Eliminate the problems of computer support - Part 3

My last two posts talked about the benefits of a good computer supplier. My last one talked about the problems caused by buying and installing software on your computers.

This one will look at the benefits of an alternative solution: Renting your software. If you are not convenced yet, go back to my last post and ask yourself if you want to solve these problems. If you don't, then let me describe the benefits, and why you should lease software.

First of all, let's talk about what I mean by leasing software.

There are a number of software products that are available on the Internet. To use these products, you don't buy them and install them on your computer. You simply access them via your browser. Some are free, like google applications, others you pay for using them every month. There are a number of very good products that are available this way and this is the direction that the industry is going.

While you may have to pay something every month, there are significant advantages.

• You pay for only what you use. This means that a large and a small business might use the identical product, but the big business will pay more because they have more users.
  
• When a new version comes out, the supplier is responsible for upgrading it.


• If it doesn't work, you call support and they have the problem of fixing it.


• The exact same software with all of the fixes is used by everyone, so you don't have to worry about keeping it up-to-date.


• Your files are stored on their computers, so they are responsible for backup. If you want to protect yourself more, you can take a backup yourself. You don't have to worry about offsite backup.


• Whether your office is in one location or many, you all have the ability to share it, without having to worry about designing a network.
• Software is not being installed on each of your computers, so you don't have to worry as much about computer maintenance and support.



• No matter how big the software gets, you don't have to worry about upgrading your computer's memory or hard drive. Your PC could last a lifetime.
  

Do all of these benefits make it worthwhile to rent instead of buying? It at least must make it worth considering.

There is another issue that may make it worth considering. When a software supplier sells you a big complex software product, they often surprise you with a big training cost. This package is never enough and even though you get training (see fire hose training), it is never enough. With some of the software that I have tried, they are simple to use. You can use as much of the product as you want, which means less training required and a gradual approach. I intend to look more into this to see how easily a small company can convert all of their business to these products. Some are very comprehensive.

Eliminate the frustration - Part 2

Many business people are frustrated by the problems that we have with computers. They don't do what we want, they have problems, they are complex to learn and understand. They take time away from running our business.

My whole career has been spent in IT, and I feel that way as well. I know how to go about solving these problems and I still get frustrated, because they get in my way.

The other day, I described how a good computer support company can improve the quality of service that you get. Today I want to take a look at another side of the problem and describe what you can do as a small business owner to solve these problems. I will not describe any technical solution, because I know that this would simply frustrate you more and take you away from what you really want to do. Go find that supplier! This relates to what you can do in your business.

In order to address this, I have to start with the attitude of most small business owners. When we go out to buy software, we want to OWN it. OWNING IT puts us in control. Or so we think. If we own it, then we can do whatever we want with it. When we rent it, we pay and pay and pay. So we want to own it.

Microsoft and other PC software suppliers love us for this. Because we buy and install our own software, they can upgrade it and even though we think we can put off the upgrade, they know that in order for people to work together, they often must have the same version. And look what they do to us. We can't buy the old version, so they make major changes to it, causing us a huge amount of effort to change. Look at the Vista fiasco. Not only were there many problems, but we had to relearn everything. Huge cost for NO VALUE. Problem #1.

Windows is a messy system and every time you install something, you update the registry. The more installs and deletes of software, the messier it gets. Not only that, but every software supplier is responsible for cretaing the "package" to install their own software. Some do it well, some make a mess. I worked with a large business to improve the installation process to prevent errors. We had to repackage everything to make it work properly.

Who is responsible for solving this problem? You are! All of these software developers are creating this problem and they want you, the computer user to solve it.

The more change you make on your PC, the more space is taken up, the more problems are potentially created, the more support problems you will have. Unless you feel that you are in a position to solve the problems created by software suppliers, you should be looking for another way.

Wouldn't you know it? There is one. And that future is being discussed by many technicians today, and many suppliers. They call it Software as a Service (SoaS. As a business owner, you don't care about SoaS and this is the last time I'll talk about it. But the benefits to the small business are significant, and that is what you should be interested in.

The solution and its benefits will be described in my next post.

Eliminate the frustration of managing computers - Part 1

As a small business owner, it is difficult to get the expertise necessary to manage computers well. The cost of an experienced technician is too high and even if you could afford to hire him or her, you couldn't keep them happy or satisfied.

Hiring a computer support company is a better and cheaper solution. They have the expertise and can solve problems much faster than a less experienced person. The good news is that this improves your productivity, because your computers are down less time.

As small business owners, we are often concerned that we can afford the downtime while we wait for a technician to get on site. The problems can be solved by the time that the technician arrives. If you are having this problem, then you have the wrong supplier. A good support company manages your computers for you and prevents these problems from occuring. This means that you have fewer incidents and therefore you don't need immediate response.

