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Saturday, August 19, 2006

What IT Certifications Will Your Clients Expect to Support Their Businesses?

Your sweet spot small business clients will need specialized support, including strong desktop support skills and some minor LAN skills. What skills and IT certifications are most important to your sweet spot business clients?

WHAT TASKS ARE YOU SUPPORTING?

Most sweet spot clients need help with popular items like Microsoft Office, Intuit QuickBooks and Interact ACT! They will also need assistance with hardware upgrades or even with setting up shared folder backups and maintaining antivirus and firewall software. Many clients will also need help syncing PDAs.

THE DISTINCTIVE NEEDS OF MICRO SMALL BUSINESSES

Businesses with less than 10 PCs that use P2P networks will not need or expect you to have a lot of IT certifications, so you shouldn’t waste your money on them. IT certifications in the world of micro small businesses sometimes are seen as a detriment because owners may feel like you are overqualified and too expensive.

REAL IT MANAGERS LOOK FOR IT CERTIFICATIONS

When you are selling services you a real IT manager at a larger small business that has 50 plus systems, you run into someone that is looking more closely at your IT certifications. A real IT manager will know what the different IT certifications are and will typically be looking for niched experts instead of more generalized IT consultants. Because this type of business does not do much outsourcing of IT work, they will be pickier about the person chosen to support the company and more likely to be invested in IT certifications such as those surrounding Microsoft programs.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101