Typical Tuesday – I received a call from a prospective customer today about building a website for their business.  It started out the same as all the rest – what does a standard website cost and how long will it take?  My response was typical for this question – No, I don’t build standard sites, only sites custom tailored to your specific business needs.

Maybe you’re a plumbing company that wants to begin booking service calls online, an architecture firm that wants to display past work to prospective clients or something different with a unique set of requirements.  Trying to squeeze two different sites into the same requirement bucket is nearly impossible, yet some try with disappointing results.  Your business is unique and should be treated as such when designing your online presence.

We don’t build standard sites – never have and never will.  Before you decide on a website / web designer, give us a call to discuss the many options available to you.  Whether you want a traditional 3 page site, database back-end, blog or something in between we can custom tailor a solution for your specific needs – we look forward to hearing from you!

I got a call last week from a customer of a long time friend and competitor which made me stop and think about the ethics of his company.  The tone of the conversation was straight to the point – be honest with me, is this be best decision for my company?  It was an interesting conversation to say the least, but it boiled down to whether or not their entire infrastructure should be replaced, upgraded  and critical services outsourced to their “cloud” network.

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a fan of upgrading unless there’s a compelling business reason to do so.  What’s more, I completely disagree with upgrading purely for profit reasons at the expense of your customer.  The cloud is the latest buzz word which has entirely too much confusion, mis-information and profit potential rolled in which does nothing but confuse and excite the uninformed consumer.  There are many factors to consider before outsourcing critical services (e-mail, database, storage and processing) which require in-depth analysis and are beyond the scope of this message.

At the end of the conversation, the decision was made to keep the infrastructure as is until a complete analysis and recommendation can be completed (by my company).  Once complete, a formal project plan will be put in place to correctly and successfully upgrade with the company’s best interest in mind.

If your current tech company is pressuring you to upgrade, outsource or off-load components of your infrastructure to them (and lock you down), obtain a second informed opinion before making any decisions.

Of all the questions I get asked on a daily basis…this is the one I hear most often. Ironically, it usually follows hot on the heels of a major vendor suggesting upgrading your computing problems and make life that much better. It’s no big secret that I’m no fan of upgrading simply for the fact of doing so… even if it means I will miss out of life without walls.

If you are considering upgrading any aspect of your technology infrastructure – servers, security appliances, switches, data storage, operating systems or applications, I encourage you to ask 5 questions within your organization:

1. Who is affected by the current technology in place?
2. What business problem is the organization facing?
3. Where are the weaknesses is the existing technology?
4. When is the upgrade budgeted – capex or expense?
5. Why has the proposed solution been selected?

After examining your current situation and proposed upgrade solution there should be a clear understanding of what is to take place, when, all costs associated as well as the benefits to be received. If there is any uncertainity about the path selected, technology at hand or business need, please give us a call – we’re here to help!

It’s January, the start of a new year and the perfect time to revisit your technology support contract. The feeling may be that the vendor is properly servicing your company, but until you put their performance numbers in black and white it’s any one’s guess. Think of this like reviewing your homeowners and auto insurance policy annually – it’s not much fun but has to be done. The process is quite simple and can be performed in a weeks time if both sides work together.

The main points to hit in this review are quite simple and include the following:
1. Discuss the nature of the support provided and the process to request and obtain it.
2. Request detailed reports of all service requests and project work performed for 2009.
3. Survey the end users engaging the support vendor and document their experiences.
4. How much are you paying the vendor and what is included at this price?
5. How long have they been your vendor and should the contract be updated?

Let’s dive a little deeper into these bullet points and discuss in more detail what should be done prior to meeting with the vendor.

Discuss the nature of the support provided and the process to request and obtain it.
This is the most important aspect of evaluating your technology support provider. Like an insurance policy, it’s only as good as the last time you used it and the same is true for your support provider. If they are hard to get in touch with, difficult to deal with and not covering your needs, they need to be replaced. Hopefully that’s not the case, but below are key questions to ask when you consider the services they provide. What methods do you employ to get in touch with the vendor? Do you send an e-mail, submit an on-line ticket, call your dedicated techician or the vendor’s call-center? Sending an e-mail or submitting an on-line ticket is not possible if you computer or Internet connection is down, so the ability to get in touch with a live person is required. Of course, neither method is better than the other so long as you get the support you need when you need it.
If you send an e-mail or submit an on-line ticket how long does it take to get a response? Once you get a response what happens? Are you contacted to diagnose the situation which will be referred to another group or does the person on the other end of the line get right to work on your request?
If you call your technician or the call-center do you get right through? If not, why not? If a message is left, how long does it take to get a response? When that response comes, do they diagnose and refer or get right to work?
What type of support do you get once contact is made, severity is determined and you are speaking with the appropriate group? Do you receive remote support for the issue assuming your computer is working and have Internet access? If your computer is down or Internet access is not available is on-site support available? If so, what’s the process to get someone dispatched? Do they come to you, do you go to them?
What is their first contact resolution rate for your requests?

