By: James Christopher, Chief Operating Officer

This is our fourth post in our Growth Series for SMBs. A series of blog posts dedicated to providing our readers with information and ideas on the topic of growth for small to medium sized businesses. This posts focuses on the importance of establishing a core technical foundation for your business.

Growth Without Focus – A Recipe for Failure?

Growing businesses, especially fast growing ones, often find it challenging to maintain a focus on their core competencies. Sometimes, the erosion in focus results from an organization’s relentless pursuit of growth regardless of whether that growth is related to its core mission or not.

This often happens when a company is seeking to grow via mergers and acquisitions and ends up with a portfolio of businesses that have very little to do with its core competency.

Sometimes the lack of focus can creep in when an organization pursues multiple revenue streams that are at best, only loosely affiliated with its core mission.

It May Just Be a Lack of Resources

For a majority of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) though, the challenge often stems quite simply from the rigors of having to compete with limited resources.

Unlike large enterprises, most SMBs are often resource-constrained and can quickly find themselves getting stretched thin in trying to meet their revenue and profitability goals.

The daily struggle to meet operational and customer support obligations can sometimes become all-consuming for SMBs and leave them with little resources to focus on, or leverage their core competencies.

The Answer Could be Automation

One way of alleviating the situation is through business process automation. In theory at least, the strategic application of technology in areas such as manufacturing, procurement, transportation, customer support and accounting, allows companies to free up the resources they need to focus on their core competencies.

Importantly, such automation can also yield significantly better utilization of existing resources. The experience of large companies has shown conclusively that process automation if done right, can yield significant productivity benefits and allow companies to leverage their core abilities in a far better fashion than manual processes allow.

Challenges Facing SMBs to Automate

The challenge for SMBs of course is to find a way to implement automation without being overwhelmed by the effort. Too often, companies that have embarked on major technology projects have gotten bogged down by cost and complexity issues.

Instead of allowing companies to focus on core competencies, such projects ironically have ended up only distracting companies from their mission. The industry is littered with examples of such failed projects, especially from the time when large companies were first rolling out Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software within their environments.

Some Ideas On Where To Start

The lesson for SMBs is that technology can be a powerful enabler of productivity. Technology can allow companies to leverage their core competencies, but only if they know how to manage it.

The companies that have been most successful at harnessing technology have been the ones that have figured out precisely what processes and operations they need to manage in-house and what needs to be outsourced.

History has shown that a strategic and well-managed outsourcing process can yield fundamental business improvements while allowing a company to leverage its core abilities. It’s a model that SMBs could take advantage of.

We’re here to help. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to explore ways where you can use technology to help your business grow.

By: James Christopher, Chief Operating Officer

This is our third post in our Growth Series for SMBs. A series of blog posts dedicated to providing our readers with information and ideas on the topic of growth for small to medium sized businesses. This posts focuses on the importance of establishing a core technical foundation for your business.

Reflection on the Recession

The uncertainties caused by the recent recessionary economy are forcing companies to apply more rigor to their financial and revenue planning processes. This is especially true in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) segment where a growing number of companies are beginning to realize the importance of formulating formal revenue and budgetary goals, and then executing against them.

A Move Away From Spreadsheets and Manual Processes

The trend is resulting in an overhaul of the informal accounting and revenue planning practices that have traditionally existed at many SMBs, according to Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consultancy. Increasingly, SMBs are discovering that spreadsheets and manual accounting processes are simply not enough for the planning and forecasting needed to compete and grow in today’s business environment, says Aberdeen.

As a result, more SMBs are adopting technology tools to help formulate and execute financial plans. Large companies have already demonstrated how Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can streamline financial accounting, business planning, reporting and auditing processes. A growing number of SMBs are hoping to emulate that same success through the strategic implementation of financial productivity and resource planning tools within their businesses. This is why Jump I.T. is offering a complimentary business assessment. To help you better plan to use technology to help your business be successful.

