista without any added cost to "downgrade" to Windows XP - You are feeling adventurous and want to become familiar with another platform Reasons against switching to Vista: - Vista requires a large amount of resources to run well.  It is not very friendly for upgrades to your existing equipment, and requires more robust (i.e. expensive) hardware to match Windows XP's performance according to many experts - The marketplace does not seem to be demanding a switch to Vista (98% of Managed Data's clients still run XP) - Many line of business applications still don't support Vista.  For those users, you can't switch yet. - Many users complain of more frequent crashes, slowness, and other erratic issues.  We have noticed a higher cost of supporting Vista and frustration from most clients who have made the switch. - Security features can be annoying and disruptive - The replacement for Vista is not that far off.  Many businesses are skipping the Vista cycle, and getting ready for Windows 7 (the next version) That's right; the next version of Windows, Windows 7 is already in its testing phase.  While Microsoft stands behind Vista, it is obvious that they have accepted that the market hasn't adopted the technology. Windows 7 will be based on the same technology as Vista, but Microsoft partners are hopeful that Windows 7 will be a more reliable platform, and combined with Server 2008 should be answer to those who have been waiting for the Vista dust to settle.  Until then, our take is that XP Professional is still our preferred platform for businesses. We recommend those who want to try Vista consider having one or two adventurous users testing it on a trial basis with your business's core software packages before committing to more widespread use. If your business is considering switching to Vista, here are some links to recommended reading: - [http://www.crn.com/software/211800614] Microsoft Partners Kicking Dirt On Vista's Grave - [http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/better-vista.aspx] Windows Server 2008: Better with Windows Vista - [http://www.pcworld.com/article/152638/windows.html?tk=rss_news] Windows 7 release date:  October 2009? - [http://www.itworld.com/windows/58289/windows-7-five-most-talked-about-features?page=0%2C0] Windows 7: The Five Most Talked-About Features - [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24596745/] Corporate America's rejection of Vista 9 application/xml false Managed Data Vail business support Vail chamber Vail IT services Vail Valley computer services Managed Data website Visit Managed Data for your local computer & IT service needs http://www.managed-data.com Vail Valley Partnership The Vail Valley Chamber & Tourism Bureau provides a variety of business support to local business http://www.vailvalleypartnership.com Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 cromer 63.225.107.68 false true false false true 198512 false false true false false false true 190655 blog blogsite/VailValleyPartnership/web