When you are conducting IT audits, you will come across software licensing issues about which you have to talk to customers and prospects. You can approach this situation tactfully by telling them you found software that was questionably licensed and wonder if they have documentation to prove ownership. Any responsible small business owner will understand why they need to have the license agreements, invoices, end-user license agreements and original CDs to prove they own their products.
IT Audits: Never Negotiate Licenses
If your customers and prospects can’t provide you with software licenses during IT audits, you have to tell them they need to decide on a remediation plan immediately to avoid future problems. You can advise them on how to approach this.
Give small businesses a couple months after the IT audits to work on the problem, but don’t give them more. Licensing compliance is non-negotiable for your firm and should be in your service contracts.
It’s About Protecting Yourself
You need a paragraph in your support contract documents that discusses a client’s responsibility for software licensing. And you need to make sure these documents also state that if you find deficiencies during IT audits, they have to either remove the software or purchase it to fix the problem. You can’t work for anyone that is opposed to buying software legally.
Remediation Plans after IT Audits
Some businesses don’t use certain software programs on their PCs, and part of your plan can be to remove software using Add/Remove functions that is not being used anymore.
If the PCs are close to being replaced, you might want to consider telling them to upgrade their PCs and helping them install new, legal software after IT audits. You can also recommend they keep current equipment and buy the two-year site license with the maintenance, which gives them unlimited upgrades.
Submitted By: Computer Consulting Kit
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Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Selling Virtual IT to Small Businesses with Joshua Feinberg
For years, the concept of “virtual IT” has been growing into an important part of the small business world. As technology vendors focus more on relationships with small businesses and not just selling products, they have started to create programs that offer the opportunity to handle total business solutions that integrate IT resources completely into the growth and development of companies.
At the Computer Consulting Kit, we have been presenting the concept of virtual IT as crucial for years. An article appeared in a recent edition of Tech News World about the unmistakable trend to provide total solutions for small businesses quoting Joshua Feinberg on the growing importance of consulting firms – small business computer consulting firms and consulting firms for larger businesses – that stress relationships before products and commodities.
In the article Joshua stressed that, even though there are more resources being put into the virtual IT field, the diversity of the small business market makes designing technology and business solutions that work across the board is difficult. The discrepancy between how different professionals define “small business” also makes service challenging. Many vendors, in fact define small businesses as those with fewer than 10 employees, whereas others define them as any company with between 50 – 100 employees. However, Joshua stated that there is a need to really look at the differences between the businesses and what services they are providing as well as their industry in order to really get an idea of how to define them in terms of IT needs.
As Joshua has been stressing for years when advising small business computer consultants on ways to grow their businesses, “There is no one-size-fits-all solution because small businesses are extremely fragmented in their needs for small business technology support.”
He adds that in order for a small business owner to get the most from a virtual IT provider or any type of technology support vendor, the vendor must know the true business problems the client faces and not just the issues revolving around isolated hardware, software and peripherals.
The move towards a virtual IT universe for businesses of all sizes is obvious, and even large companies such as Dell, IBM and Best Buy are changing their business models to accommodate for companies and individuals in need of professional technology services that go beyond just products.
Feinberg believes that virtual IT is set to turn into the dominant model in the small business world and the business world in general and that outsourced computer consultants will be in charge of determining how to fit technology in with unique business needs.
For this full article about virtual IT and small businesses – which includes Joshua Feinberg’s quotes in their entirety and more information about virtual IT – visit the attached link.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
At the Computer Consulting Kit, we have been presenting the concept of virtual IT as crucial for years. An article appeared in a recent edition of Tech News World about the unmistakable trend to provide total solutions for small businesses quoting Joshua Feinberg on the growing importance of consulting firms – small business computer consulting firms and consulting firms for larger businesses – that stress relationships before products and commodities.
In the article Joshua stressed that, even though there are more resources being put into the virtual IT field, the diversity of the small business market makes designing technology and business solutions that work across the board is difficult. The discrepancy between how different professionals define “small business” also makes service challenging. Many vendors, in fact define small businesses as those with fewer than 10 employees, whereas others define them as any company with between 50 – 100 employees. However, Joshua stated that there is a need to really look at the differences between the businesses and what services they are providing as well as their industry in order to really get an idea of how to define them in terms of IT needs.
As Joshua has been stressing for years when advising small business computer consultants on ways to grow their businesses, “There is no one-size-fits-all solution because small businesses are extremely fragmented in their needs for small business technology support.”
He adds that in order for a small business owner to get the most from a virtual IT provider or any type of technology support vendor, the vendor must know the true business problems the client faces and not just the issues revolving around isolated hardware, software and peripherals.
