Proactive IT Services Save Small and Medium Businesses Thousands of Dollars Yearly

Every dollar a small business spends needs to have an immediate and quantifiable return. This is especially true for critical services such as I.T. support. If you are one of the millions of small businesses that depend upon your technology to keep your business running, proactive Managed Services will save you money, improve your efficiencies and reduce your downtime.

The Solution

With the advent of new monitoring tools and the ability to remotely deliver help desk services to small businesses all over the world, Managed I.T. Service Providers have developed proactive maintenance plans for their clients that maximize their uptime and reduce I.T. costs over time. By implementing newly available automated processes, systems can be patched and updated overnight without the need for onsite visits, or disrupting an organization's work day. In addition, remote help desk tools and technology allow Managed I.T. Service Providers the ability to react immediately and assist users when they experience day-to-day problems, without forcing them to wait for an on-site service call. Forward-thinking Managed I.T. Service Providers are also implementing proactive remote Network Monitoring tools and services, which evaluate the performance of systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and alert these Service Providers of potential issues before they become work-stopping problems for their clients.

The Details

Implementing and receiving the benefit of these solutions is painless for the Small Business Owner, as Managed I.T. Service Providers can begin delivering these cost-saving and efficiency-improving services soon after deploying specialized software agents on all managed equipment. These agents report device health, service pack and operating system, anti-virus and anti-spyware update information back to the Managed I.T. Service Provider's monitoring systems, allowing real-time analysis and proactive management to occur.

Specialized software applications installed at the Managed I.T. Service Provider's location also track all problems reported by their monitoring systems and end-users, and are used to document all steps initiated for resolution. These applications provide a ready knowledge-base of information which grows over time, allowing swift resolution for issues that have been previously documented.

The Benefits

Benefits from Managed I.T. Services enjoyed by Small Business Owners are many, and include increased operational efficiency, the ability to reduce and control their operating costs and gain access to Enterprise-level support. In addition, these Small Business Owners are now able to focus on running their businesses, and not their networks, and receive the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge their networks are being monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Small And Medium Businesses Embrace Servers Running Linux

Although we are aware of Linux adoption by large enterprises, most people do not know that there are sizeable numbers of installations in small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well. This base is set to grow as server vendors lob tailor made Linux servers and applications at SMBs.Country manager, pSeries & Open power, IBM says, "Unlike large enterprises, SMBs do not have to face the challenge of migrating legacy applications. The popularity with SMBs has helped Linux grow at 30 percent globally".
The general consensus is that Linux did better in 2004 than anyone had predicted. Director Enterprise Marketing & alliances, Customers solution Group, HP India says, " As per IDC India, Linux in the server market grew by 48 percent in OND, 2004 over JAS, 2004, while the windows and Unix markets showed a modest 3 percent and 3.4 percent growth respectively during the same period." For any OS to succeed, applications need to be made available. SMBs can be major draw for Linux servers as it offers them lower TCO and tighter control on their IT spends. Since many SMBs already have home grown applications, a proprietary OS will be the single largest area of spending. It is here that Linux offers a big advantage. The availability of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel in Red hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell's SuSE 9 will give a big boost to vertical scalability. As SMBs become a part of the global supply chain, they want enterprise applications on Linux to keep their investment low. This trend will be a key enabler for the Linux server market worldwide.

Why Linux Based servers?

Cost is a factor and Linux offers better security as the source code of proprietary software is always kept a secret. With a community supporting it, any security hole in Linux is quickly found and patched. Linux not only lets an organization save on software costs, it also offers long term long term saving on hardware. Instead of being forced to upgrade software with Linux, an SMB can take control of its IT strategy. Chief technology officer of IDBI bank says, "You decide when you wish to upgrade, not the vendor, hence you get tighter control on your spending." This can be particularly important for users, such as SMBs that cannot afford to keep up with the pace of change in commercial software.

Business application and Linux

There is credit to Oracle for driving the Linux server market. During the early part of 2004, Oracle came up with a value offering. It offered pre- configured Oracle E-Business Suite special edition on Lintel Boxes for a 10 user License for $36,000USD. The traction of this offering was seen towards the end of 2004 when we closed a dozen deals that were in various stages of implementation, says General Manager, Oracle India. This is a testimony that SMBs are opting for Linux servers. SAP is following Oracle in making application available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Customized and certified

All server vendors including HP, IBM and SGI are throwing their weight behind Linux and each has a SMB specific business strategy with significant initiatives to lure them.

HP has announced that some of its high end computing tools from the HP-UX environment are ported onto Linux and made available to SMBs. This includes a clustering solution called HP service guard for high availability of applications and management tools such as Systems insight Manager(SIM) and open view that offer third party integration. Additionally HP is creating a reference architecture stack, including hardware, OS, database and Middleware. HP certifies a stack so that customers can feel more confident on deploying their core business application on Linux. Linux servers are popular in high performance computing(HPC) environments such as research labs. IBM has recently launched a new family of eserver Openpower systems based on its Power5 processor specially designed for Linux. The Power5 comes with a micropartitioning technology called Virtualisation Engine(VE) wherein each processor can be sliced into ten virtual partitions with each partition acting as a new server. IBM's eserver Openpower 710 is a single CPU processor with 3 HDDs and 512 MB memory with RAID level 1 and 5. This eserver offers SMBs an affordable alternative to higher priced entry level Unix or Linux system. Openpower offers a 64bit platform at a price point of a 32 bit offering. We believe that it is the right product for the mass market. Sun Microsystems has the Sun fire V20 and V40 severs based on the 64 bit AMD Opteron processor, which has been successful with SMBs. It also offers the Solaris 10 Opetron combination. Sun is aiming to position Solaris 10 as its trump card to take the fight to commercial Linux with support - email, phone and onsite - available at a small price. Advanced scientific research, elite foods, Sage Design systems, Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics, are Sun customers running there core application on Linux. Linux servers are used by SMBs for CAD analysis, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA(Finite Element Analysis). Linux systems are rugged as they come with SGI Propack over and above the standard Linux Kernel. This gives customers the ability to scale there computing environments with independent I/O, memory and power supply.

