IT Consulting and management services
Medium-Sized Business IT Management
Many medium-sized businesses and growing small businesses have some in-house system admins that are capable of handling day-to-day questions and user support but don't have the experience or expertise to make informed long-term strategic decisions, maintain servers, or respond to security emergencies. They frequently are more reactive to problems than they are proactive planners. Consequently, businesses that rely solely on this level of support frequently find themselves hopping from one crisis to the next and spending more money on maintenance than they do improving their security and expanding their capabilities.
With over 31 years as an IT professional and over 23 in independent IT consulting for businesses across many different industries, I can help guide your business into the future and into the growth your business deserves. Multiple locations spread across wide areas, complex security needs with a mobile workforce, a vast variety of cloud and local based solution providers, and a constantly changing world security landscape will all typically exceed the capabilities of any one or few in-house multiple-hat-wearing system administrator(s) to manage... but qualified and capable IT managers are extremely expensive to hire on a full-time basis. Just because your business needs this level of expertise to deploy and configure solutions doesn't mean it requires someone of that caliber to run it full-time.
So what is the solution? Overpay for a full-time IT Manager while your business isn't large enough to justify one? Or let underqualified staff make poor decisions that cost you money and cause risk to your business? Neither, of course. If you find yourself in that gap, I will manage your in-house system administrators, sit in on all your strategy meetings, help you choose providers for all of your needs that will integrate well with a cohesive company-wide strategy, and provide many of the software and hardware needs you have directly. I will train your staff to handle whatever is within their individual capabilities, even if that eventually trains me out of a job. I will never hide or protect aspects of IT management from you or your team and will always deliberately choose products and services for your business that are as easy as possible to manage yourselves. I've been doing that for 23 years and I've never struggled for customers, so I'm not worried about it now. And when your staff has turnover, I will train their replacements. I've yet to ever have a customer come close to spending the same amount on my consulting services as they would on a competent IT manager... and some of my customers have grown extensively.
And when your business grows to the point where you can justify your own qualified IT manager, I will train them on our systems and hand over the reins in a seamless and smooth transition. And you'll never stop singing my praises and I'll never run out of clients. Win-win.
Small-Business Consulting/Management
If your business is still small enough that you can't justify having your own IT staff and you don't have anyone in the office to handle day-to-day matters, my consulting services have you covered. I can train your staff to save you money (when possible) or I am available remotely 24/7. The vast majority of problems can be solved remotely and will save you money rather than paying for an onsite visit from a technician... and almost always the problem will be resolved before a technician could have even made it to your location. If the Covid pandemic taught me anything, it's that my clients have almost no need to see my bright and smiling face when their network is setup properly.
When necessary, I will either arrive in-person (location and/or travel-expense dependent) or contract with a local provider I trust to arrive onsite and perform whatever hands-on tasks are required, under my direct supervision. You will only ever need to explain your needs to me. I will take it from there. You do NOT need to trust your bookkeeper's son-in-law's friend-from-high-school to come in and poke around your network!
As such, if you transition to using my consulting services, I will do a cost-free initial consultation, and if we're a good match, follow it up with a thorough documentation of your existing configuration and a long-term cost-saving strategy meeting. We will then work toward getting that long-term strategy on track as quickly as your budget allows. I will give it to you straight: If you're calling me, your network is probably already giving you problems and is therefore unlikely to be setup very well. You will probably need to make some improvements in the short term to set us up for long-term success, but I'd bet it won't be as bad as you're worried about. Good solutions are almost never free and aren't necessarily cheap either, but they are WAY less expensive than downtime and repairs. Treat yourself to some peace of mind.
Speaking of peace of mind: In my experience 100% of the small AND medium-sized business customers I have taken over had "backup" solutions that weren't working properly, or at all, when I checked them. Not a single one worked the way the customer expected it was. This makes me worried for you. If you've read this far, I'm willing to bet you're worried too. We should check that. Let's do it soon.
Hardware and Software Services
I couldn't possibly give you a comprehensive list of every product I can sell to you or every cloud-based service provider I can partner with. I can tell you that I have my favorites that the majority of my customers align with perfectly and that I know best... but being independent and having a vast amount of experience helping businesses your size means you will be very unlikely to surprise me with your requirements.
Hardware:
I am happy to custom-build or supervise the custom-building of servers, high-performance workstations, and basic office workstations if it fits your needs. I'll even build a show-off gaming rig that'll make your teenage son cry tell you he loves you again! I got my start in hardware back in the early '90's (see the About page for my history) and I have built or had my employees build literally tens of thousands of systems since that time. I was instrumental in the growth of one of the largest custom PC retailers in the western United States back in the early 2000's. As such, I am very picky about the hardware I sell and I back everything I sell with a free replacement hardware warranty. Simply put, if you buy it from me, I'll take care of you, and you can trust my advice because if you do, I'm in the same boat with you. I have vendor relationships with all major IT distributors in the US and some beyond, and I can make more whenever necessary.
Software:
I have all the usual partnerships with all the usual providers to take care of your software licenses including Microsoft, Adobe, FoxIt, etc. If it makes sense to get it through me so I can manage it for you, I can do that. If it makes more sense to have you get your own licenses directly, we'll do that. I can make a few dollars when you get licenses through me, but it is such a tiny part of what I do (unlike most IT service providers, both large and small, whose entire business model is built on expanding their recurring subscription base), that I will not try to force you into the products that only I can provide or get precious about where you get your licenses. I simply offer cloud and subscription licenses as a convenience to my clients... so if it's best for you, I can take that off your plate and make a few bucks.
And Everything else:
Yep. My customers generally expect to be able to express a need to me and tell me to make it happen and turn around to find it working. If you need a technology solution up and going, I can help you get it done, whether that's providing it directly or managing the provider that does. More importantly, I'll make sure it will integrate well with your entire company's long term strategy before I let you spend any money on it. If you've ever fought your camera security system to work with your alarm company and still had it not work with your phone system or network firewall, you'll know why good decisions are even more important than good execution. I'd recommend you involve me in the decision making process, not just the implementation after you've already hit problems.
