Something You Should Know Before You Hire IT Consultants

Often, hardware resellers make lots of profit on the hardware they sell. Hence, if they sell hardware, they have a huge vested interest in selling you hardware--hardware you often don't need and can't afford. The main message: unless you just want to buy their hardware anyway, find someone who is not trying to sell you hardware.

What We Offer

First, understand that we do not sell hardware. The only reason to buy hardware is to make the software run or run better. As far as we know, no one buys expensive IT hardware just because it looks good sitting in their place of business--they buy it to solve a problem, just like they do the software.

That's where we come in. We can look at your IT infrastructure through years of experience and training and search out weak points, security holes, process failures, and much more. We can also tell you when/if you do need hardware and help you select the best hardware for the purpose. We can help you procure it along with the service backup it needs. Getting you what you need is our number one concern--not making a profit by selling the hardware.

Here is a partial list of IT things we can advise you on:

• Security

  If someone steals your customer list, how can that affect your company? How about if they get your customers' credit card information? How would your competition like to know all of that about your customers and, perhaps, throw in what they purchased in the last 24 months--with what they paid you for it? Security is well worth keeping a watch on and, believe us when we say, it is not limited to hackers on your website. There are three major divisions under the security heading:
  • Hardware--physical security is the most-overlooked aspect of the security picture, yet it is usually the most easily fixed. Let us look at your setup and give you a report on what we see--it may surprise you.

  • Software--WAN/LAN/VOIP/VIP, firewalls, NAT, routers, hubs, anti-virus software, VPN's, tunnels, etc. Again, we speak this language. We hope you have a great team looking after the security of your data network, but it won't hurt to have a new set of eyes take a look at it--the stakes are just too high to screw up.

  • People--your own personnel are the most likely security breach you face. Sure, there are hackers who mount attacks on your network, but such attacks make up only between 5% and 10% of all security breaches. Most of the time, it is your own employees who get you--sometimes by error, sometimes on purpose, and sometimes just because they didn't know any better. There are steps that can be taken to minimize your exposure--let us help you see the exposure and then minimize the risk. There are hardware and software things we can do in this light, and we can help you develop company policies and training packages that will make the employee aware of what they must to to safeguard your valuable data. We can help.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery

  We'll bet you have life insurance. We'll bet you have car insurance. We'll bet you have health-care insurance. And, we'll bet you hope you never have to use any of it. But you carry it in case something bad happens, don't you?

  So, what would it mean to your business if your main IT location were suddenly destroyed by a fire, tornado, or other event? How long would your business be shut down by this?

  Do you have a backup plan in force? Do you have a disaster-recovery plan in place? Do you have a virus-attack plan in place in case a virus brings your network to its knees? Are these plans adequate? How long has it been since they were reviewed by someone from outside, someone who might see what you don't?

  One of the chief tools in disaster recovery is a detailed LAN inventory and drawing. Do you have one? Is it drawn on a single piece of graph paper--good luck!

  Even if you didn't lose the whole data center, is critical data mirrored? Is mission-critical software backed up off-site? Where would you get replacements for specialty or scarce hardware items? We have lots more questions than we want to put here...but you get the idea.

  Let us survey your business's IT backup and disaster-recovery plans and help you be ready for something we all hope never happens. Think of it as business insurance.

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Software/Hardware Status

Versions, service packs, bug fixes, updates, etc. All of these can drive you crazy. Do you need to worry about the latest and greatest all the time? No. The trick is know where you do need to worry and doing something about it. We can help you with that, too.

How can we get something more out of our IT dollars?

There is no single answer to this question. Until we survey your infrastructure, your usage, your business processes, and how it all ties together, there is no answer at all. What will we look for?

• Points where there are disconnects between the IT side and the people-side always mean lost production, lost money--we'll be looking for them and ways to eliminate them.
• Points where there are disconnects within the IT side of the house also mean lost productivity. Processes that are repeated too often, faster ways to do things, better ways to utilize the software and equipment you already have, etc., are things we'll look for here.
• Points where there are disconnects between the IT personnel and the rest of the company are common--we'll be looking for them, too.

How will we do it?

As with all consulting, we must begin by meeting with you and discussing where you are, what you see as problems, and where you want to go, i.e., what you want to accomplish. Then we'll meet with your people--top to bottom as needed to determine what can be done to best accomplish your goals. We'll put all of that together and report our first set of "Observations".

If, after reviewing our observations, you feel we are on target and you want us to continue, we'll enter the second phase of the job. In this stage we will investigate solutions to the problems we have identified and enumerated. When we feel comfortable with the solution set we have developed, we will present that "Solution Set" and discuss it with you so that you understand the possibilities we see, the pros, and the cons.

Assuming you want to proceed with part of the "Solution Set" we will prepare an "Implementation Plan." This can be in as much or as little detail as you wish, but typically, we will help you find the best deals on any hardware or software you need to purchase, help place the orders so you get what you need when you need it.

Finally, we will help you implement the solution(s) you believe are best suited to your needs. We will work with the vendors' sales people, engineers, etc., as well as your personnel to bring about a smooth conversion/implementation that you will be pleased with.

That's how we'll work, and we'll keep you posted with regular, written progress reports as we go along.

Prices

Consulting is done on a by-the-hour basis. Our charge for any hourly work that does not involve over-night travel is currently $90.00/hour with a minimum of one-hour charged in all cases. You will be billed in 1/4 hour increments ($22.50 each) after that. If we are doing on-site work, the clock begins when we leave our office's door and ends when we get back to it. (Our rate is subject to change without notice and we'll update this on our website as quickly as we can, but we'll notify you of what the rate is before we do anything so you'll know if it has changed.)

Weekly invoiced payment (Net/10) by your company's Accounting department will be arranged. We will be happy to accept your company check, your credit card, or even cash as payment. Yes, you may choose to make payment to us using PayPal if that is most convenient for you.