outsourced IT management – Page 6 – Cooper Mann Consulting

March 4, 2013July 19, 2018

Helping a Small Business Customer Choose Your Solution

In a previous article entitled The Psychology of Small Business IT Adoption, I discussed Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior and how a number of researchers applied it to the process of small business IT adoption. The concept, which ended up proving to be true, was that IT adoption by small businesses is a function of a number of fairly well-defined elements, and is not so much defined by specific types of businesses or the business leaders. The elements which lead to the act of business IT adoption (as well as adoption of other services, I’ll bet) can be identified and addressed by the potential provider of the product or solution ahead of time, making the possibility of actual adoption much greater.

Knowing how your prospective customer will approach the decision-making process is important, and getting a little insight ahead of time never hurts. Particularly when a lot of customers don’t actually reveal their thinking, it can be tough to know where to begin. You’ve been there before – you’re making your pitch and asking questions, but are getting nothing in return. Sometimes it’s “deer in headlights”, and they are simply overwhelmed. Other times they’re thinking about things you’re not telling them… but they’re not letting you know you’re not telling them. Dead air, and then a lost opportunity.

Boiling it all down to a fairly simple explanation, businesses adopt IT because there is a conscious plan to do so, and that plan is supported by a belief that the solution will do good things for the business, the solution is a recognized (if not expected) approach, and the business believes it has adequate resources and capability to effectively handle it. It’s all about:

Intent,
the attitude towards adoption,
belief of expected outcomes and their value,
expectations and the motivation to comply with them, and
evaluating barriers and the adequacy of resources to overcome them.

Intent

The first and most important element is intent, a conscious plan to get or do whatever it is. If the customer has no plan to get the item and sees no need for it, then the barrier is pretty high. However, if the need can be created, and the customer can be driven to believe they need to get the item, then there is intent. Now they’re looking for you and not vice versa. Consider that the Snuggie wasn’t “something” until folks were told that blankets simply weren’t good enough any more for lounging around (they don’t have sleeves!). Once people believed there was a problem, they pursued finding the solution.

The attitude towards adoption

Next, what’s their attitude towards getting the item? Sometimes people go looking for things they don’t think they can actually get, and often they know they need something but don’t think the solution is even out there, so they have a jaded viewpoint from the start. A prospect with a positive attitude and who wants to actually find a solution is far better to work with than one who has already determined that you can’t help them. Sometimes all it takes is a good listener to help create a positive attitude and make someone willing to tell you how you can help them.

Belief of expected outcomes and their value

Now, what does the customer think they will get from the deal? Will the solution actually solve problems or create new ones, and are the perceived problems to be solved big enough to really worry about in the first place? Small businesses tend to be very cash conscious, wanting as much value as possible for any expenditure. Further, most small businesses don’t let go of their cash easily and certainly not for frivolous purposes, so a successful sale is often supported by the customer’s belief that they will get a real solution and benefit – something of value which will be realized, and that is important enough to deal with sooner rather than later.

Expectations and the motivation to comply with them

It is interesting how many small businesses go shopping for products or solutions that they don’t actually intend to purchase or adopt. Sometimes they just want to be able to say “we’re looking in to it”, even if they aren’t and don’t plan to, and sometimes they have a business requirement that they don’t want to have to meet due to cost or complexity or whatever. Let’s say a business has customers complaining about unresponsive or bad support, and how they should have a ticketing system to help track issues better. Maybe the customers have the right idea: maybe the business should have a ticketing system (the business provides support and ticketing systems are considered a support service industry norm). This is the expectation. Let’s also say the business uses a CRM solution to handle support, and they believe it handles things just as well as a separate “ticketing” solution. Just because there is an expectation (customers want ticketing system), it doesn’t mean the business is motivated to comply (CRM does just fine). Expectations come in many forms and from many sources – customers, vendors, employees, contractors, the government and regulatory… on and on. Expectation and motivation to comply are both high when it comes to legal and regulatory issues, as these things can be tied directly to money and cash and risk. In other areas, it may not be as easy to identify or address. The best way to look at this issue is to try to understand what the business is doing now, whether the approach works or may be materially improved in servicing their business and model, and whether or not the business recognizes an immediate need to make the change.