If Done Right, It Will Help Your Business Be More Efficient

Deployed correctly, such technology can help SMBs improve processes involving inventory management, sales, purchasing, invoicing and receiving. Similarly, by automating functions such as General Ledger, Reconciliation, Receivables and Financial Reporting, companies will be able to monitor and track their financial performance more efficiently than manual processes allow. For example:

• Automation can allow financial planners to quickly check if expenses are within budgetary limits and to make any needed adjustments.
• Financial accounting and planning tools can allow companies to more quickly identify and eliminate process and cost inefficiencies in the system.
• Importantly, they also enable better revenue forecasting and decision support capabilities.

Consider Compliance, the HST and New Accounting Standards

Such efficiency benefits are not the only reasons why SMBs should consider automating their financial and accounting processes. Another factor driving need for greater automation of fiscal processes is regulatory compliance.

Today, many SMBs and large enterprises are and will be faced with strict guidelines governing their accounting and fiscal practices including:

• Mandates such as the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLB) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) have forced companies to pay greater attention to their bookkeeping and auditing practices.
• The Harmonized Sales Tax
• The change from GAAP to IFRS account practices by January 2011 for Public Companies

Old-school methods that rely on manual processes have proved to be inadequate in meeting the compliance challenge especially when it comes to a company being able to prove that it has implemented all the needed requirements.

No Longer for the Big Companies

Enabling such functionality can be tricky. But fortunately for SMBs, the availability of cost effective solutions, both on-site and hosted have made implementing financial productivity technologies a reality. Numerous off-the-shelf packages are available these days that can help SMBs quickly enable a lot of the needed functionality.

Companies that are unwilling or unable to do this on their own can take advantage of assessment services, like our complimentary business assessment, numerous managed and hosted services that deliver the needed functionality in a cost-effective manner. According to Aberdeen, companies that have started making investments in these areas need to ensure that they stay the course. Contact us if you’re interested in our complimentary assessment.

By: James Christopher, Chief Operating Officer

This is our second post in our Growth Series for SMBs. A series of blog posts dedicated to providing our readers with information and ideas on the topic of growth for small to medium sized businesses. This posts focuses on the importance of establishing a core technical foundation for your business.

Why SMBs Need a Core Technical Foundation

Small and medium businesses need to be agile and flexible in order to compete in today’s fast changing and increasingly globalized business environment. Traditional manufacturing, sourcing, marketing and distribution models are all being upended by trends such as outsourcing, e-commerce, just-in-time distribution and lean manufacturing.

SMBs that are most likely to succeed and grow in today’s environment are those that are not only able to respond to these changes but are able to take advantage of them. Having a strong and strategically planned technology foundation is fundamental to achieving this goal.

Investment in I.T is Just as Important

Many SMBs tend to wrongly assume that the limited size and scale of their operation doesn’t justify proper investments in information and communications technology. It is common to find SMBs viewing technology as little more than a cost of doing business, rather than as a critical enabler of increased revenues and new business opportunities.

According to a report by Framingham, Mass.-based research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), often when SMBs make technology investments, they tend to spend tactically, and on point products, such as adding or upgrading PCs or on boosting network security components.

Few are interested in making strategic, long-term infrastructure investments such as those aimed at boosting network, communications and storage capabilities. That could be a mistake.

Do You Have a Vision?

Small and medium enterprises that have a strategic vision and a plan for fulfilling it can benefit tremendously from technology adoption. The experience of large enterprises over the last few decades has conclusively proven that well-planned technology investments can result in improved business efficiencies and productivity in areas such as manufacturing, finance, communications, distribution and logistics management.

New Trends are Making it Easier and Providing More Options

Emerging trends such as cloud computing, virtualization and software as a service (SaaS) are also making it more economical than ever for SMBs to harness information technologies to grow their business. Meanwhile, the ubiquity of the Internet, and the growing use of social media tools are allowing SMBs to reach out to new customers, improve support services and tap new business opportunities at far lower cost than possible previously.

SMBs are Getting the Message

A study released this April by CompTIA, a global IT trade body, reveals that a growing number of SMBs may finally be getting the message. After a lull in technology spending over the last few years, a vast majority of U.S. based small businesses are looking for products and services that can help them reduce operational costs and boost efficiencies.

We think this is the case in Canada as well. In fact, we worked with a local company in helping them upgrade their technology foundation which yielded some significant bottom line and productivity results.

According to CompTIA, 71% of those surveyed said they would be willing to pay a premium for technologies with a proven ROI, including virtualization, mobile applications and unified communications as well as managed services.

Keys to Success

In order to build a solid technology foundation though, SMBs need to first have a thorough understanding of their strategic goals, the technology components that are needed to build that foundation and the ability to implement and manage it.

According to a Microsoft analysis of technology adoption by SMBs, often many companies get overwhelmed by costs and complexity because of a failure to truly appreciate what’s involved in building out a solid technology foundation. For example, SMBs sometimes tend to focus too much on price and end up procuring technology that is inadequate for their purposes. They often have a less than perfect understanding of their needs or the gaps that might exist in their existing technology portfolio. There are ways to tackle this problem ahead of time though by assessing your business and needs ahead of time.

Importantly, according to Microsoft, many tend to also assume that they can absorb and manage large technology investments all by themselves. Often, SMBs tend to overlook basic issues such as the need to constantly maintain and upgrade their hardware and software or to have adequate security tools for protecting their data assets.

Such issues can, and often do result in failed technology projects and unnecessary cost. Importantly, such issues can also divert the attention of a company away from its core competency and erode any benefit that a technology foundation might have otherwise provided. This is why Jump I.T. is offering a complimentary business assessment. To help you better plan to use technology to help your business be successful.

We hope you get value from this blog series and welcome your comments. Contact us if you’re interested in our complimentary assessment.

By: James Christopher, Chief Operating Officer

At Jump I.T. we’re dedicating a series of blog posts to the topic of growth for small to medium sized businesses/enterprises (referred to as SMBs or SMEs). The goal is to provide you with information, insights and ideas on business growth, technology and programs that can potentially enable growth.

Jump I.T. hosts new solution.

Jump I.T. is proud to introduce VM6 Virtualization offerings to our customers.

VM6 provides enterprise-class virtualization to remote locations and SMB without the complexity or cost of traditional solutions. Designed for remote office and small to medium business budgets and capabilities, VM6 VMex harnesses the power of virtualization to provide server consolidation, management, shared storage and high availability without the need for costly consultants, professional services, training or specialized skill sets other than the MSCEs our customers already have on staff or that Jump I.T. can provide.

Click here to learn more about VM6! Or contact us to have a conversation about how Jump I.T. and VM6 can drive efficiency for your business.

Jump I.T. has released a new hosted email service as part of it’s managed services offering. Get Five in One. In the Office. On the Road. At Home.
As the ONLY Partner in Canada that offers a Hosted Kerio Mail Server solution, we are ready to help our customers manage their communication needs.
Our hosted solution offers:

• Cross-platform Collaboration
• Wireless mobile Synchronization
• Robust email Security
• Simplified Administration
• Automated Backup
• Access from the desktop, the web or mobile device.

For more information, here is the datasheet.

The New York Jets and New Orleans Saints are taking advantage of next generation virtualization technology to manage their organizations. The video case study below high lights some of the key benefits the Jet’s experienced in deploying a “data center in a box”.

Key take-a-ways:

• Small footprint that you can plug into a wall (yes a 110 volt outlet)
• Portability of the data center was important during construction. They could move the DC during construction.
• Being able to allocate 12TB of storage in any way they need/want was important. Great for small business
• They have offsite backup and replication capabilities
• Simple set up and configuration
• IBM Bladecenter S is quiet as compared to competitive alternatives. Important if you want a portable and mobile data center
• Solution was able to consolidate servers and make IT operations more efficient

Visit our Virtualization microsite for more videos, posts and reports.

Thanks to all or you that attended, to our presenters and sponsors of the 2009 Jump I.T Conference. One of the things we learned this year was to have someone dedicated to taking pictures. We should have taken more photos of the speakers, Simon Rakoff (our MC) and Curt Skene our Keynote presenter. But, here’s the pictures that were taken along with some small video clips from the day.

Photo Album

A video montage of the day

Post Presentation Discussion with Frank Morassutti, IBM

In these two videos Frank gives some reasons why businesses are considering virtualization and IBM’s Data Centre in a Box.

