Some IT Pro Business Guidance Pearls

Here are some bits and pieces of business wisdom that I’ve gathered over the years. Much of my initial business formation came from my first employer out here Larry MacDonald while working for Logical Computer Company.

• Keep a business journal (for me it’s my blog, Twitter, and forum helps)
• Document everything (take pictures of everything with SmartPhone, use Snip in Windows ALL THE TIME)
• Create build documentation for everything
• We have builds for clusters, Exchange setups, Exchange migrations, SBS setups, SBS Migrations, More
• Be consistent (build documentation helps)
• Use Tasks in Outlook and on the phone to track everything
• Be disciplined in tracking, responding, and being present to clients
• Spend 10%-20% on R&D
• Spend 10%-15% on lunches, dinners, and such with others
• Put 10% away for a rainy day
• Get involved with user groups or start one
• Get a _good_ accountant and keep them

As far as recurring revenue:

• IMSNHO, blended is better than full MSP
• ~$60/User to $110/User for:
• Server OS patch, Server App patch, and Microsoft App patch/install management
• Desktop OS patch and Microsoft App patch management
• A/V Management along with e-mail sanitation (we use ExchangeDefender)
• Remote Server Monitoring and management included
• On-site not included
• Phone and e-mail support beyond 15 minutes not included
• Offer backup rotation with quarterly full bare metal or hypervisor restore
• $150-$250 per OS per month
• Need a dedicated box for this (Intel S1400FP4 with 96GB ECC, and RAID 6 across spindles or SSDs)

Services

• Non-contract break/fix:
• $250/Hr immediate response
• $200/Hr 4 hour response
• $175/Hr 24 hour response
• Contract on above
• 4 Hour response included
• Immediate response at 1.5 rate
• Time Blocks offered at discounted rates

*Response being an acknowledgement of the request/ticket.

There are a lot of benefits over time as far as financial stability but also client relationships become a lot more stable and long term with support contracts in place versus a break/fix model.

We soon discover the clients that value our IT services and those that don’t when we move into the above model. What business that runs a fleet does not have a crew of mechanics to maintain that fleet? Why is IT infrastructure any different?

A major plus is in the routines that we build up. Our schedule gets a lot more stable and predictable. While we are still at our client’s beck and call we now have an established set of boundaries as far as how, when, and where the help would be provided.

We can have a few more evenings a week pursuing other things and _not_ looking at screens! ;)

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Some Thoughts on Microsoft in the SMB Space

If one approaches this post from an emotional level, that is built on all of the angst, struggles, and pain born of the Cloud drums out of Microsoft, that is their message but also the many products and services cancellations, over these last three or so years then it would not be hard to go down a very not-so-happy path.

So many bridges between Microsoft and us IT Solution Providers that work on the front lines of the SMB IT space (by our definition SMB is 1-75 seats or so) have been burned or even out-right blown up.

Many of us have struggled with the angst over where we were going to take our business and what kind of business model we would have two, five, and even ten years down the road. After all, we are in it for the long-haul right?

Why We Do IT

This post is more a reflection of the SMB IT Provider that is in the business out of passion for the products and services we get to work with. But, most especially for the joy it brings us to have a set of very happy clients on the other end of our IT practices.

That is our greatest reward. That is clients whose businesses are in the business to make money and do so as efficiently as possible on their IT because of what we do for them.

For us, the reality has come home to roost that Microsoft is much less a partner today than a competitor.

Yes, we are still building our solutions on the Microsoft stack and will continue to do so. Our solutions absolutely rock utilizing the products we do. We will continue building solutions that our competitors, like Microsoft and other large IT Solutions providers, could hardly hope to develop for their clients.

Why?

Because we as small business IT Solutions Providers live, breath, and work in the SMB Trenches. We understand small business in a way that a Gartner Survey or any other such knowledge peddlers could never hope to. This is because we _are_ a small business.

We small businesses are _not_ consumers, pro-sumers, or any other such "consumer" of goods and services.

We _produce_ products and services for others to consume. Or, we develop and sell products and services for other businesses to utilize in their _production_ of goods and services (Business to Business).

Microsoft's Value in SMB

So, what value do we see in Microsoft in today's SMB IT marketplace?