Evaluating barriers and the adequacy of resources to overcome them

The final and perhaps most important factor in SMB adoption of IT is the simple belief that it can be done. Done at all, I mean, not just done “affordably”. My dad taught me that it’s not a bargain if you can’t afford it. Now, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when a business needs to bite the bullet and extend itself to become better. But any small business in this position is a tough sell, simply due to real resources and capability. No matter how much a business may know it needs something, if it really can’t do it, or believes it can’t – it won’t.

Make sense?

February 21, 2013March 31, 2017

The Psychology of Small Business IT Adoption

Convincing small business owners to adopt and apply technology in their businesses is often a difficult thing to do. While most business owners readily accept the need to have computer software to help them produce information and an email account to communicate with others, even such fundamental business solutions as a business website or computerized accounting system can be a hard sale.

Solution providers in every category are looking for ways to communicate the value of their products and services to businesses, and many do not consider that communicating value to a small business owner is not the same as communicating value to a larger and more established enterprise. There is research available which discusses why small businesses adopt IT, and how the importance (weight) of various factors change as the business grows. With small businesses fueling the economy and numbering far larger than their enterprise counterparts, it makes sense to understand just why small businesses buy. It’s also interesting to note that this research revealed that the different characteristics of firms and individual executives “did not have a unique effect on adoption decisions”. If the decision wasn’t impacted by characteristics of either the firm or individual executives, what does impact the decision?

An academic study by Icek Ajzen (Organizational behavior and human decision processes… University of Massachusetts at Amherst) discusses a theory called the Theory of Planned Behavior, and this theory was posed as a basis for predicting who would pursue a particular course of action or activity. The idea is that “intentions to perform behaviours of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy”, and that the prediction is based on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control. Okay, but what does that really mean?

Intentions represent the strength of a person’s conscious plan to do something. So, when someone intends to do something, like adopt an IT product or service, it means that there is a strong positive plan in that person’s mind to accomplish the activity. However, having a plan in mind – no matter how strong or positive – is impacted by several elements: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control.

Attitude represents the belief that the activity will lead to a consequence that means something. If you have a plan to adopt an IT solution, but then develop a negative attitude towards the likely outcome (consequence) of using the solution, adoption isn’t likely to occur. On the other hand, if the belief is that the results or consequences of adopting and applying the solution will be useful, and deliver benefits in the areas intended, then the chances of deciding to make the purchase increase dramatically.

Another factor which weighs on the intent to do something is the pressure related to “subjective norms”, or what might be considered to be social factors. These factors exist in the firm, in the customer base, with partners, and within the market. As an example, it is an expectation that a business will have email addresses, computers, and other technology to support the business. This is simply a normal expectation of businesses today. It is also a requirement that businesses protect customer information, a requirement and normal practice from both a privacy and regulatory perspective. It is this expectation and the pressure to be “normal” (a motivation to comply) that also weighs on the decision to act and adopt.

The final factor is perceived control, which comes down to the person’s perception of how easy or difficult it will be to do what they’ve got in mind. Looking at various potential obstacles, and judging whether or not the business has the resources and capability to overcome them effectively, results in either a positive or negative impact on the intent.

All of these things are placed in linear order, and a straight line can easily be drawn as you move through the process. It’s all about:

Intent,
- the attitude towards adoption,
  - belief of expected outcomes and their value,
    - expectations and the motivation to comply with them, and
      - evaluating barriers and the adequacy of resources to overcome them.

Make sense?

February 14, 2013

Getting out of IT Jail

I have a friend in the accounting/technology industry that spends way too much time on his business in-house IT. He’s always futzing around with servers and workstations, fixing corrupted data files or PCs that won’t launch applications, and setting up remote access so he can work at home (which he never actually does because he’s at the office fixing IT issues). More often than not, when I try to get time to chat with the guy, his response is “I’ll have to call you later; I’m in IT jail”. As a side note, my friend is Doug Sleeter, a recognized leader in the world of small business accounting and among QuickBooks accountants, consultants and advisors.

