Computer Consultants Secrets ™

As an IT consultant, you want to seek out certain people for partnering as part of your IT marketing plan.  People in professions like accounting can make great partners; you might even be able to create a formal revenue sharing arrangement here your accountant would get financial rewards in connecting you with his/her clients.

Formal Revenue Sharing Ideas for IT Marketing

1.    A finder’s fee;

2.    A referral fee;

3.    Subcontracting you out;

4.    Bartering services.

Less formal ideas for IT marketing when partnering with your accountant or other professional contacts include a gift basket, sporting events tickets or a free lunch or dinner.  These ideas should be a part of any conscientious IT marketing budget.

Are Their Clients in Need of Your Services?

You need to see if your accountant gets questions from clients about IT services and how he/she handles them.  If your accountant responds, “We don’t really know where to send them,” then you have the perfect opportunity to propose an IT marketing idea that includes you.

You should discuss IT investments with your account and tell him/her what they can do for a business.  You can then have an educational seminar in your accountant’s office at a time of year that works for him/her (not at the height of tax season!), such as in the fall and late spring.

IT Marketing:  What is an Educational Seminar?

You and your accountant will co-sponsor the educational seminar and invite customers of yours and theirs to talk about how small businesses can better utilize accounting systems and protect them by putting better controls in place.  Your accountant can discuss accounting issues, and you would talk about the IT side of things.  The key is to get customers thinking about computers and how they can help a business.

Personal referrals are a necessary part of IT marketing plans.  In order to get more referrals, partner with people that have clients that ask them about other professional services like the ones you provide.  Get behind the people that help you get referrals and reward them when they help with your IT marketing.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Red Hat recently stated that members of its solution providers community, Red Hat’s independent software vendors (ISVs) have begun testing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 2 in order to help Red Hat achieve its next subscription goals.  Solution providers hope to ensure early certification of the new program and make Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 avaiable this winter for customers.

The ISV community has been instrumental in Red Hat’s success, particularly during the past 5 years, according to Tim Yeaton, Senior VP of Enterprise Solutions, Red Hat.  He hopes that with the help of the ISV and solution providers community the company can continue to increase the scope of applications available to customers.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is set to be released early in 2007 and marks the next big subscription endeavor for the company.  Working with solution providers, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will provide complete, full-integrated commercial-strength virtualization.

Red Hat’s ISV Partner Program has been attracting solution providers that support the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.  The goal of this program for solution providers has been to provide great choices for customers building their architectures based on open source.  Solution providers partners include IBM, Oracle, Computer Associates and BEA Systems.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

The computer consulting business revolves around selling your personality, your charisma and of course business know-how.  But in the end, you’re selling time above all else, and wasting it is not an option.  You need to keep track of every hour spent, whether billable or part of your sales function, prospecting or administrative.  

How do you know whether a service call is appropriate?

Computer Consulting Emergency or Not?

If you want to find the time wasters to work better, you need to determine the urgency of the sales call from the very beginning.  It may be a server down problem that is destroying productivity at the company, which is really an emergency and something that requires immediate attention.  

On the other hand, it could just be a link not working between a PDA and a computer or something that is just a one-person problem.  This would be less of a good use of your time when you’re busy with computer consulting.

What’s the Computer Consulting Budget?

You need to know what your clients’ budgets is before you go into the situation.  If they are broke and have no ability to pay, you are wasting your time.  Don’t ignore them completely; put them on a follow-up list for three or six months and find out later if there is more money available for your services.

Computer Consulting:  Are You Being Polite?

You can’t ask outright about money issues.  Be subtle with your inquiries, and of course tactful.  Ask if the prospects currently get computer consulting support and how they have received it in the past.  If they use volunteers or moonlighters, it’s probably going to be a waste of your time because they most likely do not have a proper IT budget.  If the prospects are working with other VARs or with a legitimate competitor, you can assume there are funds.

What’s the Degree of Pain and How Badly Do They Need Computer Consulting Services?

You need to figure out what the prospects are facing and if you have a solution that can fix it.

Your time is part of your inventory and should not be freely offered.  Be careful when proceeding in computer consulting.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Computer business innovator Red Hat, Inc. recently released information about its Enterprise Linux operating system.  The system has been selected by Nokia Corp.’s Networks Business as the primary operating system for platforms that are carrier grade.

These two companies will work together to design carrier-grade telecommunications products, and Red Hat will provide consulting, certification, training services and support as part of the partnership.  

The Networks Group is about to merge with Siemens AG to provide carrier-related services under the name Nokia Siemens Networks.  Whether or not Red Hat will transfer to the new organization is still unknown.

Red Hat announced last month that it would focus more strongly on telecommunications and was joining a European Commission project to create telecommunication service delivery platform standards.  VP of worldwide marketing and general manager of Red Hat’s product division stated that the next set of delivery services would be based around some of the concepts of open source.