Most suppliers today also have remote management tools. They can diagnose and resolve problems without coming on site. With the preventative maintenance and remote support, you get more reliable service and faster response at a cheaper rate.

Why would anyone not want to have this? There is only one issue here. And that is the relationship with your supplier. Unfortunately many suppliers see themselves as technicians and not as partners in your business. You get the most value if they treat your business issues as their issues and help you to solve them, without costing you a fortune. This is an area where an employee may have a different attitude, or at least you might help them to learn to have a different attitude.

Having a supplier that you can trust and cares about your business is a great solution. But there is another question. Why do you need so much support and preventative maintenance? Why can't those computers just run.

To quote Jef Raskin, a human/computer interface expert:
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining."

There are a lot of reasons why we have these problems. But this is another topic and I'll describe them in a future entry.


the problems of PC based applications.

Unlicensed software a source of system failure?

A recent study by The Harrison Group on behalf of Microsoft has found that mid-market companies that have unlicensed software are more succeptible to system failures than companies that acquire their software through legitimate means.

Their analysis simply reports that this is the case, not explaining why. It also references the growth rates and identifies that the companies buying legitimately tend to grow faster than the others.

In my experience, licensing is simply an element of how Information Technology is managed in a business. For many small businesses, computers are looked at as an expense to be reduced. There is little recognition of the value that it can bring to the company. Under these circumstances a number of things occur. They include:

• Acquiring unlicensed software.
• Using software that is no longer maintained.
• Reacting to software problems after they occur, thereby encountering outages.
• Minimizing the cost of support by attempting to fix it themselves.
• Not using the software as effectively as they could.

All of these issues are symptoms of treating technology as a cost of doing business. Typically, costs are minimized, but there is no recognition that outages can cost money. When systems are down, people are unproductive. This can lead to overtime, customer dissatisfaction and lost sales.

When I am asked to help a company, they often have difficulties that are affecting their business. One of the things that I always look for is how is technology being managed. I usually find a break/fix mentality with an emphasis on mimizing costs. I also usually find that too much money is being spent... on the wrong things. And this affects their business performance. Money is wasted in some areas and restricted in others. Two of the areas where costs are restricted is in the purchase of software and in software maintenance. The result is system failures and lost productivity,

While the study talks about the relationship between unlicensed software and system failure , the real source of the problem is the mindset towards technology. It is considered a necessary cost of doing business rather than a value to the business. In my experience, if the value is recognized, the value increases. The report identifies that this does not nessarily increase the costs.

To see the full report, see http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/C/5/DC503630-3EDD-455D-B155-4FCCA6FCCEA3/TCO%20Global%20Final%20Whitepaper.pdf

Stage 1 - Managing IT for the non-technical manager - Basic Infrastructure

Many business owners are frustrated that their computers don't just run. Everybody tells them that they need to become more technical. Everybody that tells you that is wrong. You don't need to be more technical. You need to understand how to manage Information Technology so that it supports your business.

The first stage of managing IT is the basic infrastructure. Before getting any value from IT, you have to buy hardware and software. This doesn't do anything for you except give you access to tools that will help you run your business. Managing IT at this level means that it has to work.

Those who are uncomfortable with technology, or just don't want to spend their time there, tend to ignore it, or "delegate" it to some junior technician in their business. Typically this person is technical, is comfortable with playing in technology and will find a way to fix problems that come up.

What they won't do is manage the reliability of the technology, because they don't have the experience to do that. You will get a reactive situation. Problems will occur, and your staff will be unproductive during those times. The bigger problem will be that you don't know what is lurking. Since the technology is not being managed, you won't see a problem until it occurs. Then it will likely have a significant impact on your business. A client of mine recently experienced a 3 day outage due to a minor problem with the server. It took 3 days to diagnose and fix. During that time, their activity didn't stop, but the business processes did. They couldn't invoice and it took weeks to catch up.

Trying to hire someone to support IT in your business is a real challenge. You can't pay high salaries, so you get a junior person. Hiring a senior at a high salary doesn't work either. They just get bored and leave.

Contracting with an outside supplier seems to be a good solution. If you "delegate" the support to the outside supplier, you may be somewhat better off. You no longer have to worry about hiring, training, etc. But if that's all you do, you will not gain much benefit unless your supplier is managing IT for you and not just reacting the way that your staff did. And unless you have defined the goals that they are managing to, you still may be subject to failures that could have been prevented. (the client mentioned earlier had outsourced IT support).