The move towards a virtual IT universe for businesses of all sizes is obvious, and even large companies such as Dell, IBM and Best Buy are changing their business models to accommodate for companies and individuals in need of professional technology services that go beyond just products.
Feinberg believes that virtual IT is set to turn into the dominant model in the small business world and the business world in general and that outsourced computer consultants will be in charge of determining how to fit technology in with unique business needs.
For this full article about virtual IT and small businesses – which includes Joshua Feinberg’s quotes in their entirety and more information about virtual IT – visit the attached link.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Monday, October 22, 2007
IT Marketing and Testimonials
Testimonials are a critical part of your IT marketing campaign and can help you sell your business when used to their fullest.
Credibility is Essential to IT Marketing
If you want to have strong testimonials that lend to your credibility, they have to be real. This means they need to have a first name, last name, job title, company name and a city and state (at minimum).
Having real testimonials help you be more believable. People are going to believe third parties with no vested interest in your company more than they will believe your self-created IT marketing materials.
What Should Be Included in Testimonials?
Testimonials need to stress benefits to clients and be on clients’ letterhead. They should talk about how your company has helped them and give specific examples that include commentary on the following items: information on ROI; your company’s dependability and reliability; your response to emergencies; your understanding of specific business needs; your ability to work within time and budgetary constraints.
How Do You Get Testimonials?
1. Interview clients and guide them with specific questions.
2. Draft suggested testimonials and e-mail them to clients, then get them to put them on their company letterhead and sign off on them.
3. Put together five or six suggested bullet points for them to address in their testimonials (set it up like a survey).
4. Take clients out to lunch or breakfast and conduct an interview. Take notes, go back to your office, type it up, email it and then ask clients to review it and make sure it accurately reflects the conversation. Then get clients to put it on their letterhead.
The Bottom Line about IT Marketing and Testimonials
If you make the process of creating testimonials easy for prospects, you can get all the IT marketing materials you need.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Credibility is Essential to IT Marketing
If you want to have strong testimonials that lend to your credibility, they have to be real. This means they need to have a first name, last name, job title, company name and a city and state (at minimum).
Having real testimonials help you be more believable. People are going to believe third parties with no vested interest in your company more than they will believe your self-created IT marketing materials.
What Should Be Included in Testimonials?
Testimonials need to stress benefits to clients and be on clients’ letterhead. They should talk about how your company has helped them and give specific examples that include commentary on the following items: information on ROI; your company’s dependability and reliability; your response to emergencies; your understanding of specific business needs; your ability to work within time and budgetary constraints.
How Do You Get Testimonials?
1. Interview clients and guide them with specific questions.
2. Draft suggested testimonials and e-mail them to clients, then get them to put them on their company letterhead and sign off on them.
3. Put together five or six suggested bullet points for them to address in their testimonials (set it up like a survey).
4. Take clients out to lunch or breakfast and conduct an interview. Take notes, go back to your office, type it up, email it and then ask clients to review it and make sure it accurately reflects the conversation. Then get clients to put it on their letterhead.
The Bottom Line about IT Marketing and Testimonials
If you make the process of creating testimonials easy for prospects, you can get all the IT marketing materials you need.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Locating Computer Consulting Sweet Spot Clients for Your Business
If you want to get computer consulting clients that will spend $1,000 or $2,000 monthly on services, you need to evaluate each prospect and client.
Ask yourself the following computer consulting qualifying questions:
1. Is the prospect/client big enough for a real server, firewall, backup solution and offsite or online backup?
2. Does the computer consulting prospect/client need a focus on security, power protection and virus protection?
3. Does the prospect/client need an on-going, real professional for IT needs and network support?
Your best computer consulting clients will not be able to have simply volunteers or even a moonlighter. Small businesses that are sweet spot computer consulting clients will get larger, have more PCs and have a lot more revenue to worry about if systems crash.
Who is Able to Pay for Your Services?
Sweet spot computer consulting clients will be able to pay you consistently for on-going support. You will be on-site twice a month, get emergency support phone calls and conduct remote support. You will be an outsourced IT department.
What Does a Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Client Look Like?
Your ideal clients will have more than just a P2P network. They will need to be big enough computer consulting clients that downtime will be expensive and a major blog to their company.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Ask yourself the following computer consulting qualifying questions:
1. Is the prospect/client big enough for a real server, firewall, backup solution and offsite or online backup?
2. Does the computer consulting prospect/client need a focus on security, power protection and virus protection?
3. Does the prospect/client need an on-going, real professional for IT needs and network support?
Your best computer consulting clients will not be able to have simply volunteers or even a moonlighter. Small businesses that are sweet spot computer consulting clients will get larger, have more PCs and have a lot more revenue to worry about if systems crash.
Who is Able to Pay for Your Services?
