Networking course

My Networking Basics course starts this Thursday at Macquarie Community College at Carlingford and runs over the next three weeks. This course will give you a understanding of things such as TCP, IP addressing, switches, wireless, routers, firewalls and more. It is aimed at those who little of no networking experience and want to better understand the technology of getting machines to talk to each other.

You can find more information, including enrolment details here:

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=109M301

The course will also give you hands on experience with the technology in a computer lab and comes with a comprehensive set of course notes.

Recertify

So Microsoft has made some changes to the Small Business Specialist requirements, including the need to recertify. Here’s the details from https://partner.microsoft.com/global/program/40021563

Small Business Specialist partners must employ or contract with at least one person by location who has passed one of the five technical exams in the following list.

70-653: TS: Windows Small Business Server 2008, Configuring

70-654: TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring

70-631: TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring

70-236 TS: Exchange Server 2007, Configuring

70-655 TS: Windows Vista and Server operating systems, Pre-Installing for OEMs

Note: If you passed either Exam 70-282: Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for Small- and Medium-Sized Business or Exam 74-134: Preinstalling Microsoft Products and Technologies to receive your Small Business Specialist designation, your exam credentials must be updated by October 31, 2010.

If you are already a Small Business Specialist then you have plenty of time to recertify but if I were you I go out and do it as soon as you can. Why? because it will provide a definite point of differentiation for your business. And when you have recertified in SBS 2008 make sure that emphasize that fact in all your marketing. Make sure they understand that you have taken the trouble to recertify and that they should have confidence in the fact that you are keeping up to date.

If it were me

The government here in Australia has recently announced:

“Small business gets a $2.7 billion package of tax breaks that includes an extra $600 tax deduction for any small business that buys and installs a $2000 computer before the end of June.” – SMH

Now if I was in the business of selling computers I would look at combining this with some internal offering. Thus, I would say something like “Did you realize that the government now provides an extra deduction for computer purchases before June? Did you also realize that we’ll also give you a free printer as well?”. Or even perhaps something along the lines of “The government if offering a $600 saving on computers to help the country avoid recession. We’ll give you a free copy of Office as our part in helping to boost the economy”.

I use these as examples, obviously you’ll have to work out the numbers for yourself but I think there is opportunity to piggy back off what the government is attempting to do with your own offering. It should appeal to customers in two ways. Most importantly, it should represent some saving or benefit to them. Secondly, it should show that you are trying to do your bit for the local economy as well. Thus, customers should buy from you and support your business.

Hopefully this illustrates that developing marketing concepts for your business isn’t that difficult no matter what the economic conditions. All it takes is a little creativity and the ability to look at the situation from the customers point of view. In this case the key is tying an offer to something the mainstream media is focused on and then going that little bit further so you stand out. You have to offer something extra to get people to buy from YOU and not the competition!

Participation

I look at politicians all over the World as they struggle to use the ‘R’ word (which is recession). Everyone else knows we are in a recession and maybe even headed for the ‘D’ word (which is depression). Another group of people that I’ve watching with interest are those who claim, they ‘are not participating in the recession’.

I think that is a very noble sentiment but it isn’t realistic. Why? Well if everyone else around you, your customers, peers, suppliers and so on are in the middle of a recession how can you choose not to participate? Unfortunately, in this day and age everything is so intertwined that we depend on those around us heavily. When they sneeze we catch cold.

A wise person once said that a smart person can’t control their situation only their reaction to it. Face it, we are in a recession. Face it, we are going to see reduced cashflow. Face it, times are going to be tough. Don’t try and fight something that you can’t change, look at your reaction to the situation facing you.

What steps have you taken to solidify your business? What actions have you taken to reassure your customers that you’ll continue to be there to help? What actions are you taking to grow your business? Hang on there. Did I say GROW?

Well, yes in fact I did. Again, the key again is how you react to the situation. What we are going through now will not last for ever. However, we may never see opportunities like these again. Consider the opportunities to purchase assets at historically low levels. Look at the opportunity to repay debt at the lowest interest rates seen. Look at the opportunity presented to you because your competitors are wobbling or falling.

Participation in the recession is mandatory. Once you understand and accept that you then need to consider how to use the recession to your advantage. I never said that it would be as easy as it was in the good times but there is still opportunity there for those who are prepared.

Tell me, where do you stand? Do you have your eyes closed hoping all this mess will disappear? Or do you have your eyes wide open, searching for every opportunity? The choice is yours. The grounds rules have changed. Participate or die.

Money for nothing

In these times of economic ‘non-spending’ many resellers are glad they have implemented managed services. This basically means they charge clients a monthly fee that covers some form of service. The idea is that over the longer period the amount charged is less than the cost so a tidy profit is made. However, in uncertain economic times like these managed services provides much needed regular cashflow for IT resellers because clients are no longer making large infrastructure purchases or calling up to have things repaired. In most cases they are going longer before making a call that costs them money.

Now managed service resellers might be sitting back thinking they are pretty in pink but I wouldn’t get too cocky yet. I foresee two issues that will even affect you. Firstly, as business tightens up clients are going to be looking at every outgoing and asking whether it is justified. If they are ‘paying’ for IT support and they don’t feel or see they are getting the value for that they’ll look at cancelling it or at the least bumping it down a level to save money. Secondly, it is all well and good to extract cashflow from existing managed services clients but I think most will struggle when attempting to sell that offer to prospects. So, as I see it, you will get cashflow from your existing managed services clients but that is going to be under pressure as the client’s cashflow comes under pressure.

