Computer Consultants Secrets ™

Top IT consulting and staffing firm BluWater Consulting announced Wednesday that it would open a new office in Chicago.  The IT consulting firm brings technical solutions such as general IT consulting, project staffing and outsourcing to help support businesses of all sizes throughout the United States.  

Managing Partner Dave Swartzendruber, with 15 years of experience in the IT consulting field will head the Chicago branch of BluWater.  Before joining the IT consulting firm, Swartzendruber had a startup staffing company in Seattle with over 40 participating consultants.  He has expertise in telecommunications, high-tech applications, aerospace and health care.  

BluWater Consulting provides IT solutions to clients in many industries:  telecommunications; software development; health care; banking; insurance; retail and local and state government.  The IT consulting firm can provide security and compliance, infrastructure technologies, business continuity and disaster recovery along with projet management, development of applications, outsourcing, project staff augmentation and many other services.  

The IT consulting firm’s biggest strengths are in process engineering and application development solutions, and BluWater sees these areas as being problems for many companies, even those in the private sector.  Private companies looking to meet the growing needs of customers, investors and future partners will have to think about improving their processes, according to Swartzendruber.  

The IT consulting firm has deep knowledge of the industry, allowing it to relate to the  needs of clients.  The IT consulting firm is based in Kirkland, Washington.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

When you are starting out in the computer consulting business, you may wonder how you might find regular clients willing to spend from $1,000 to $2,000 per month on your outsourced services.

The key to finding clients is to evaluate each one of them carefully.  Ask yourself if a client needs a real server, firewall or backup solution along with offsite or online backup.  Does the prospect need enhanced security, power protection or virus control?  And lastly, does the client need a professional to fulfill sophisticated needs such as network support and LAN-WAN support? 

The best clients will not be able to get away with using volunteers to handle their IT consulting needs or a moonlighter.  The larger a company gets, the more revenue and general productivity is at risk if systems go down.  As a computer consulting professional you will be critical to the quality sweet spot clients. 

Who Pays for Computer Consulting Support?

Small businesses with a budget capable of allowing $1,000 or $2,000 per month for IT support are your ideal candidates for long-term clients.  In return for this amount of money, you can expect to be on-site a couple half days each month and be available for emergencies and some remote support.  You will become an outsourced go-to person for all their IT needs.

Computer Consulting:  What is a Sweet Spot Client?

A sweet spot client will need to, first and foremost have more than a P2P network.  Sweet spot computer consulting clients need to be big enough so that when there is downtime, the result is painful and expensive.  These types of clients will be ready and excited about using your services as a computer consulting professional. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

Computer business SGI recently stated it will be returning to the market.  A judge signed off on the company’s plan for reorganization which will allow it to rise from bankruptcy protection status as early as October.

The re-envisioned SGI computer business will sport just 1,600 staff, a smaller structure than previously.  The computer business will also appoint a new board of directors to assist the CEO Dennis McKenna.  SGI is expecting to see profit in the coming fiscal year.

A former leader in visualization, SGI is still up against many issues, according to analysts.  It will have to push its Itanium server, a task made slightly easier by Intel’s recent dual-core Itanic processor.  SGI will also have to develop a new line of Xeon-based servers.   Previously, SGI only produced Xeon technology and will continue to sell these products above others, trying to broaden its scope to get more mainstream clients interested beyond its usual engineering and computing beginnings.

Experts are concerned that if the computer business ignores Opteron, it will limit its ability to grow and change.  Rival AMD has already gathered a group of component partners that will help it make accelerators and networking gear based on Opteron-based motherboards.  These advances from other computer business moguls could draw business away from SGI.  

Other competitors, including HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Dell have tapped into Opteron’s benefits.  Still, some are optimistic that computer business SGI will rise to the challenge and compete.  Major investors Morgan Stanley and GE Capital have contributed $115 million to help SGI survive the start-up period.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

If you are a business in today’s economy, chances are you will need to services of a good computer consulting firm.  But before you hire the first person you can find, there are some specific questions you can ask to get you the right results.

The process of hiring a computer consulting firm can be difficult if you are a small business owner, particularly when you are not completely savvy or used to analyzing this type of service.  To avoid potential problems, think about finding out the following information about a computer consulting company before you hire them.  The help of a good attorney will also help you navigate through the complicated waters.

Part-Time or Full-Time?

Find out if the computer consulting professional has a day job or if he/she is moonlighting as a consultant.

Solo or True Computer Consulting Business?

If the representative keeps referring to “we” you should find out the nature of the other employees of the computer consulting company.  Are they employees or contractors?  What are their names and backgrounds?  How long have they been with the company, and will they be involved in your account?  

Small Business or Large Company Computer Consulting Firm?

What is the size of the firm’s typical client:  number of PCs, employees and annual revenue?

Generalist or Specialist?

What industries has the computer consulting firm worked with, and in what software applications and vertical markets?  What kinds of products and services does the firm feel comfortable handling, and does the company work with certain hardware, software or service vendors?

These basic question categories will help you get through the first part of the interview process when looking for a computer consulting firm to fit your business.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

Solution providers are excited about recent news that Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) will be coming out with the speediest desktop storage device for Macs to date.  The bundled package will be shipped with a new PCI Express-to-SATA RAID controller, a desktop storage chassis with four bays for SATA hard drives, a high-bandwidth SATA cable designed for Mac computers and a collection of storage management software, according to Scott Cleland, director of marketing at the vendor.

Even though Apple presents users with Xserve RAID array and other vendors also offer some USB, FireWire and eSATA products for Apple solution providers, Apple products have not had many options for high-end storage.  Solution providers hope this will be their opportunity to have true hardware RAID solutions.

The 3ware Sidecar SATA II RAID product allows users to write RAID 5 at more than 150 MBps for Power Mac G5 systems and also allows for read speeds reaching above 200 MBps.  This product is based on AMCC’s hardware RAID technology, which came from the company’s acquisition of 3ware in the first part of 2004 to add to a list of resources for the company for solution providers.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit