Computer Consultants Secrets ™

According to experts, when businesses work with IT consulting professionals to create a comprehensive approach – with HR and IT working together — to identity management, they will be able to decrease their risk and also save money.

A lot, if not most companies have a really complicated and haphazard way of handling ID management when it comes to working with those in IT consulting.  They create many passwords and a huge administrative job for their IT departments – outsourced OR in house.

According to Oracle UK’s security head Daniel Roberts, an average organization has tens or hundreds of systems, each with its own ID management system including passwords and other elements.  This fact causes a lot of confusion and a lot of money to be spent.  Roberts said that because of employee turnover in many cases, data access rights become muddled.  Often, without HR departments and IT consulting professionals working together to keep information streamlined and ever-updated, a lot of employees moving between departments or coming and going are allowed to keep access rights and look unauthorized at a lot of data.  This opens up firms to internal fraud and going against compliance rules.

A centralized ID management tool can and should be used to automate access rights and make sure they are immediately updated as soon as someone changes departments or leaves a company entirely. HR has to work with IT consulting professionals because it has information on employee changes.  The process of integrating the work IT consulting does with the work HR does and creating a real process for ID management is critical in order to reduce risk and maximize the budget dollars of a company.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Speaking engagements can be an excellent help with your IT marketing campaigns geared towards prospects.

Speak at Meetings for Other Groups

When you speak at others’ meetings, you get a captive audience.  They are going to a chamber of commerce breakfast or a Rotary meeting already, and someone they know and trust has convinced them to show up.

Design a Speech that Will Reach Your Audience

You want to be sure you talk about a general topic that will appeal to business owners.  Don’t use a lot of acronyms with IT marketing and keep it really low-tech.  The business organizations should also be focused on those that would be in the sweet spot.  You can find this information out by talking to the executive director or manager of the organization when doing your research.  

Free Seminars and IT Marketing

You can also spread the word about your business and name by doing a free seminar.  Talk about protecting computer systems from viruses, security breaches and blackouts or something else relevant.

The hardest part about running seminars as part of an IT marketing campaign is carrying them out.  You need someone in your store that can deliver the seminar well, and you should ideally split up the duties between more than one person to keep it interesting for attendees.  Don’t let it go beyond 45 minutes.   

IT Marketing Techniques that Will Get People in the Seats

To generate demand and get RSVPs for your free seminars and events, do a direct mail piece to a targeted list.  An effective and inexpensive way to do this type of mailing as an IT marketing campaign is to combine your seminar with a chamber of commerce mailing and put a flyer in with the newsletter.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Solution provider Forsythe Solutions Group announced a few weeks ago it had acquired Information Security Technology (IST) in order to increase its international presence.

IST will improve the solution provider’s visibility in Minneapolis/St. Paul and in Ohio in the security markets.  IST also has offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia.  

According to company leaders, the solution provider Forsythe has been thinking about international expansion for several years.  They are now more seriously considering an expansion to other countries as part of their growth plan.  The solution provider will accomplish this both through natural growth and by making further acquisitions.  IST joins the ranks of two other companies recently acquired by Forsythe in the securities market.  The other two companies acquired were National Business Group of Atlanta and Telenisus in Chicago.

CRN reported last year that as VARs continue to try to increase their channel expertise, they are acquiring more solution providers.  Forsythe also focuses on storage, servers, networking and security.  However, security has started to become very important.

IST will be called “IST, a Forsythe company” until it is fully absorbed by the solution provider in the next couple months.   

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

When you work in IT consulting, you have the option of offering a lot of different services to many different sizes of companies.  How can you fulfill the needs of large small businesses?

The key is to pick two or three of the networking skill sets you use with the sweet spot.  You could pick advanced virus protection, firewall intrusion detection, VPN and routers. If you decide you will focus on security and border access, that would be your specialty and the only thing you would do. 

Large Small Businesses Require Extreme Specializing

With IT consulting for large small businesses, you would have to get a really deep specialty by product platform.  These types of companies typically have a real IT manager on payroll 40 hours per week that will do general tasks in house.

Would IT Staff Need You?

Companies typically put someone on payroll to do IT when they are paying a lot of outsourcing expenses.  Once they have this person on staff, he/she will be expected to keep outsourcing expenses down until a specialized task arises.  As a deep niche IT consulting specialist, these specialized tasks would be your opportunities.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

At its Partner Engage conference this past week in San Diego, Symantec announced a new program for solution providers.  The “SMB Specialization for Partners” program offer s solution providers working with small businesses the opportunity to get new benefits.  

Solution providers registered for the silver level in Symantec’s partner program just need to take on-line training courses in five areas and pass corresponding tests.  Three areas are mandatory:  Symantec Backup Exec 11d; Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0 and Symantec Enterprise Protection 11.0.  Solution providers can then choose two additional areas from a larger list.  The training provided is all free of charge.  

After completion of five specialty areas, solution providers gain a listing in Symantec’s on-line partner locator along with an SMB Specialist certificate, two free tech support incidents in a year, free not-for-resale items in their area of specialization, a mid-market account manager, sales help and other promotions.  