Sweet spot computer consulting clients will be able to pay you consistently for on-going support. You will be on-site twice a month, get emergency support phone calls and conduct remote support. You will be an outsourced IT department.
What Does a Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Client Look Like?
Your ideal clients will have more than just a P2P network. They will need to be big enough computer consulting clients that downtime will be expensive and a major blog to their company.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Monday, October 15, 2007
What Are Your Network Cabling Choices?
When you are acting as an IT consultant for small businesses, you will have to talk about the differences between network cabling options with your clients and prospects.
Some Different Types of Network Cabling Choices
1. Traditional Wired Ethernet (CAT 5): Category 5 network cabling was the standard for all types of business LANs until recently. Today, there are many different types of enhancements to this product and also wireless solutions. You can get an estimate from vendors for CAT 5 cabling from a local data cabling vendor that can install a system to run to each office or desk.
2. Wireless Ethernet Based on 802.11b (11Mbps): This type of network cabling is a pretty advanced standard that offers up to 11Mbps service. Even though wireless networking hardware is much more expensive than wired, your clients end up saving on installation costs associated with regular wired services. Wireless Ethernet has some problems though, because the standards between products within the range are still new, so you can have trouble with connecting products from different vendors. And because security standards are still in progress, wireless encryption is pretty easy to hack.
Some Tips for Network Cabling Options
Make sure the network cabling job is done “to spec.” Most reputable Category 5 cable installers can give you hard copy reports of CAT 5 certification tests to make sure you did the job well.
In order to string together traditional wired Ethernet networks based on CAT 5 network cabling, your clients will need to buy a 10/100Mbps Ethernet hub or switch and a card for each PC. These products are inexpensive and can help you create great small business networks.
The Main Idea about Cable Networking
Even if your consulting firm doesn’t deal in network cabling work, you need to get involved in the design specifications and supervise the work to provide a streamlined solution for your small business clients.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Some Different Types of Network Cabling Choices
1. Traditional Wired Ethernet (CAT 5): Category 5 network cabling was the standard for all types of business LANs until recently. Today, there are many different types of enhancements to this product and also wireless solutions. You can get an estimate from vendors for CAT 5 cabling from a local data cabling vendor that can install a system to run to each office or desk.
2. Wireless Ethernet Based on 802.11b (11Mbps): This type of network cabling is a pretty advanced standard that offers up to 11Mbps service. Even though wireless networking hardware is much more expensive than wired, your clients end up saving on installation costs associated with regular wired services. Wireless Ethernet has some problems though, because the standards between products within the range are still new, so you can have trouble with connecting products from different vendors. And because security standards are still in progress, wireless encryption is pretty easy to hack.
Some Tips for Network Cabling Options
Make sure the network cabling job is done “to spec.” Most reputable Category 5 cable installers can give you hard copy reports of CAT 5 certification tests to make sure you did the job well.
In order to string together traditional wired Ethernet networks based on CAT 5 network cabling, your clients will need to buy a 10/100Mbps Ethernet hub or switch and a card for each PC. These products are inexpensive and can help you create great small business networks.
The Main Idea about Cable Networking
Even if your consulting firm doesn’t deal in network cabling work, you need to get involved in the design specifications and supervise the work to provide a streamlined solution for your small business clients.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Don't Live in the 90's with Computer Consulting Marketing
In the 1990’s, certifications were really important in computer consulting. Many computer consulting professionals used their affiliations with major computer companies to sell their services.
Today, computer consulting professionals don’t lead off by talking about their important partnerships because they don’t want to be just one more person selling the company’s products. They want to be their own computer consulting companies.
No More Benefits of Major Partnerships?
In the 90’s, you got a lot of co-op advertising and other benefits when you were part of a partner program. But today, as the benefits disappear, there is really no reason financially to put logos for major computer companies all over the place. You want to spend time branding yourself instead of just focusing on your solutions.
Which Products Do You Know?
When you get new computer consulting prospective clients and are talking them through the qualification stages, you will want to recommend solutions that are within your comfort zone. If you are authorized to belong to a program, you will recommend that solution, but you don’t want to make this product or platform the focus of your marketing campaign.
You Are More Than a Commodity
If you start relationships with prospects by talking about platforms or products, you become just a commodity and you base your benefits on price. Why should prospects buy their NetWare license from you if buying it online or through mail order is cheaper? You don’t want to be part of a bidding war.
Don’t use 90’s-style marketing when working on your computer consulting business and instead think about what you can really do for clients.
Submitted By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Today, computer consulting professionals don’t lead off by talking about their important partnerships because they don’t want to be just one more person selling the company’s products. They want to be their own computer consulting companies.
No More Benefits of Major Partnerships?
