News: Consulting for Small Business

The Value of Your Computer Consultant

From Oswego to Chicago, IT is all about the data for Responsive

by Keith R. Wheeler

8/22/2006

In the world of small business, computer systems have become pervasive. In most fields, the work or service performed isn’t done by computers directly. However, the schedule and details for the work to be accomplished is very likely stored in a computer as well as communicated in a digital format. Along with the schedule, the purchase orders, work requests, time entries, invoices, bills, check details, checkbook balances, balance sheets, company plans, emails, etc. are all stored in the computer. In some cases such as email, it is stored exclusively in the computer and not in a paper form. See the Data Maximize Competencies Understand the Value of Data Data Protection The value of any and all of these typical pieces of business data can be tremendous for a small company. Referring to an item such as a schedule, it could be kept in a personal computer, a server-based system, or a handheld device such as a PocketPC, Palm, or cell phone. That schedule is a unique and valuable form of data which needs to be protected. Small business owners are very competent people who know how to perform the service for which they have been hired. Honestly, the company wouldn’t be in business for very long if the work wasn’t getting done. At the same time, not all small business owners are totally competent at designing and maintaining computer systems. A small minority of small business owners might have enough background and experience to be effective managers of computers systems for their own business. An issue they may face is not having enough time away from actually running the business to work on the computers. All of these issues point to the need for a computer consultant for your small business. The title computer consultant is probably not all that accurate. Consulting is definitely an important aspect of what a small business “computer consultant” does on a regular basis. In addition to consulting, add installing, configuring, networking, troubleshooting, repairing, connecting and managing. Your consultant needs to be able to do all of these and have access to additional resources when they run into something even they don’t understand. Add up the hourly rate of your office. If your firm has a single secretary or a pool which handle all of the data entry and retrieval, compile the value of their time. If part of your production depends on computer systems, attach an hourly value to the production which would be halted if the computers weren’t available to your staff. In addition, try to apply a value of the inconvenience of the inaccessibility of your company’s data. This last consideration may have an escalating value since not having access to email or calendar information for fifteen minutes doesn’t hurt as much as missing it for two full days. The whole point of the exercise is to more clearly see the impact your computers systems have on your operation. Some industries have a more intense need for complete availability to their data. Law firms, accounting firms, architects, government agencies and banks are examples of data dependent organizations. Partnering with capable and confident computer consulting firms is a key to success for these industries. Naturally, larger companies have in-house support to manage their computer systems. Smaller firms don’t usually want or need to spend that level of money to receive adequate, comprehensive support. Firms which have only one in-house support person often need the support of an outside computer consulting firm for sick days, vacation, training time, and problems which are beyond their size or scope. Throughout the Chicagoland area and most of northeastern Illinois for the last fifteen years, Responsive Network Services and its predecessor, Wheeler, Inc., have been providing computer consulting services exclusively to small businesses and smaller government agencies which don’t have full-time IT support. The computer consultants in both our Oswego and Chicago offices are experienced in the small business way of life. After all, we’re a small business, too.