Now there is a caveat here. If you are ‘sitting back’ and simply expecting your managed services cashflow to keep rolling in then don’t complain when it starts to wane. Now’s the time that you need to be telling all your customers and prospects exactly what the benefits they receive as part of their managed service ‘investment’. You need to illustrate how much benefit they do receive (real and imaginary) for their dollar. You need to worker harder to demonstrate that by going with managed services from you they are actually SAVING MONEY!

That’s the trick to maintaining, and maybe even improving your managed services income. You need to elucidate exactly what the benefits are FOR THE CUSTOMER. Even though you may not believe they are a benefit they still maybe to the customer so make sure you tell them.

A managed services approach in IT certainly provides resellers with a big advantage in times like these but don’t simply sit on you butt thinking that the cash is going to keep rolling it. If the customer doesn’t think (note – it’s from the customers perspective not yours) they receive value from what they pay, then they are certainly going to start questioning whether continuing to pay is such a good idea. Get off your butt and remove the doubt from their mind because all revenue these days requires work.

Increase your value

I’ve been reading the following article “Fireproof you job” and recommend it as a good read. The article focuses on what employees can do but many of the strategies can be also be implemented by businesses.

Take for example the item Increase your value – Keep on top of advances in your field and expand your expertise beyond your core area. In the IT field there is simply so much that needs to be kept up with, sadly that still needs to be done. However, I think that it is good idea to try specialize in one area. You should try and pick one that would be of most benefit and exposure to customers rather than simply technically challenging. Maybe something along the lines of mobility, either getting phone to sync with data or enabling simpler remote access, whatever it is make sure it is highly visible to the client. Most of the technical tools are already present but you need to position yourself as the ‘expert’ in the field. Pick an area that will have most impact for you client and then learn everything you can about that, then make sure you use this as your method of attracting business.

Secondly, many IT people do not have a broad enough range of skills outside their core IT knowledge. Your clients employ you to solve technical issues which they have little knowledge about so how can you communicate more with them if all you understand is IT? Are there other consulting opportunities available with clients if you had skills in other areas? The IT service business is a pretty crowded place. Ask any IT service business what they do and the answer will usually be along the lines of “we provide quality solutions to client’s IT needs”. Boring! Now imagine if you gave the following answer instead “we save our clients $10,000 a year on their IT costs”. Not only are you going to have prospects attention you are going to make them come one more step down the process with you by asking “How?”.

Pure technical skills no longer cut it in the IT business. Why? Google my friends, Google. Given enough time you can find the answer to just about any technical question on Google. So now what makes you so special? What makes you command the fees your do? Even if you invest some time and money on improving your abilities through sales training, business development and accounting they are all adding value to yourself and your business. The common cry these days is that you need to become a ‘trusted business advisor’ but you can’t become a ‘business advisor’ by simply knowing only the technical side. This is why is so important these days to develop skills outside any core IT knowledge you have. In many cases it won’t be nearly as much fun or excitement as IT but that is all part of growing, some pain is always involved.

In the coming months those that take action and follow a strategy are going to be those that survive and prosper when times improve. Almost anyone can provide IT solutions these days. So what are you doing to stand out from the crowd? What are you doing to prove to your clients that you are worth your fee? Take the advice employees are getting and implement it in your business or otherwise you will find yourself looking for work.

Two hundred thousand views

Well it took about 9 months to get to the first 100,000 views but it has only taken just over 6 months to get to 200,000 views. What am I talking about? I’m talking about my online videos on YouTube.

I am constantly amazed that people actually watch my videos and also find them helpful. So to everyone out there that has watched on of my videos I say thanks. To everyone that has taken the time to comment on the videos I also say thanks. An especial thanks goes out to those who have actually emailed me directly about the videos. It helps to know that people are getting something from what I create.

Initially, I established my videos while at Saturn Alliance but since then have returned to running CIAOPS. As such, I have also created a new video area where all recent videos now appear. So if you have subscribed to my initial Saturn Alliance videos don’t forget to take a look at http://www.youtube.com/directorciaops for my new video creations.

As always if you have any comments or feedback on my videos please contact me (director@ciaops.com) I’m always happy to hear what people say – good or bad.

Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more.

What to learn

Microsoft has come out and said that it is going to reduce its workforce by 5,000. Now if you read the article there are some other interesting gems including:

“sales and profit will probably drop as the recession eats into software demand”

”as personal-computer sales slow and companies curb software purchases in what may be the worst recession since World War II”

”customers opted for machines with cheaper versions of the operating system”

”People aren’t buying PCs”

”The economy and technology spending slowed more than expected”

”The PC market will be the same, or weaker, for the remainder of the fiscal year”

“All of them saw a very sort of violent slowdown in spending”

“While consumers and businesses hold off buying computers with the latest premium version of Windows, demand is increasing for netbooks, machines that cost less than $US500 and use the cheaper Windows XP or the rival Linux operating system.”

Gloomy eh? So the question is what steps are you taking in your business to combat this slow down? What strategies do you have in place to reduces expenses and grow revenue. What’s your marketing strategy? Or do you simply live in hope that this will all blow over and you won’t feel the effects? If you haven’t taken action then the sooner you start the better.

Even Google is going to be affected:

“Spending in the US on ads linked to Web-search results increased 21% in 2008, compared with a growth rate of 30% in 2007, according to research firm EMarketer Inc. in New York. The firm estimates growth of 15% in 2009”. – SMH

Now more than ever you need to be carefully considering your whole business because if you’re in the IT business chances are you’re going to see a downturn unless you have made investments in strategy, revenue growth and cost reductions.

If you need help, advice or support start building a network of businesses and people who can help, don’t leave it till it’s too late.