• Products/Features
• Hyper-V
• Virtualization solutions have become affordable, both on VMware and Hyper-V, as a result of the competition between the two.
• All one needs to do is watch VMware's stock and current restructuring efforts to see the impact Hyper-V has had on their margins.
• Stack builds on a single box save our clients a lot on hardware, power consumption, cooling, and noise.
• Clusters are very affordable for our clients when truly commodity based hardware (Intel Server Systems) are utilized over Tier 1.
• Windows Server Essentials Experience Role
• Finally, the Remote Web Access portal, RD Gateway, and other SBS-Like goodies can be dropped into a Windows Server Standard server setup.
• Storage Spaces
• Still new, but with lots of potential to impact how we do things for our clients with larger data sets.
• Exchange
• Despite the poor start to the product at what was probably Early Preview bits branded as RTM, Exchange Server 2013 is an awesome product with great potential for on-premises mail and BYOD management.
• Partner Program
• Loss of the Small Business Specialist program.
• This is probably the "nail in the coffin" as far as the Cloud message to SMB IT Providers.
• Competency Program structures drive us to expand or further distance ourselves from the Partner Program
• Some of us are not comfortable with the idea of hiring on.
• Plus, there are any number of other reasons for us to remain where we are at for now.
• There are opportunities though. We just need the vision, time, and energy to pick them out and develop them.
• Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud (Monty Python-esque theme here :) )
• The drums are still beating.
• The message is becoming all the clearer: Folks in SMB do not require any outside IT help. You can do it all yourself!
• Cloud Essentials Program
• Better get on board and start playing around with the freebie credit for Azure as this is one spot where we can develop some business opportunities.
• TechNet
• Now, keep in mind that folks that are Open Licensed will continue on with their TechNet subscriptions that are a Software Assurance benefit.
• The loss of TechNet for lab use is most certainly of concern, but one has to wonder why it was terminated.
• IMNSHO, we are at a point where the passionate SMB IT Provider, and Microsoft, have received yet another black eye due to the unscrupulous folks that abuse the system.

We are of the opinion that the current wave of Microsoft products, with the exception of Office 2013, are probably some of the best that we've seen in years.

Yes, mousers cried foul over the loss of the Start Button in Windows 8. But keyboarders never missed it. :) And yeah, there is a bit of a training struggle for folks to understand that there are two "rooms" if you will in Windows 8.

Microsoft "Partner"

With all of the changes that we've seen in Microsoft over these last two to three years we really have to wonder where they are going to be in two, three, or even five years.

Sadly the reality that the desktop PC is not really going to disappear in a business setting does not seem to phase anyone in stratosphere management at large corporations like Microsoft. :(

To top it all off, IMNSHO, the server is _not_ going to disappear in the SMB space.  Nor will the need for on-premises mail.

However, with the advent of so many failed/bad Microsoft product updates lately on so many products, some bringing down Hyper-V Failover Clusters, one really has to wonder how far off the vision has gone from providing a rock solid on-premises product experience from RTM to retirement?

Hopefully the bad patching situation that has been happening lately is only temporary and Microsoft moves some development back into actually testing those updates before deploying them to the world.

After all, being in business is about the products and services right? It's about providing the best possible value to the end-customer/client isn't it?

Can folks _really trust_ a company to provide a great Cloud experience when it seems like the on-premises products and services may be on their death-beds? Why develop patches and _test_ them if there is no will to keep the on-premises products alive?

And that begs this question: Can we SMB IT Solution Providers trust a company that has not come right out and said it, but has essentially drummed the message all the more clearly in these last 12-18 months that the "end is nigh" for the SMB IT Solution Provider? SMB belongs in the Cloud after all. Right?

Be straight with us. Be clear with us. If we knew where we truly stood as a "Partner" of Microsoft we would be better able to make decisions about where we are and where we need to go in the new era of competition _with_ Microsoft.

Trust is based on honesty between the parties. The messages out of Microsoft have been so mixed, and sometimes outright confusing, these last few years that one is never sure where we stand anymore.

Most certainly we need to be very aware, and wary, of what is happening both within the companies that produce the products we utilize and then within the product groups themselves.

Business Opportunities

On the flip-side the current state of SMB IT can provide an awesome opportunity for us to advance our on-premises and hybrid solution sets and skillsets. While it may seem daunting at first, we can indeed continue to build our SMB IT practice and triumph despite the naysayer's constant messages!

And, perhaps in the midst of all of this we could end up growing our businesses into that Microsoft Partner Competency holder that would get noticed and direct Partner support (note the absence of the quotes).