Post Presentation Discussion with Rod Scotland, Cisco

Rod talks a bit about what communications means today and whether Small to Midsize companies can take advantage of newer communications technologies.

MISSISSAUGA, ON – July 1, 2009 – Computer Systems Centre (CSC) today officially launched Jump I.T., a new professional services group dedicated to helping companies leverage and adopt new technology. For twenty seven years CSC has been selling and supporting technology products through their store, online and to corporate customers. The Jump I.T. professional services group provides added value to CSC customers by offering consulting, sourcing and managed services.

Key facts/highlights

• Jump I.T. will leverage the buying power and supplier relationship already in place with Computer Systems Centre. Jump I.T. will also leverage CSC’s services depot for break/fix and warranty services. The service depot has completed over 100,000 support calls since 1982.
• The professional services team consists of existing and new systems engineers, technical support/I.T. procurement specialists, consultants and corporate account managers. This team has over 125 years of cumulative experience in I.T.
• Jump I.T. believes that business and I.T. leaders need a newer type of service relationship with resellers/systems integrators. One that encourages conversation and allows collaboration with customers to help solve problems. It should be more about helping the customer and less about selling them something.
• Jump I.T.’s new corporate headquarters is located in Mississauga, Ontario near Square One Shopping Centre. This is Jump I.T.’s home base for service, sales, marketing and senior management teams. The facility includes a lab/staging area, seminar/training facility and shipping/receiving depot.
• Existing CSC corporate customers will benefit from the new services and solutions while without there being any disruption to existing ordering preferences and processes.
• Business and I.T. leaders are invited to attend Jump I.T.’s inaugural conference September 24th at the Ontario Science Centre.

Solutions and Services offering, capabilities and experience

• Key solution areas include: information/infrastructure management, communications, business protection and digital media. Jump I.T. will provide integrated solutions that transcend across these key areas.
• Key service areas include: sourcing, consulting and managed services.
• Key partners include: Apple, Cisco, IBM, Kerio, Lenovo, Microsoft, Xerox and Xinet.
• Systems engineers are experienced in design, deployment and support of mixed Mac/PC environments; systems and storage and secure communications systems.
• Industry experience includes: retail, publishing, advertising, manufacturing, non-profit, consumer products, financial services, tourism and media.

Supporting Quote(s):

“Jump I.T. is a significant but necessary investment for us,” said Dan Schneeweiss, CEO. “Our roots are in reselling and supporting technology products for consumers and businesses. Our corporate customer base has grown out of our retail business and it has reached a point where a dedicated team, brand and formal set of solutions and services were needed.”

“Over the past four months we’ve been building up to our launch we’ve spent a lot of time listening to our customers,” said Joe Schneeweiss, President. “We wanted to find out what they liked about doing business with CSC and what they thought about Jump I.T. as being our next service evolution. They provided us with invaluable insight about what mattered to them. These conversations have shaped our approach and what Jump I.T. is all about. We’re grateful for their contribution.”

Supporting Resources

• Jump I.T. Inaugural Conference: www.jumpit.ca/events
• Customer testimonials: www.jumpit.ca/clients
• About Jump I.T.: www.jumpit.ca/about
• Solutions: www.jumpit.ca/solutions
• Services: www.jumpit.ca/services
• News Release PDF version

Tags:
Jump I.T., Jump I.T. launch, Joe Schneeweiss, Dan Schneeweiss, Computer Systems Centre, CSC

About Jump I.T.
Jump I.T. helps Canadian businesses use technology to improve business performance today and plan for the future. Jump I.T. provides responsive service, quality answers and solutions that make sense for your company or department. For ongoing news visit: www.jumpit.ca/about/news

About Computer Systems Centre
In business since 1982, our multi-faceted operation serves retail customers and corporate clients, providing a range of services including sales, maintenance and repair, professional consulting, network audit and value assessment and network security services. Computer Systems Centre is an authorized reseller and service provider for Apple, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Toshiba and many more.

News Release PDF version

Press Contact:
Chris Herbert, MI6
(905) 582-3741
cherbert@mi6agency.com