You need to set goals for your supplier, that leaves you in control, but lets them manage the support on a day-to-day basis. Each business will have a unique set of targets, but the goals will fall into the following categories:

1. Asset management: What hardware, software and other components do you have? What did they cost you? Are they up-to-date? Are they properly licensed? Upgrades are often required to software. Some of these drive hardware upgrades. If you have this available, it will cost you less to get an assessment of future upgrades and may also prevent problems, or ease recovery from major problems.
2. Risk management: This includes anti-virus, security, non-business use. This area is the source of many problems. If managed properly, you can prevent problems from occurring, or at least identify them more quickly, speeding up recovery.
3. Backup management: Do you have backup? Does it work? How would you recover from a failure? Many businesses have difficulty focusing in this area, because of day-to-day pressures. You can define the needs once and have your supplier commit to this area on a day-to-day basis.
4. Reliability management: Do you track service incidents? Does your supplier? What is the business impact? What can be done to prevent these incidents? An analysis of these inciedents will identify actions that should be taken in one of the other areas.

Setting up these management processes, a one time event, will mean that what you spend on software to run your business will have the opportunity to provide the return on investment that you were looking for.

It will also reduce your frustrations, and provide you with the feeling that you are in control, not just subject to the whims of computers or computer technicians.

This first stage is the foundation. If your technology infrastructure is not stable, the only thing taht you will accomplish by putting in more software is to increase your frustrations and opportunity to be affected by failures.

What's the difference between bacon and eggs?

Years ago, one of my staff came back from a project management course with this question.

The question was asked related to the difference between a good and a bad project manager. The difference is the hen is involved, whereas the pig is committed. The pig only gets one chance to do the job right.

That's what you should look for in a project manager or any supplier. Are they just involved, using up your money, or are they as committed as you are to deliver. If they aren't as committed as you are, you will get poor service, or at least not what you are looking for.

I have seen so many IT projects that fail to deliver on their "commitments". When it doesn't work, there are plenty of excuses. No IT project goes perfectly. There are always unknowns. As a supplier, you can't know everything that's going on in a company and even if you do, something will crop up.

Good planning and preparation will help. Experience with things that have gone wrong in the past will help. The thing that will ensure that you deliver is the attitude that "I have made a cpommitment. I must make it work."

What are you: a pig or a chicken?

Satisfying IT clients

IT organizations, whether internal or IT support organizations have the same problem. They think of themselves providing a technical support role. If they make keep the technology running, then they are doing their jobs.

The impact of this view is that even when their clients are satisfied, they are only satisfied compared to other experiences. They are not truly satisfied. Their expectations have been set so low that they appear satisfied when the equipment is working. At least then, they don't get distracted from doing their jobs, by having to work around malfunctioning equipment.

This issue shows up with the frustration that most people express with computers. My career has progressed through various phases from working with mainframes to working with desktops. Back in the early mainframe days, we were that mysterious group in the back room. Nobody knew what we did. My family still doesn't understand. At that time, computers were too complex for the average person to understand, but they didn't have to deal with them day-to-day. The technical staff did that, and we were happy doing that. I have grown more and more frustrated myself with dealing with computers, because it takes far too much of my time to deal with these nagging little problems that should be so easy to deal with.

Most software today is still written for software people: people who memorize every aspect of a software program and see it as a challenge to become an expert at all of its intricacies. Most of us don't look at it this way. We are just trying to get a job done, and resent having to become an expert to get what we want. That's why most people that I talk to are frustrated with computers. The software helps us to get our jobs done, if we can ever get past that terrible interface. Windows is much better than DOS, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

The issue of technical support also causes us frustrations. From a normal user point of view, we don't want to learn how the new technology works; we just want to have an easier time getting our job done. Then the computer technician comes in, does a great technical job at installing equipment, and leaves proud of his accomplishments. We are left to deal with the aftermath. Nobody told us what they did. Nobody told us that our work would have to change because the software wouldn't work the same. Nobody told us what to do with the excess equipment.

We start with a "user" who is frustrated with the old equipment, is stressed with the volume of work in their jobs, is buying new equipment to get out of the hole, and gets a whole new set of problems, more frustration. No wonder they hang onto anybody who can help them. When is the IT industry going to wake up and recognize that computers are supposed to help us do the job, not frustrate us in trying to do it. Why should business people spent their time trying to plan technology changes so that their business will not be disrupted? Why can't IT people recognize that many businesses are stressed trying to get their jobs done, and provide solutions, true solutions to these problems.

Change is hard. We all get comfortable with the old ways. Computers are always going to change things and increase our stress levels, because it introduces change. IT support organizations, both internal and external, need to recognize the impact that they are having, and start introducing changes in a manner that reduces stress.

Start by learning more about the client and their needs. Help them prepare for the changes and don't ask them technical questions. Turn those questions into business questions that they can make reasonable business decisions on. The IT organizations that succeed in doing that will be the ones that succeed in the future, not those that are excellent technicians.