In the end, we may not reach those competency levels and/or even get noticed.

But, we can go home at the end of the day, maybe work a bit in the evening for our clients, knowing full well that there is a great group of folks, our clients, on the receiving end of our products and services that are very happy with us and what we do.

And that my friends is why, for the most part, we can sleep well at night eh? ;)

Well, maybe most nights. We are, after all, small business owners so the occasional sleepless night is a prerequisite! :D

Thanks for reading.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Our Value to Our Clients is in Our Knowledge and Experience

(Posted to the SBS2K Yahoo Group)

When we look at SBS 2003 and the growth in product and features over its lifespan we have an idea of how the single box will perform.

SBS 2008 and Exchange 2007 we encountered an exponential growth in the need for disk I/O due to Exchange and RAM due to both Windows Server (Vista code) and Exchange.

Move to SBS 2010 and Exchange 2010 and if we were keeping an eye on the various product groups and their direction for the product we would have seen _before_ SBS 2011 STD ever RTMd that Exchange 2010 was designed to run on one SATA hard disk with everything in RAM. We would have then planned our deployments, both physical and then virtual as that became much more common, around the server products built-in.

The key to any single host design or cluster design is in what will be running on top of them. Obviously, but maybe not?

Here, our experience comes into play if we have been taking the SBS product and tearing it apart for the last ten years and three major product iterations. The inner-workings of SBS, Exchange, Active Directory, Group Policy, SharePoint, and so many other server feature sets were there for us to explore. Not only that, Microsoft gave us a really solid template to carry forward into our now stacked solution sets.

• VM0: AD, DNS, DHCP
• VM1: Exchange or LoB
• VM2: SQL or LoB
• VM3: RDS

Provisioning the above has not changed in a sense. We need to augment our host configuration for the extra 15GB of OS space per VM perhaps. But, for the most part our physical hardware will be similar in nature to what we would deploy for previous versions of SBS Standard _given the products running in the suite_.

The key in all of this is knowing how the various server products will behave given certain workloads.

SQL has an I/O tester. Exchange has a load tester called Jetstress. Those two utilities can help us understand what our small, medium, and large clients can expect for a given server topology. They can also help us to deliver a solution tailored to their specific needs.

Having a lab is key to getting to know the products and how to put them together.

Testing _every_ solution that goes out the door before actually setting up the client’s own solution set is also critical.

Knowledge is key to our value to our clients. Lose that and we’ve pretty much lost the game.

It takes lots of time. It can take a lot of money. But, in the end training and grinding away at configurations in a lab is key to our client’s success and to ours as well.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Channelpro SMB Magazine Cover and Article

Now, just who is that on the cover of Channelpro SMB Magazine eh? :D

Thanks to Stephanie Cragg Corporate for an awesome photo shoot and the fantastic pictures.

• Channelpro SMB Magazine June 2013

My article can be found on pages 30/31 in the online magazine and gives a good run-down of the history of our company, where I’ve been in our industry, and the principles involved in building our company.

Mainly, I believe the best part of our SMB focused IT is the amazing people we have the privilege to work with.

And going forward, I believe that will not change. Through all of the changes that are happening today in our industry the key in SMB will _always_ be the people that provide awesome solutions for their clients and most especially their _clients_ that recognize the value they receive in their IT.

Thanks for reading! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Small Business Owners Take Risks - Huge Life Changing Risks.

Note that this blog post comes just after hearing the news about our attempts to secure a mortgage for the last couple of weeks so it may be a bit pointed in nature. :)

***

We just spent the last week and a half to two weeks in limbo not knowing whether we had a home or not to go to at the end of September. We had sold our home in anticipation of purchasing one just outside of the city.

We accepted a bid from the buyer of our current home and the seller of the place we were looking at accepted ours.

Of course we had "Subject to Financing" in our bid contract. But, needless to say we, that is Monique and I, did not count on the amount of pain securing the mortgage for the place we bid on was going to cause us.

So, we had a possession date for our home at the end of September with no ETA on financing for the place we were bidding on. If the financing did indeed fall through then we were in a _really_ bad place needing to be out of our own home with no destination set.

Banks, Lenders, and SMB Owners

It is a fact of life for the small business owner that the banks do not like us. We are too high a risk for lending.

The statistics of the number of failed businesses in the first three years relative to the number of successful ones make the balance scale look like a 1 tonne brick on the _fail_ side while the successful side has a few feathers.