Request detailed reports of all service requests and project work performed for the past year.
Unless you are using your brother-in-law or the neighbor kid for you support, the entity providing your support will keep a log of your requests. Modern incident support systems provide detailed reports that can be used for many different purposes including trending and analysis, employee training, forecasting, billing and support effectiveness. Each report has a purpose and helps shed light on different aspects of the support process which enables them to isolate problem areas and improve their processes.
On the flip side, there are customer reports you can use to get a black and white picture of how well they are doing. These reports may be hard to come by though since they will identify issues and problem areas in their support offering they may not want to display. Most support vendors will provide you with numbers including the total number of requests, the number of closed requests and the time involved in each. These reports give you just enough information to ask more questions and include a fair amount of “spin” to downplay issues. Push for useful reports to get a handle on the service they are providing you.

Survey the end users engaging the support vendor and document their experiences.

Getting up, walking around and talking to your employees about their support experience is critical to rate your support provider. Ok, so not everyone can get up and talk to everyone, so e-mail surveys work wonders too. The bottom line is your employees will give you the straight story about the vendor and many will provide specific examples of both good and bad service.
Unfortunately, not many people will let you know if you’re doing a good job but they will tap dance on your desk if you mess up. If you uncover issues that need immediate attention, escalate them to your support contact. Same goes for good service – let them know when they do a good job.

How much are you paying the vendor and what is included at this price?
This is the age old problem – getting your money’s worth from a vendor. Are you getting your money’s worth from you support vendor? How can you tell? On the surface this is an easy question as you typically provide an emotional answer. Unfortunately, the be fair to your company and the vendor, this question needs to be answered with facts and evidence.
Depending on how you pay your support vendor, the value question can be a moving target. The majority of support vendors charge their customer in one of two ways – per incident or per hour. In both cases, the billing methods favor the vendor as there is no incentive to work harder, smarter and faster to resolve your support requests. To protect your bottom line, review each invoice and ask request supporting documentation if charged seem excessive for services rendered.
If the invoices are routinely excessive you might consider meeting with support vendors that charge a flat rate per month for your support needs. These vendors typically build their pricing model around the number of desktops, servers and locations in your environment. The price may seem higher than the hourly or per incident providers but if you’re a heavy support user the model will work in your favor for two reasons – they work harder for higher margins and you get faster service.

How long have they been your vendor and should the contract be updated?
In any business relationship, the longer the run the more comfortable each side gets with each other. If you’ve had the same support vendor for more than 18 months, it’s worth revisiting your relationship. You might consider sending out an RFP to your current vendor and their competition to ensure you are getting the best deal. This seems like a daunting, if somewhat cumbersome process but it will ensure relationships stay fresh and mutually rewarding.

You’ve done your homework – Now What?
Once you’ve evaluated their services, reviewed the reports, spoken with your staff, determined whether or not you are getting a good deal for your money, make a phone call to your support vendor’s Operation’s Manager and request a meeting to revisit your relationship. Once you make this call, it will send their organization in several different reactions…..which isn’t a bad thing for you. Perhaps your account manager will be quizzed about what they could have done better, support tickets will be reviewed for problems and project work will be revisited to ensure nothing was missed. All of which is busy work on their end.
When both parties come to the table, you will be in the drivers seat. Make your concerns known and keep the meeting on track to ensure you accomplish the goals you had for calling the meeting. In the end, you may decide to keep your current provider based on what you discuss and agree upon…..but you might decide to fire them and move on to another vendor.

If you find yourself looking for a vendor to better suit your support needs we would like the opportunity to speak with you. Please call us at your convenience to schedule a free consultation and support evaluation.