Banking on Support

Linux is getting traction and getting into commercial business applications in verticals such as manufacturing, small banking and hospitality. Availability of tally o Linux will result in a new chapter being inked in the Linux server market. Red hat has 950 ISV partners who develop applications that run on its Linux distributions. Linux offers secure and scalable solutions to meet SMB requirements. IBM has 35 to 40 pure Linux partners that offers consultancy and assist it in integrating and implementing services for its customers who are using Linux.

Small Business Management Tips

The management of SMEs requires appropriate training. Remember this with the management of the business activities of the implementation of the many schools and colleges around the United States formed. Entrepreneurship-the majority of the world Close analysis shows market ventures are small and medium-sized enterprises. Most of them have survived to require an understanding of management.

Sociological, psychological education management requires to capture, management and economic factors. Students are encouraged to have a wide range of faith, if they are to be set up to deal with the competition and are constantly changing, the companies are the development of the market. Very large enterprises paying jobs are only available for the use of the concept in mind, and if possible should be kaavittu in the business up. In any case, the future of the American economy is highly dependent on small and medium-sized enterprises. The Government has even gone out of the way to these projects.

Management training should be carried out on small enterprises, by reason of their scale or limit to the quality, skills they require, as well as technology and the necessary information. The core of the economy management shall be established in accordance with these rates. Studies show that many small businesses are driven off the company because of poor balance and presented to the migratory flows.

Other management skills that are taught in universities are part of the book-keeping and accounting, time management, staff management, which is also the key to the reading of these companies employed staff. Project management, retail management, data management, management, among other things, it should be pointed out.

Do Government Assistance Programs In Fact Assist Small Businesses?

Government budgets are relayed to various assistance programs whose purpose is to encourage economic activity in small businesses. It is often asked whether these programs do in fact fulfill their purpose or maybe these budgets are wasted?

A groundbreaking research jointly conducted by Ben-Gurion University and the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor elucidates this issue. Researchers Dr. Rami Schayek and Prof. Dov Dvir have developed an innovative model which measures the effect of government assistance programs on small businesses, identifies the most important components incorporated in the assistance program and determines which managerial, operational and behavioral activities should be focused in order to improve on business performance. The research included one hundred and thirty five small businesses which participated in the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor's Standard Coaching project. This project is one of several business coaching projects run by the ITL ministry and it is designed for small and medium businesses of five to one hundred employees. A business of five to ten employees is appointed up to one hundred coaching hours. A business of eleven to one hundred employees is appointed up to one hundred and fifty hours. The coaching project finances 75% of the cost of coaching. 25% are financed by the business.

Results indicate that there is a return on the tax payer's money!

Findings indicate that government assistance program involvement positively affects small business performance. The basic research model, which examined only the direct effect the assistance program has on small business performance, shows that the greater the number of quantitative components (hours of consultation; proximity of consultation encounters; range of issues incorporated into the consultation), and the higher the standard of qualitative components (level of the consultant's professional understanding of the respective subjects of consultation; level of organization and planning of the consultation process; level of trust, commitment and mutual understanding between consultant and small business owner), the higher will be the level of performance in the small business. When adding to the model an examination of indirect effects, assistance programs are shown to affect small business performance primarily through the consultant's influence on the small business owner which is expressed in the latter's motivation to take action, like as attention to the service provided after the sale, understanding the fluctuation in customer preferences and the small business's operative environment, and the need to measure and analyze customer satisfaction and respond to the customer's complaints regarding either the service or the product provided by the small business.

The consultant also affects the business owner with respect to the latter's ability to manipulate business opportunities through utilization of competitors' weaknesses and an understanding of the ways in which the small business as a whole may benefit the customer. Consultation raises the small business owner's level of awareness as to the need to innovate, take risks and increase the level of activity, both in implementing changes in the service or products he provides and as regards conduct in the face of competition. In fact, the consultation process motivates the small business owner to take actions which would raise the level of market orientation and entrepreneurship in the small business, and as a result initiate an increase in its level of performance.

How is it possible to win an even greater return?

The findings of Dr. Schayek's doctorate thesis supervised by Prof. Dov Dvir, facilitate recommendation on a number of issues which could intensify the effect of public assistance programs on performance in small businesses. Thus it is important that the consultant emphasize before the client that submitting reliable and comprehensive information to the consultant, as well as willingness on the part of the business owner to implement changes in accordance with decisions reached as a result of cooperation with the consultant, is paramount for the success of the assistance process and the improvement on performance in the small business. Based on the research model, the client constitutes an integral part of the assistance program. The more involved and active he becomes in the process of coaching, the greater will be the assistance program's positive effect on the small business' performance.

In addition, the research indicates that effort must be made on the part of the consultant in improving the client's capacity of raising finance. The client's capital raising capabilities which, according to the model constitute a parameter in the improvement of the level of performance, will improve if the client is given an explanation as to existing finance opportunities and is prepared as to the manner in which one should approach and present the small business' requirements before possible financing sources (such as banks or credit companies).