In the 90’s, you got a lot of co-op advertising and other benefits when you were part of a partner program. But today, as the benefits disappear, there is really no reason financially to put logos for major computer companies all over the place. You want to spend time branding yourself instead of just focusing on your solutions.
Which Products Do You Know?
When you get new computer consulting prospective clients and are talking them through the qualification stages, you will want to recommend solutions that are within your comfort zone. If you are authorized to belong to a program, you will recommend that solution, but you don’t want to make this product or platform the focus of your marketing campaign.
You Are More Than a Commodity
If you start relationships with prospects by talking about platforms or products, you become just a commodity and you base your benefits on price. Why should prospects buy their NetWare license from you if buying it online or through mail order is cheaper? You don’t want to be part of a bidding war.
Don’t use 90’s-style marketing when working on your computer consulting business and instead think about what you can really do for clients.
Submitted By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
What about the Initial Computer Consulting Consultation?
In computer consulting, the first meeting should have a mind-set of “pre-sales” rather than sales. You need to make yourself stand out amidst all the other computer consulting professionals by taking a real interest in prospects’ businesses and problems. Then you need to find out whether or not your type of solutions will work for them.
What’s the Deal with Your Prospects?
In some cases, you may find out some things about your prospects that makes having them work with your computer consulting firm a bad idea. You need to think of the first computer consulting meeting as an interview; you are interviewing your prospect and your prospect is interviewing you. If you find odd information out about your prospect during the course of your homework, you probably don’t want to get involved.
Time = Money
The first computer consulting meeting involves some time. You will need about a half hour or an hour to put together a packet of information for prospects. Then you will most likely have to drive to the site for about half an hour to an hour. And because you can expect your computer consulting meeting to start or finish later than expected, even with totally efficient practices, you should think of it as about two or three hours.
How does time equate to money? If you are billing $75 per hour for computer consulting, you can expect to invest about $225 in an initial computer consulting call prior to gas, mileage, parking and tolls. You need to be sure your computer consulting prospect is right for your business by qualifying and doing your homework.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
What’s the Deal with Your Prospects?
In some cases, you may find out some things about your prospects that makes having them work with your computer consulting firm a bad idea. You need to think of the first computer consulting meeting as an interview; you are interviewing your prospect and your prospect is interviewing you. If you find odd information out about your prospect during the course of your homework, you probably don’t want to get involved.
Time = Money
The first computer consulting meeting involves some time. You will need about a half hour or an hour to put together a packet of information for prospects. Then you will most likely have to drive to the site for about half an hour to an hour. And because you can expect your computer consulting meeting to start or finish later than expected, even with totally efficient practices, you should think of it as about two or three hours.
How does time equate to money? If you are billing $75 per hour for computer consulting, you can expect to invest about $225 in an initial computer consulting call prior to gas, mileage, parking and tolls. You need to be sure your computer consulting prospect is right for your business by qualifying and doing your homework.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Monday, October 01, 2007
IT Marketing: The Right Lead Generator
Lead generation is an important part of running a successful IT marketing campaign and can actually make or break the future of your company.
To whom should you delegate this important IT marketing task? It really should not go to anyone except you, a spouse or a very trusted business partner. Your clients are buying a service, your personality, your reputation and word of mouth. When they are buying “you,” you need to make sure they understand what they are getting.
IT Marketing and Your Responsibility
You can’t make your personal service into a commodity, so you should only delegate when absolutely necessary. Make the contacts in the community and get the word out about your available solutions with your IT marketing plan and take no shortcuts. If you need to delegate, technical aspects of handling accounts is probably the only task you should relinquish.
Virtual IT Marketing and a Single Point of Contact
When you are a “virtual IT” professional, you should be the single point of contact. People need to get to know you, because you are the owner, the personality and the whole thing. Sell “You, Inc.” as consulting services, network support services, or however you plan to market it. Let people get to know you personally as part of your IT marketing plan.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
To whom should you delegate this important IT marketing task? It really should not go to anyone except you, a spouse or a very trusted business partner. Your clients are buying a service, your personality, your reputation and word of mouth. When they are buying “you,” you need to make sure they understand what they are getting.
IT Marketing and Your Responsibility
You can’t make your personal service into a commodity, so you should only delegate when absolutely necessary. Make the contacts in the community and get the word out about your available solutions with your IT marketing plan and take no shortcuts. If you need to delegate, technical aspects of handling accounts is probably the only task you should relinquish.
Virtual IT Marketing and a Single Point of Contact
When you are a “virtual IT” professional, you should be the single point of contact. People need to get to know you, because you are the owner, the personality and the whole thing. Sell “You, Inc.” as consulting services, network support services, or however you plan to market it. Let people get to know you personally as part of your IT marketing plan.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
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