That balance scale does not change much for the survivors of the first three years either. The number that make it to the six or seven year mark are but a sliver of those that made it past three.

So, here we are after ten years for MPECS being incorporated and my being self-employed and we _still_ hit the credit roadblock with the banks and some lenders.

The primary difference as we see it between us and someone that makes a salary or wage is that they have a steady paycheque every two weeks while ours fluctuates with the amount of work being done.

As we all know, cash flow is king in a small business. We see that as one of the main reasons for an SMB to _not_ put services into the Cloud.

Yes, the cash needed for an SMB IT Solution will be up-front. But, once that solution is in place the ongoing maintenance plan can be put on hold (depending on the MSP) if the economy slows down.

One cannot put the Cloud Service Provider on hold for payments.

It means that despite owning an incorporated company we SMB owners need to sign away our first and second born along with the contracts in our blood before we can get any reasonable amount of credit to work with (pun obviously).

Lenders prefer to secure credit against us personally, not our incorporated entities in our area of the world. The same may be true in other areas of the world. Say no to Personal Credit Reports and the lenders say no to any credit.

Indeed, just recently after having to sign away our firstborn for our first company credit card five or six years ago we had to go through the entire jump-through-the-hoop process to get a credit increase on that card even after five or six years of activity with balances paid off every statement cycle.

A perceived SMB cash crunch situation is one reason we get a plethora of "Canadian Small Business Grants" e-mails and phone calls from folks looking to take advantage of us in some way due to SMBs being more than likely cash hungry.

Securing A Mortgage

Now, besides getting married for life one of the biggest decisions one makes is to secure a mortgage on a place to live.

We had run the gamut of trying to secure a lender for the purchase of our first house (about 2-3 years after MPECS was born) with the end result being nada, zilch, zippo.

We were fortunate that our Realtor knew a mortgage broker, Phil LaRue, that pulled one out of the hat for us by securing a hand-shake mortgage with GMAC at a premium over the bank's rates back then.

He then did it again for us when we purchased our current home. But, not without a number of hoops to jump through yet again.

This time around we had to jump through _a lot_ of hoops before lenders would take us seriously. Yet, even after all of this time no banks would even consider looking at us.

So, here we are a week and a half later after signing the paperwork to get the ball rolling on the purchase and we have finally heard back from the mortgage insurer (CMHC was the final roadblock) that they will insure our mortgage.

Our Subject To Financing conditions are almost removed.

Can you imagine how stressful that last couple of weeks have been?!?

SMB "Experts" Know?

This constant fight with financing our lives for the last ten years is something that someone, or some SMB "Expert"organization, that has never owned a small business may never get.

Folks that receive a paycheque do not need to worry about whether they can get credit or not (barring bad exceptions to the rule of course ;) ).

One cannot know the taste, texture, and all-around goodness of an Anchovy Pizza unless one has actually eaten one. Period.

One cannot know what it is like to lose one's child (previous blog post) unless one has actually gone through that experience.

Someone that has spent their life studying a particular subject, even secured a PhD in it, may know a lot _about_ the subject but may have very little clue how it _feels_ until they actually _live_ through it.

We are not knocking those folks and their ability to help us out here. We have had some amazing professionals help us out throughout our lives. That's not the point of these paragraphs.

Our point is this: There are some experiences in life that one can know a lot about in so many ways but may have no clue about _living_ it and _experiencing_ it.

That's why "Experts' is in quotes here with regards to owning and running an SMB business or multiple businesses.

One cannot know the real risks involved owning and running a small business until one's family is hanging on the brink of being homeless. Or that next business need is sitting on the shelf due to not having credit available.

There are too many examples to list here but we believe that you, our readers, get our point. :)

Our Small Business

The all-around experience of owning and running a small business is much more rewarding as we are working on _our_ dreams and not someone else's dreams.

We would be very hard-pressed to find a small business owner that is not passionate about the products and services that they provide.

And therein lies one of the _most critical_ of elements of providing IT products and services to other small business owners that we have mentioned in this blog before.

A small business owner providing products and services to another small business owner _understands_ what it takes to purchase those products and services.

We understand the need to trust others to provide us with the best possible information and direction when it comes to aspects of our business we may have no clue about.

Thus, there is a connection between us that is not there for a large organization's sales people and technical support folks that try and provide products and services to small businesses.