Symantec spokespeople say they have created this program to make moving up within the program easier for solution providers.  According to Randy Cochran, vice president of channel sales at Symantec, the program is a combination of current products and programs.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

When you do a direct mail campaign as part of IT marketing, you need to have a clear idea of your target audience so you can create a relevant and powerful message.

The concept of IT marketing can be very overwhelming for those new to the IT world.  There are as many as 30 different IT marketing activities that you can do at once.  You should pick the four or five that sound best to you and work on them a little bit at a time.  You should, however be doing several IT marketing things at once.

IT Marketing Ideas

You may choose outbound telemarketing, postcard mailings or direct mail letters.  You might also be going to trade shows, expos or industry events.  You can also hold a seminar.  The key is to track and measure everything you do.  

It’s All about Diversity

Get involved in many different areas, figure out how to measure and track your activities and keep going.  You should know how much time and money you’re investing in each IT marketing category.  What leads are you getting?  What is working?  You of course will want to do more of the IT marketing strategies that work and less of those that don’t.

Evaluate IT Marketing Strategies Each Quarter

You should stick to any IT marketing activities you choose for at least two or three months to get a good idea of how well it works.  Stay with marketing ideas that work and then add new ones to the mix as you move forward.  IT marketing is ongoing – a process of refining over time.

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT consulting firm specializing in risk management and business advisory Accume Partners declared that it had named a new CEO, James B. McGuire on September 6.  The new CEO will replace John White, founding CEO of the IT consulting firm.

McGuire became a part of the Accume team last September as President and COO.  His previous responsibility was to manage daily activities.  His new position will see him serving on the Board of Directors and responsible for all operations of the company.  Other key members of the IT consulting firm see McGuire as an excellent leader that challenges members of the firm to go in new and exciting directions.  McGuire himself stated he hopes to work on new strategic directions for the company.  

Most of McGuire’s career has been with KPMG.  In 1997, he became CEO and Vice Chairman of the KPMG IT consulting arm and was the first CEO of KPMG’s Global Consulting firm.  Under his leadership, the firm achieved never-before-seen levels of success and growth and in 2003 eventually converted its brand to BearingPoint.

McGuire was also selected as one of the Top Ten Most Influential Consultants in 1998 and one of the Top 100 Accountants in 2004.  He is, to date the only person selected as top by both professions.

IT consulting firm Accume Partners is based in the New York City area and helps identify and control risks and also help better operating performance and improve the use of IT resources in businesses.  For more information on this story, please visit the attached link.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

With notebook PCs in particular you should advise clients to buy the highest level of extended warranty coverage.  Hard drive failure is less of a concern than the cost of replacing a broken LCD screen.

What Do Replacements Cost?

Notebook PC LCD screens are different depending on each particular computer.  If your client needs to replace a monitor out of warranty for a regular desktop computer, typically there would be no problem, and he/she could do so for about $200 or $300.  However, with a notebook PC LCD screen, your clients will probably not find the parts in stock locally.  And the LCD screen and all assembly could cost about $1,000 or more.

What Questions Should You Ask?

As a responsible consultant, you should ask questions before recommending options:

1.     Are the notebook PCs your major clients own typically used more in the office or in the field?

2.     Can you get a copy of the notebook PC system warranty?

3.     How is the notebook PC warranty different from the desktop PC warranty?

4.    Are there restrictions on the warranty specifically for the hard drive or LCD?

5.    How long does warranty coverage apply?

6.    Is your PC vendor responsible for the extended warranty coverage?

7.    What happens if the warranty coverage is handled under a third-party vendor and the vendor goes out of business?

The Main Idea about Notebook PCs

Because hard drive and LCD screen failures are common with notebook PCs, your clients will do the best if they buy an extended service plan.  This will also be why extended warranties on notebook PCs cost a lot more than the same types of warranties on desktop PCs.  

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

A few Symantec solution providers have recently been complaining about treatment received by the company compared to treatment received by major account resellers and plan to voice complaints with Symantec’s executives. 

According to solution providers, the worst part of the program is Symantec’s deal registration system that does not shield them from overly competitive pricing.  The partners claim that the security and storage vendor’s deal registration program gives them six months to close a registered deal.  When the six-month period ends, the deal becomes a free-for-all again.  To top it off, at this point the solution provider cannot renew the deal.   

Solution providers say that six months is not an adequate sales cycle.  Without opportunity registration, the deal can be taken by someone with a lower bid.  All the other solution providers have to do to “steal” the deal is come to Symantec to get the pricing then bid a few points lower and win.

Some solution providers are reporting that they have had no problem with this policy by Symantec.  They claim that if the work is done, there is no issue with renewing a contract.  Julie Parrish, the vice president of global channel sales and strategy at Symantec claims that the six-month rule for solution providers only applies to a limited number of deals, and that when the term expires, there is a re-registration opportunity.

Other representatives from Symantec reiterate that partners can re-register deals that have expired as long as they have had acceptable activity with the relationship.

For more information on this developing story for solution providers, visit the attached link. 

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg