How Much Does the "Right" I.T. Infrastructure Cost?
Doing things "right" often means spending some money. Some spent up front and some spent to maintain it. But picking the right mix for your situation may be a tangible boost to your bottom line instead of just another expense.
There are an endless number of ways you can invest in improving your business and computer and network upgrades are probably high on your list. But like many other things, it's easy to let things slide. As they say, 'if it's not broken, why fix it?'
This may work for some areas of your business, but it's not really a good idea for your computers. For example, here are two straight forward reasons why optimizing or upgrading your computer network today would be essential:
1) Your business involves keeping customer information or other very valuable data and you would be a significant disaster if it was ever lost, stolen or corrupted.
2) The combination of computer repairs and lost productivity due to down time is costing you more than the price of making your system ultra-reliable.
Talking to an I.T. specialist...sooner is smarter!!
How do you know what needs replacing, what needs a tweak or what is just fine? How do you determine if an investment in infrastructure today can save you from a catastrophe tomorrow? Of course, that's where a professional I.T. Solutions Company can come in very handy. Because every business is going to have different needs, there is no cookie cutter solution. To give you a little perspective of the value of at least talking to an I.T. specialist sooner rather than later, here are several examples drawn from our client experience that you might find interesting.
Invest in security now...or pay for not doing it later!
One of our clients had a decision to make. Invest in data security now, or keep their fingers crossed. Their business involves doing medicinal studies on behalf of major pharmaceutical companies. A critical part of the process involves collecting data on patients who have volunteered to try the medication in question. The firm has approximately ten staff plus several consulting physicians. Business growth has been quite strong and staff count is expected to double over the next two years.
It was clear that data security was of paramount importance to this firm as losing data or compromising confidentiality could effectively ruin their business. We recommended they invest $20,000 for new hardware and consulting services to configure the new system to the latest standards. The upgraded system has proven secure, and provided added value in the form of gains in productivity and reduced maintenance cost. They agreed, better to invest now, than pay for not doing it later!
By thinking ahead, the advantages add up
A twenty-person accounting firm thought they would save by purchasing off-lease used computers. While they initially saved about $200 per unit compared to new ones, guess what, over the course of one year, repair costs exceeded $15,000 plus parts. Down time was noted as being "frequent", causing much frustration and lost opportunity for otherwise billable time. Further, as they went for a 'do-it-yourself' set up, security and back-up of their system was not properly implemented. Luckily, no sensitive information was compromised, but there were several close calls. To add to the frustration, the senior partners wanted secure remote access of their system, but could not do so.
We quickly assessed their situation, and recommended a $10,000 one-time investment in order to bring their I.T. infrastructure up to the latest standards. Now, ongoing preventative maintenance costs are less than $500 per month on average as compared to the $1300 plus they were paying previously. Time lost due to "computer problems" is now essentially nil. Security and backup are now completely appropriate for the type of sensitive data that is kept. Data security based on job-role has been set up to provide permission to update, read-only or block access to client files. A secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) has been installed so that secure access to the system is available from off-site locations.
The cost-justification of this strategy is clear. The security improvements are important in terms of keeping client records secure, which in the former situation would probably have been an embarrassment if anyone had insisted on reviewing it. By thinking ahead and investing wisely, the advantages really added up for this firm.
Being down for a week is a disaster
In this case, a thirty-person company that installs and services business phone systems called us after they had been attacked by a "Trojan horse" program, a result of someone on staff visiting an apparently legitimate web site. The Trojan obliterated the customer service system, which had been running flawlessly for nearly three years. The company was essentially dead-in-the-water and unable to fulfill its contractual obligations to its customers. Three days had passed and their existing technical support service was unable to resurrect the system.
We were called in and our technical team successfully revived the system, even after Microsoft engineers insisted the system was not recoverable and should be "flat lined". That is, totally erased and reloaded with a fresh installation of the operating system and application software. However, if we had done so, the lost customer service information would not have been recovered, which was for this client, far more valuable and important than the equipment.
The customer information database was eventually saved. Our fee for doing the work was substantial due to the length of time involved; however, not really that expensive when measured against the cost of being basically out of business for nearly a week. The lost revenue and spent overhead are easy to estimate, but the impact on customer relations moving into the future has yet to be seen. At the time of this writing, this company is considering our proposal to set up their system so that a similar disaster is far less likely and more importantly recovery, in such an event, will be virtually painless. Interestingly, the proposed cost is less than our repair bill. Being down for a week is a disaster. Being prepared for one can keep you up and running.
Is your business keeping ahead?
These examples demonstrate that even the most astute of businesses may have problems that they know about or may have potential problems that they may not be aware of. Every business is different, so the right solution will always have to be tailored to your precise needs. However, there is no question, to keep your business up and running and keeping ahead of the competition, the Boy Scouts motto is one to keep in mind: 'Be Prepared!'
We would be pleased to come in and look at your business infrastructure and review your situation. All may be well. However, if not, we can recommend a solution that will fit perfectly with your business. |