This face-to-face connection is one of the main reasons that the Expert IT Solution Provider has done so well over the last ten to fifteen years.

We share the passion and can provide an excellent IT experience for our small business clients.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Less for More?

We are going to pick on Tim Hortons a little here.

If it were not for the fact that those two cans were sitting side-by-side on the same shelf and that something was being put on them we would have remained oblivious to the fact that there was a distinct size difference between them.

In fact, we would have gone on happily paying more (increase was ~$2.00 per tin for that coffee) without even paying close attention to the size reduction _during_ that increase.

So, we have a smaller tin that we are paying more for.

Now, given the fact that Tim Hortons coffee is a staple in our day-to-day diet we will not be jumping ship anytime soon.

However, it will give us cause for pause in that we may look at alternatives a little more closely such as some of the so-called Fair Trade coffees. We have a bag of Columbian and a bag of Zambian (iirc the African country’s name and spelling right) coffee that is very rich in flavour.

Technology

When it comes to technology we pay particular attention to all of the various product manufacturers and their products.

We are always particularly mindful of the following:

• Is there a good compatibility list for the manufacturer’s products?
• No one can beat Intel’s Server Configurator for server building.
• Does the manufacturer have good post-sales support?
• Is there an 800 number, or even direct dial, to talk to real people that _know_ the product?
• Some manufacturers obfuscate the whole process with their voice prompts after calling in.
• Is the RMA process simple or a rat’s nest to get through?
• Ever try to RMA an Asus product? We gave up.
• Kingston and Crucial both are fantastic to deal with.
• Intel has an Advanced Warranty Replacement program that is second to none.
• Does the product have good documentation?
• Most manufacturers fall short in this category as hard as some of them try.

In all of the products we work with we also need to keep in mind that the more time we waste on shoddy post-sales support with manufacturers that it costs us big-time. That in turn costs our clients in lost production time if things go down.

Some of you from Canada may remember IPC and Bondwell PCs back when. Their systems were hundreds of dollars less than the competing Tier 1 or our own quality component built systems.

The IT business owner I was working with decided to dive right into them. In the end it cost us a huge amount in lost time replacing cheap flaky components that it became readily apparent that IPC and Bondwell PCs were not the way to go.

Because of this experience we here at MPECS Inc. have not delved into any entry-level or consumer grade components and systems. It is our preference to stick with the higher end Chevy/VW and Cadillac/BMW series of systems, servers, and software products.

Though, the following video aught to make clear where our preference lies for both the solutions we deliver and the automobile product we prefer. :)

Cadillac CTS-V Supercharged

And, just in case there is _any_ ambiguity:

My favourite Cadillac Commercial of all time!

BTW, just like the Linux versus Windows, Hyper-V versus VMWare, AMD versus Intel, and so on one can get quite “religious” about one’s preference in finer automobiles. ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Ingram Micro Canada Has Picked Up the Ball …

A while back, we had a lot of grief with virtually any order we placed with Ingram Micro Canada (IMC - blog label search for Ingram Micro).

Now, there are times where we need product as soon as possible, so we have had no choice but to deal with IMC.

Lately, we have been pleasantly surprised that any orders we have been placing with them have been coming through successfully. The principle reason we have been seeing more successful orders is due to their Web interface being greatly improved when it comes to the Check Out process.

We have still had to call in once or twice on those end of day orders to chase them up to release the order in their system for whatever reason, but for the most part things seem to have improved markedly.

The one area that IMC can still improve is in their RMA processing, or lack thereof. Obtaining an RMA for product can be very tedious at times.

For now, we give Ingram Micro Canada a B Minus for our overall experiences with them and their vastly improved customer relationship management.

We can be a pretty tough customer at times, so the improvement we have experienced says a lot! Way to go IMC. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

When in doubt ... err to your client.

We keep copious notes on pretty much everything we do that is client related.

We keep those notes on file for at least 6 months after the fact, then we scan (duplex) every document into our system. The paper documents themselves get shredded from there.

That is not always the case though, and sometimes that can come back to catch us.

We had a simple conversation with a long term client about recovering data from a crashed operating system on one of their personal computers.

When arrangements were made to recover the data, we just found out, our client was also under the impression that we were going to format and reload the data.

Given that data recovery happened over a month and a half ago and they just received their system back - they were not available during that time - they just found out that the machine was not up and running with a fresh operating system install.

This is one of those cases where we thought things were straight forward with a long standing client so guess what? No notes. :(

Fortunately, after discussing things with them, we were able to come to an agreement.

We gave them the benefit of the doubt and offered to pick the machine up, format it, install and update the OS as they thought we were supposed to.

Plain and simple isn't it?

Even though we may be right about a given situation, with no notes to back things up, and even with those notes, we must follow through with our client.

In this case the cost to us is a number of hours of labour to setup the machine.

The benefit to us though is a client who understands that things are not exactly clear but we went ahead and followed through with them anyway.

With our newer clients, we are strict about keeping notes and gaining job approval in writing. Obviously, we must build up the business relationship and the trust between us first.

We always make sure to have the job being done and their acceptance of that work in writing via e-mail, fax, or purchase order. It makes things simpler for the both of us at the beginning of the business relationship.

It also establishes a pattern of behaviour between us that facilitates a clear level of communication and a deepening of trust in us providing the requested products and services and our client following through on feedback and payment.

The Client/Solution Provider relationship is a two way street after all. Isn't it? ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Have a few minutes to spare? A Client Focus suggestion...

Have a few minutes to spare?

Call a client. Call one you haven't spoken with for a while.

Say hello, chat, ask them how things are. See if they need anything.

This kind of proactive contact with clients goes a long way towards building up a strong business relationship with them.

Have a little more than a few minutes to spare?

Then it is time for a "Client Focus" session.

We all can get very busy. Even with our PDAs, Outlook, CRM, and more we can let things fall through the cracks.

A Client Focus session is an opportunity to take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes and discover what we have missed or new opportunities with our existing clients.

1. Let the appropriate people know where you will be and to Do Not Disturb (DND) if at all possible.
2. A decision must be made by us within to use the following time to focus on client needs.
• That decision must be a committed one. No distractions!
• That decision is an internal one and provides the foundation for a successful Client Focus session.
3. An office or space where the DND time is possible.
4. Sit down with a pad of paper and a couple of pens or a pencil with plenty of lead.
• Nothing more annoying than a pen running out of ink during a critical moment.
• Be comfortable as being relaxed is important.
5. Relax for a couple of minutes and let the stresses of the day go.
6. Take a couple of deep breaths to get the blood flowing in the brain and to deepen the relaxation.
7. On the pad of paper:
1. Draw one line down the middle of the page.
2. Write "Client" at the top of the Left Column.
3. Write "Needs" above the Right Column.
4. Start listing your clients leaving a large space between each name.
5. If a particular client need comes up while writing their name down, put it in the Right Column.
6. Keep writing client names, but as soon as a Need presents itself, write it in the Needs Column beside their name immediately.
7. Once the client names are filled out, continue thinking about each client's respective infrastructure. More Needs should present themselves.
• Use different sheets of paper to diagram aspects of the client's infrastructure.
• Look at the big picture: servers, workstations, switches, software, etc and their purposes.

This method of "stirring" the creative juices so to speak works really well, especially in this digital age.

It gets us to focus specifically on our client's current needs. It provides us with an opportunity to discover things that we may have missed, but also allow client specific ideas that have been sitting at the back of our minds to come forward.

Once one becomes comfortable with this methodology, or some derivative of it, another column can be added for Future Needs or any other aspect of client management.

One factor that is very important for the success of the Client Focus, is knowing our client's environments. That is, having first hand contact with our clients and not being just "someone on the other end of the phone" or e-mail to them.

Whether working remotely or locally, we need to spend time within our client's network infrastructure, but also within our client's business environment.

Clients love it when we ask them questions about what they are doing and how they are trying to do it. They appreciate us taking the time to get to know their given business environment. In most cases, they won't mind spending some time answering questions about their business and the environment they do business in.

In pretty much all cases, a client will be more likely to deal with us as a result of our getting to know their business and its needs first hand over the "other guy". This is especially true when the suggestions we make are based on our actually understanding their business.

We have all probably had the experience of the sales guy saying, "Oh yes Mr. Customer, this product won the Editor's Choice in the Reseller Reviews and it is a perfect fit!" And then turning to us and saying, "Okay guys, make it fit!"

I can hear the Tech department shuddering over that one! ;)

There is no excuse for the lack of knowledge and understanding of a client's infrastructure or the technology needed to make that infrastructure work. None. Period.

In the case of I.T. companies with separate Sales & Tech departments, that means that your Sales people and Tech people are getting together regularly to hash things out right?

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists