From PC Repair to Network Support

I’ve been in the computer industry for more than 15 years. The punchline I’ve used for many years is that my dad always had a computer around the house. I would tinker with it enough to break it, so I had to get very good at fixing it before he got home from work on any given day.

Changes in my career, generally, have been the result of my advancement in the industry, not changes in the industry itself.

[Quick history: I started by fixing friends' and family's computers. I got my first real job building and servicing PCs at PC Systems in Delray Beach, FL before I could even drive. Next, I started my first company, Byte Technologies, doing small office/home office network setups in West Palm Beach, FL. Then, I moved on to IKON Office Solutions as one of their Sr. Network Engineers. Finally, about eight years ago, I started Steinhoff Consulting , which was renamed DedicatedIT earlier this year.]

Network Support was Changing

Just like in any industry, changes do happen. Most changes are small, however. Around 2003-2004, there was a major shift in our industry to augment standard, ‘break-fix’ services with proactive, fixed-fee ‘managed services’.

The biggest benefit to technology companies was the predictable income that a monthly contract allowed. For the first time, it allowed us to budget our expenses, fuel regular growth and staff up appropriately. Our clients appreciated the fact that response times could now be guaranteed, that we had the ability to provide remote support – that didn’t require them to push all the buttons for us – and that we were able to collect more detailed information about their systems than we had been able to before.

Growing Pains and Identity Crisis

It was 2005 and, by this point, many of us staffed up to handle our new model of business and started calling ourselves ‘Managed Services Providers’, even though we still provided break-fix services. It created a confusing message to our prospects and clients, and worse yet, our employees.

A sales person, meeting with existing clients, was trying to convert them from break-fix to managed services. He would present all the wonderful reasons to change to this new managed services model; awesome response times, access to some of the best network engineers in the area, nearly instantaneous remote support, and much, much more! [Act now, and you get the slicer and dicer, too!]

The clients looked at him with confusion and would point out that, “I already get all that, why would I change?”

They were right. Unfortunately, it took another three years for me to fully understand the problem and another year after that to have the guts to actually fix it properly and finally.

RIP: The Death of Break-fix Network Support

The problem was that we were incurring the much greater expense of running a managed services business, yet providing the benefits to all clients regardless of whether they were under official contract or not. We would justify it numerous ways: ‘They’ve been a client forever’; ‘We just need to prove the value to them, and they will sign a contract’; ‘just this once’ ; and the longest hold out – ‘they have a server down, and it’s an emergency.’

Even though we wanted to provide the benefits of managed services to all of our clients, running our business this way was just too costly.

Are we Nuts? In this Economy?

It’s really hard to say, “No’, I can’t send someone out there”, to businessman who does have an emergency with a primary server down. It’s especially hard, when the client is willing to pay nearly anything to get the server back up and running. Depending on how critical the issue was, the cost usually was much more than what the contract would have cost them… not to mention that, most likely, the client would not be in this situation in the first place if we were managing the network.

In early 2009, DedicatedIT decided that it would phase out all non-managed services clients and began saying “no” to, what used to be, perfectly good business for us.

Are we nuts? Time will tell…

We can tell you that sales and marketing messages are much more clear, stress levels are down and net income is up.

I’m interested in hearing your stories of taking large, yet calculated, gambles in your businesses. Please leave me a comment below.

Twitter is an Excellent Tool – Use It!

Some of you are using Twitter, some of you are not. Those who use it may not understand the power that Twitter gives you to control your brand. Those who don’t use it make jokes about the people who do. Generally saying things like “I don’t care what you had for breakfast,” or “do people really need to know what you are doing all the time?”

My answer is: no, people don’t need to know what I’m doing every minute of the day. However, if people are going to tell me what they are thinking, I’m going to use it to my advantage. You should be, too.

Search Twitter to Find Your Next Client

Own a bar? Look for people near zip code 33401 who need a drink.

Own a restaurant? Look for people near zip code 33401 looking for a place to eat. Or, keep track of how bad the food at your competitors’ (or you) is.

Regional cleaning service? People talking about cleaning within 50 miles of 33417.

Respond to them with an Offer

Take the restaurant “bad food” example from above. This is a perfect time for your restaurant to fix the problem (if it was yours) or offer the person a free meal at your restaurant to try to lure people away from your competition.

Twitter Marketing Help

While DedicatedIT is not a marketing company trying to get your marketing business, I am very interested in using social tools to better our and our clients’ businesses. If you want to bounce some ideas off me, please leave me a comment or give me a ring. I’d love to talk with you.

Remote Office Experts

Back in February of 2009, I posted a blog entry (The Remote Office – Eating Our Own Dog Food) about our business moving from a centralized office to everyone working from home. There were three primary reasons for this decision:

• Why incur the  cost associated with maintaining an office that, generally, no clients ever saw?
• Why make our guys come into an office, if we can make it work otherwise?
• We wanted to ‘eat our own dog food’. We sell this remote stuff, why not use it ourselves?

We have survived a few months working remotely. This article is about our communication improvements as a result of the transition.

Real-time Communication is Key with any Remote Office

One of the biggest things, that we knew we had to overcome before moving out of our office, was finding how to replace the the different types of in-person communication that we had throughout the day.

• Eye contact – You could look at someone and tell whether he was on the phone and, generally, how much longer he thought he would be.
• The drop by – With all of our desks within walking distance, it was no big deal to walk over and interrupt someone’s day if he didn’t look busy.
• Gathering around a monitor – Often, the guys would find a new utility, a funny video or they needed help with something they were troubleshooting. Having everyone near each other made this easy.
• Whiteboard/notes – If someone was on the phone, it was typical to write a quick note and hold it up and get a nod for either yes or no.
• “Love taps” – We had these little yellow foam golf balls and other projectiles in our office. It was standard operating procedure to send one over to an unsuspecting co-worker just for fun.

While seemingly very small, eye contact and “love taps” enabled us to be a quick-moving team that really understood and cared about each other.

How would we replace these? Or should we, in some cases?

Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS)

We determined that a chat system would be the most likely candidate for replacing these types of communication. We investigated a few different chat systems and determined that we wanted something that was internally hosted and had enterprise features.

Microsoft Office Communications server fit the bill for us.

• Person-to-person and group-based instant messaging
• Complete integration with Outlook
• Presence – Available, Away, Do Not Disturb, Offline and Out of Office
• Desktop sharing with individuals and groups
• Video streaming for face-to-face communications

[It also doesn't hurt that we are a Microsoft partner and get the majority of the licenses for free.]

Microsoft OCS Makes us Better

New whiz-bang technology is great and all, but unless it makes a business better, it’s just an expensive toy. Microsoft Office Communications Server makes our business better. The biggest change I noticed is the way our team responds to company-wide issues for our clients.

Pre-Collaboration Wide-Spread Event:

Previously, all of our help desk phones would begin ringing, and we all would have our heads down focused on that one person on the phone. The higher-level engineers would realize that it could be a wide-spread problem, but they couldn’t get in touch with the other people on the desk, because they were focused on their own call. An email would be sent, but if just one person doesn’t reply-all, the communication forks and some staff members end up losing critical information.

Post Collaboration Wide-Spread Event:

When a wide-spread issue is taking place, that same lead engineer now starts up a group chat with all technicians [three clicks]. This way all communication is done in real-time and captured in a single place. If for some reason, one technician feels that seeing his/her screen would help, a single click publishes that person’s desktop to all of the people in the group chat. Amazing!

Microsoft Outlook Integration and OCS

Another feature, that I really love, is the integration between Outlook and Microsoft OCS. The two biggies are:

Out of Office status with message

I leave the “office” pretty regularily to meet with prospects and clients (want a meeting? – contact me), and I always want my team to know where I am. When I update my out of office message, it will automatically set my status to ‘Out of Office’ (displayed with a red dot) and put my out of office message next to my name. Immediately, my team can see that I’m out – because of the red dot – and where  am just by hovering the mouse over my name.

Ability to reply to an email with an instant message

If you receive an email from anyone in your organization, there is a little dot next to the sender’s name with his current status. This not only allows you to see whether they are available for chat, out of the office, or away just briefly, but also allows you to respond to the email with a chat instead of a standard reply. [shown in the image above]

This is a huge time saver. How many times have you had one of your email threads accumulate 15 replies and take 30 minutes to complete? Instant messaging, directly from email, quickly put an end to that.

Did we Replace all of the Communication Methods, above?

• Eye contact – Mostly replaced by the status indicators. Next step: integrating our phones into it so we can see whether you are on the phone or not.
• The drop by – Gone and hopefully never replaced. What a time waster!
• Gathering around a monitor – Replaced by desktop sharing. Faster, and allows remote people to participate even if they are at client sites.
• Whiteboard/notes – Replaced by instant messages. And, groups of people can be involved, now.
• “Love taps” – This one is hard to replace, although I’ve started to see a trend of sending YouTube videos to each other unannounced and without saying what’s in them (for instance: Video1 or Video2 – both clean) or some clever banter in a group chat window for no reason.

No, we haven’t, replaced all the communication methods, but we’re getting closer. And, I think we have improved, as a service organization, because of the communication methods we have implemented.

Although, I really do miss launching little yellow foam golf balls around the office.

New Trend in Email Signatures

Has anyone else noticed the “I’m green – don’t print this email unless you have to.” message, in email signatures? It is spreading through the Interwebs about as quickly as <insert your social networking site of the day>?

I saw the first one about three months ago, and I really liked it. Actually, I thought about adding it to my own signature. Well, I got side-tracked, and it never made it in there. I’d bet that, within two weeks, 10% of the email signatures had added the “green” message. Three months later – probably closer to 25%.

Do People Really Print Emails?

While I LOVE the idea of being green and reminding people about it, I can’t think of the last time I actually printed an email. When was the last time you printed an email? Do you know anyone, who is an habitual email printer and needs to be exposed? Feel free do so below in our comments section. No one reads this thing anyhow.

Location, Location, Location

In real estate, it’s always said that location is the most important thing. So, we all have this available “real estate” space in our email signatures, and people are willing to give it away for a good cause. What can we use it for that will better our planet and our local community, yet have a little more punch to it than “don’t print this email?”

Ideas:

• Link to the Tri-rail map to show people that they really can use it effectively.
• Link to the local carpool website to get people in the same company sharing cars.
• Tell people to turn the water off while they brush their teeth, and they’ll save 3 gallons/min.

Your Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on this new phenomenon of giving the planet space in your signature? Do you think that the space could be better utilized?

Let’s start something, here.

Regards,

Adam Steinhoff, President/CEO of DedicatedIT

“Please turn your water off while brushing your teeth. It’ll save 3Gal/Min.”

The Debate

I was speaking with a friend of mine about what we do and kept referring to our ‘Clients’ as ‘Customers’.  She politely corrected me, and advised that I reread my Webster’s Dictionary.   So, after pulling out the 1,664 page Collegiate Edition from my bookshelf, I decided to just look it up online.

Here’s what it says for each:

CUSTOMER
Main Entry:  cus·tom·er
Pronunciation:  \ˈkəs-tə-mər\
Function:  noun
1: one that purchases a commodity or service
2: an individual usually having some specified distinctive trait

CLIENT
Main Entry:  cli·ent
Pronunciation:  \ˈklī-ənt\
Function:  noun
1: one that is under the protection of another : dependent
2a: a person who engages the professional advice or services of another
2b: customer
2c: a person served by or utilizing the services of a social agency
2d: a computer in a network that uses the services (as access to files or shared peripherals) provided by a server

The Definition of ‘Client’ Uses the Word ‘Customer’.

“Look at Client definition 2b. It says ‘customer’, so what’s the difference,” I stated matter-of-factly.

She went on to explain to me that, the term ‘customer’ merely refers to someone who buys something from you, whereas, the term ‘client’ implies a larger relationship.  In her experience, this minor change had gone a long way in reinforcing that ‘larger’ relationship.  It truly made each client feel that she cared more about them than just taking their money.  It instilled a kind of mutual respect for a professional relationship has  that goes beyond just services or products.

A Compelling Argument

I told her that I would try it.  The next day I began to use ‘client’ instead of ‘customer’ in all of my conversations. Not only did the person to whom I was speaking respond differently (of course in a positive way), but I noticed that I felt better talking with them.

Amazing how one word can change the tone of a conversation… and, potentially, the relationship as a whole.

Try it out to see if you get the same change that I’ve seen.

A Network Support Company that Treats you Like a Client

If you need a network support company to treat you like a client, please contact us:

Telephone: 561-491-5750

Email: sales@DedicatedIT.com

Or for immediate help, Chat with a Solutions Expert

My company is a Microsoft partner and was invited to speak at a small and disadvantaged business seminar in Miami. Our company was tasked with presenting the benefits of the new ribbon inside Microsoft Office 2007.

Normally, I don’t accept these types of events, because our target market isn’t going to be there. Recently, I’ve been trying to find new ways that I can directly help my community, instead of just sending the obligatory check to my favorite charity. I guess they called me on the right day, after I had the right epiphany.

(Shameless plug: Our target market is South Florida companies with 75 employees, two to five offices, continuous computer problems and an IT guy who is in over his head and / or almost on his way out. (If you know somewhere like that, tell them to contact us.)

I Said “Yes”

Ben stayed up late the night before making the presentation and hand-outs, and woke up early to get them printed. Ben did a stellar job according to the people involved with the event:

Thanks very much for sharing your expertise with the Miami Dade College Small Business Education Program. There were quite a few people (including me) who you enlightened re:Office 2007. The trick on color coding in excel was excellent – it is something I have always had to do by hand with IF functions. Your sacrifice of a precious weekend to help these business owners is greatly appreciated.
I really look forward to working with you and will certainly recommend that Miami Dade College use you in their upcoming programs.

Once again, thanks – Jane Zucker

This was great news to me, since Ben said that he had to dance a little bit when they asked him to present different material than what he prepared.

I don’t know if it was originally supposed to be part of the deal, or if we were offered it once they saw Ben speak, but they asked us to come to their small business expo in Miami and setup a table to promote our business.

As late as the morning of the event, I was debating with myself on whether I should drive all the way down to Miami to go to this thing when it “wasn’t our target market”.

I Said “Yes” (again)

I decided that this would be the day to do a test-run launch of our new DedicatedIT Extreme Network Makeover promotion… we are going to give away a network to a worthy business.

I typed up a quick flyer and ran to Kinkos to make 75 copies of it. Then, I hopped in my car and headed to the event. I walked into a room full of tables where people had beautiful displays, and all I had were 75 pieces of paper – and it wasn’t even nice card stock stuff.

It was a little daunting at first, but I kept my eyes out to see what everyone else was doing and then, deferring to my entire plan for this year, I become the “Purple Cow”. I didn’t have pens to hand out, I didn’t have little games to play, I didn’t have a nice tablecloth and I didn’t leap up like a dog at the dinner table as soon as they made eye contact with me.

My Approach

I waited for people to walk by, and I’d say “good morning”. When they said “good morning” back, I asked them how their day was and then what exactly they were hoping to get out of the expo. The reaction was amazing – they paused for a second, almost waiting for me to begin spewing my sales pitch, and then they would tell me exactly what was the most important thing on their mind.

I would offer advice on anything that I knew about, even if it did not directly benefit me or my company. Actually, I think I sold more for the woman in the booth next to me, selling Constant Contact, than I did for myself. (Sandi Abbott- Xpresso Marketing)

I talked to a college kid who is thinking about starting his own business. I told him that it was the best thing I ever did, even though it is stressful, had long hours, and I hated my boss. He asked me for advice, and I told him that he should find a mentor and never be afraid to ask questions, and that I have had my business for more than eight years and I  learn something new every day.

I talked with a woman who is a grant writer for non-profit businesses and also runs a foundation in her daughter’s name. Actually, she just had her first scholarship recipient complete law school and land a position with the state attorney’s office. (Winifred D. Browne – 786-728-5924)

I talked to Tonez – the urban marketing genius/soon to have a major record label/self proclaimed “bridge between corporate America and the music scene”. He was really interested in a blog and and how to promote himself using Web 2.0/social marketing.

These encounters kept me entertained all day.

Finally!

Then, a group of people who work for a property management company, that has nearly 150 different companies with an average size of 12 people, walked up to my table. I started the same way I did with the others. They told me that they were looking for things to offer their tenants. I explained the DedicatedIT Extreme Network Makeover, and that I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to offer it to all of their tenants.

They loved the idea. I’ll be calling them next week to set something up. This one introduction alone could make the trip to Miami worth it and then some.

Stay Tuned – Big Ideas Coming

I collected business cards from the people who I met throughout the day who interested me in some fashion or another. I don’t know how yet, but I’d like to find a way to help them… somehow.

First Ingredient: Really Smart People

Okay, so you have some really smart, certified and well trained folks working for you. Their resumes are probably three pages long and have some acronyms that look really good, but you have no clue what they really mean. They can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 30 seconds. You can ask them any question and, not only are they patient in answering, but they actually know the answer. EVERY TIME.

Second Ingredient: A Great Organization

I worked for a Fortune 100 company for 5 years at the Director Level.  They were successful and profitable because of their operational excellence and their people .  It’s that simple.  For example, the company I worked for was #2 on the top company list in their vertical.  While they were only a couple percentage points behind in total revenue from #1 on the list, they did this with twice as many stores (450 vs. 220) and half as many people (11,500 vs. 21,000).  The numbers told an incredible story.  Imagine generating the same revenue with half the payroll…

Then, a Dash of Management and Reporting

Managing people is fun, rewarding, frustrating, exhausting, etc.  But in the end, it’s what makes good companies great, and great companies superb.  It can also make good companies bad.

When transitioning into the IT world, I wondered how to measure performance.  How do you truly know if one technician/engineer is better than another when you do not have a technical background? I learned quickly that while some technicians are smarter, they are not always better when it comes to running a profitable and efficient company.

You need to know these things:

Speaking from experience, I can honestly say that the IT world has been blessed with some fantastic tools to measure performance, accountability and communication.  With end-to-end service ticket tracking, employee utilization reporting, visual service level agreement gauges and many other tools and metrics for managing people, we have seen a significant impact on our bottom line… even for a non-technical person like me.

Below are some visual examples of what can be done with minimal effort and investment, yet, truly help you keep a finger on the pulse of your people.  I was skeptical at first, but after experiencing them first hand, I’m a believer. In some cases, we’ve seen 40-50% increases in productivity.  How’s that for efficiency?

If you have suggestions, questions or just want to learn how to do this for your IT organization or department, let me know.

Leave a comment below. We really do answer every single one. Or, contact us using one of the following methods:

Telephone: 561-491-5750

Email: sales@DedicatedIT.com

Or for immediate help, Chat with a Solutions Expert

Don’t Pat Yourself on the Back too Quickly

Ever do something you thought was spectacular? Ever do something you thought for sure would get your boss to notice you? Then it blows up in your face and you spend the next few days/weeks trying to dig out of the hole…

The guy working on the Pit Crew saw a tire heading for disaster. His instincts took over so he chased it down. In his mind, he saved lives. In the minds of NASCAR officials and drivers, he ruined a race. I call it ‘perception is reality’.

Going Above and Beyond

We’ve done this with our customers so many times, I could write a book. This is an example that comes to mind.

A mergers and acquisitions firm was having MAJOR email latency issues. Their Exchange server was full, end users were screaming, it was Friday afternoon and downtime was not an option. Always trying to please the customer…. What did we do? We sent a server via next day air and dedicated two engineers for the entire weekend to transfer as many mailboxes as we could to the new server to reduce the load.

By the end of the weekend, we felt we had solved world hunger. Our team was high-fiving each other, and we were thrilled to have done something most thought was impossible. Well, that was our perception.

Oh, it Hurts!

What was customer perception? Not everyone accessed their email the same way Monday morning. They had to enter their passwords a second time, and some of the top managers were not converted to the new server and were upset. Not being ‘IT People’, they had no idea what we had pulled off, and instead, we were given multiple slaps on the wrist. On top of that, our server was left in place for an extra seven weeks, while they tried to decide what they wanted to do. This was even after we had gone over all the ‘worst case scenarios’, and the CEO had given us his blessing to give it a shot…

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished… Their Perception was our Reality

What could the Pit Crew have done instead? There are a few answers, but one that comes to mind is to check with the crew chief and the NASCAR officials before running into harm’s way. This is pretty standard communication, accountability and chain of command practice. Hindsight tells us that NASCAR would have brought out the caution anyway, but it would have been their decision instead of the Pit Crew’s decision and the drivers would not have lost a lap.

Is a life worth a lap? Good question. In the end, the Pit Crew made a risky decision to avert a potential disaster… almost like falling on a grenade in the military. What did the Pit Crew get in return? Drivers accused them of ruining the race, and they got a hefty fine from NASCAR. Would I have done the same thing? Instinct tells me yes, but experience tells me not without checking with my boss (crew chief) and the customer (NASCAR) first…

What would you have done? What HAVE you done before that you are willing to admit?

Leave me a comment, below. We respond to every one.