Earlier in November the computer business Red Hat stated that 29 telecommunications independent software vendors had become a part of the telecommunications partner program within the past six months.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

When you’re involved in computer consulting, you need to do plenty of homework before the initial consultation.  You will be spending time and money, so you need to be sure about prospects for your computer consulting business.

Think about the sales process.  The initial consultation is more of a pre-sales consultation than an actual sales opportunity.  You want your professionalism to shine and to stand out from other computer consulting professionals.

So how do you handle the initial consultation in computer consulting?  You need to show interest in your prospects’ businesses, their problems and get a real handle on these problems to determine whether or not you have a solution to help them as part of your computer consulting business.

Get the Dirt

When you’re researching prospects, you might find dirt that makes doing business with them highly undesirable.  The initial computer consulting sales call is an interview for you as well as for your clients, and if you see some really strange things anywhere when doing your homework, you may want to decline.

Time = Money in Computer Consulting

You will most likely need a half an hour or an hour to get together some informational materials for prospects.  You will spend another half an hour or more driving to the site, and your consultation will probably not start or end on time.  Even if you’re really well-organized, you could spend two or three hours on an initial consultation easily.

For example, if your hourly billing rate is $75 an hour for computer consulting, you will probably invest about $225 in your time on an initial consultation, so you have to be sure you do some qualifying to figure out if you will be a good fit and vice versa.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Last Wednesday, Federal authorities raided a Johnson County, KS computer business.  So far, no details have been released on the reason for the raid.  Agents from the FBI and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were said to have searched computer business Deals Express, located at Interstate 35 in Lamar Avenue in Mission, KS.  Seven storage facilities owned by the computer business, including six in Johson County and one in Wyandotte County also experienced raids.

FBI agent Jeff Lanza reported that approximately 50 agents with the FBI and ICE along with support staff from those agencies were also part of the search.  They are expecting the search of the computer business to last for quite a while before any details are released.

Computer business Deals Express is an Internet resale company for electronics and computers, with some of its business conducted through online auction site eBay.  

Kansas records note the computer business as having been incorporated in December 2001; the only name attached to the business on public record is Chris Meyers, and no arrests have been made, nor have charges been filed.

FBI agent Lanza stated he cannot yet reveal details of the investigation, except a federal search warrant is being executed based on information uncovered during a criminal investigation.

More information will be available about this computer business once the results of the search warrants are filed in federal court.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

Computer consulting is about researching clients in order to stand out from your competitors.  Why is it so important, and what can you do to research clients and get sales in the computer consulting world?

You should be careful of vendors that try to tell you what you do in your business.  Give a basic explanation of what your computer consulting business does so a client can quickly figure out if you can work together.  Be proactive and know what your prospects are doing before you go into the sales meeting so you are ready to be of service.

Computer Consulting:  What Research Will Prepare You For Your Meeting?

Although you might have to spend 30 to 45 minutes doing research before a sales call, you need to in order to close a sale right away or within a week or two.  In order for prospects to buy into your computer consulting services, you need to build your credibility and share ideas with your prospect to show you really care.  With so many resources, particularly the Internet, you have no excuse to avoid finding information about prospects in advance of meeting.

Computer Consulting:  Know Your Clients

A client profile should include the following information:  details about the client’s business; the industry of the business; the types of services provided by the business; number of company locations; number of years the company has been in business.

Recent News About You Client

You will probably find articles about clients in the local newspaper by looking at Google or searching through the online version of a newspaper.  Look for anything you can find that will give extra information about a client so you can be familiar before you even set foot in the client’s office as a computer consulting professional.

Created By:  Joshua Feinberg

In computer business news recently, Symantec announced it had enhanced its Backup Exec data protection package with a brand new version.  The new version of the software includes continuous data protection and encryption capabilities.  The company’s Ghost desktop migration software is also now compatible with Windows Vista.

Continous Data Protection

The major news for the computer business with Symantec’s new data protection program is the continuous protection feature.  CDP allows data changes to be immediately backed up at defined intervals so that users can instantly get to a deleted corrupted or compromised file.

Continuous data protection means that there is increased ability to protect company emails.  Customers can also do a full backup monthly and rely on the CDP feature of Backup Exec to change the e-mail database as needed.  This means e-mail can be backed up all at once instead of having to do backup of individual mailboxes.

Encryption Features

This new software package for the computer business, Backup Exec 11d also comes with 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption, all-inclusive.  Solution providers thus get the opportunity to sell to more customer organizations that use encryption.  Turning encryption on adds approximately a 20-percent overhead to the process of backing up.

Ghost Solution

Symantec is also preparing for the release of Windows Vista by offering a new version of its Ghost Solution software that allows for the deployment and management of PC images.  Ghost Solution 2.0 offers support for Vista as well as x64-bit Windows.  This new version allows customers to move PC images from current versions of Windows and past Windows versions.

Backup Exec 11d will ship Monday, while Ghost Solution is set to ship November 30.  Cost per license in the computer business will be $39.20.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101