My friend works a lot with different solutions and technologies designed to make it easier and more effective to get accounting and business information collected, processed, stored, and reported. He reviews tons of different solutions each year, and looks for those he believes can truly make a positive impact in the life of a business owner. My friend also, as he puts it, “eats his own dog food”, meaning that he actually puts into place many of the solutions which he finds to be beneficial so that he can experience their benefit in his own business. His proven experiences then translate to support for the solution in the market. People need to know that a solution will actually do what it is supposed to do, and many wait for someone else (someone they trust) to go first so they can use the customer feedback to help them make a decision.

My friend clearly recognized the growing value of cloud solutions and how implementing cloud-based services to solve specific business problems might be a more effective and affordable way to address growing business needs than with traditional ERP models or installed software approaches. Using different tools that work together (his term for this is “chunkify” 🙂 ), even very small businesses could now affordably address the various operational and financial information management needs which exist at some level in all businesses. Following along with his previous commitment to use and not just talk about these things, he began the process of selection and implementation of various cloud-based applications, tools and integrations for his desktop QuickBooks software.

No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. thesis on Military Strategy, German Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke

It was going great. Application services subscribed to were working as expected, and all sorts of information was fairly seamlessly flowing to and from QuickBooks. And then, it happened – his bookkeeper moved away and wasn’t able to work in the office where the accounting software and data were housed. Take a deep breath. Okay, so back to the remote access thing, and more IT jail.

He worked diligently to create remote access for the now-remote bookkeeper, and remote desktop service worked OK, but it was “a pain to keep working, and it never could give the type of performance we were trying to give her”. Go figure, the one piece of the puzzle left in the office was the one making everything else more difficult and costly. He was in IT jail once again.

The final step was to get the QuickBooks software and company data out of the local network and in a safe and secure and fully-managed environment. Particularly since QuickBooks is (in this case) the centerpiece of the business accounting system, it became essential to place it in an environment where it would be maintained, monitored, and protected by people who specialize in that sort of thing. My friend, like most business owners, just didn’t have the time and resources to have the level of IT and management that an outsourced commercial service provider could offer.

See The Sleeter Group’s QuickBooks and Beyond article Still Addicted to Desktop Software? Get it Hosted in the Cloud

Intuit even recognized that businesses needed a better way to run and manage their QuickBooks desktop software, so they created an accredited hosting program to allow service providers to offer application hosting and license management services to QuickBooks users. My friend now uses one of these providers to host his QuickBooks and other desktop applications. He still has all the integrations and features he had before, but isn’t required to spend time and productivity fixing hardware issues or software installation problems. His software is installed, maintained, and actively supported by IT professionals who are focusing on nothing more than keeping his systems up and running.

In his own words, “the hosting move offloaded us from having to mess with providing access, and at the same time it improved performance and delegated the IT management”.

For a time my friend and his business went without a high level of IT management and support, but now he completely recognizes that he needs it and is finding it to be well worth the cost. Now he’s got his own “get out of jail” card.

Make sense?

In case you didn’t know it, both Intuit and Sage have programs for service providers, providing authorization to host and deliver small business financial software products to direct customers.

Get information on Intuit’s Authorized Commercial Hosts for QuickBooks here, Get information on Sage hosting partners here.

If you need assistance deciding how to get your applications and business online, or selecting and implementing with a service provider, we can help.

February 13, 2013November 29, 2017

Turning to the IT Department When Times are Tough

When budgets get tight and the economic outlook is bleak, business owners and executives tend to turn to information technology departments and projects as a potential area for cost cutting. The reason for this is that many businesses view IT purely as a cost center, making it a prime target when driving to reduce operating costs. A survey by McKinsey & Company, however, reveals that the current trend is a bit different. While the survey is a bit dated, the information it contains is as relevant today as it was then.

The research indicated that many non-IT executives “seemed to have a developed a healthier appreciation for their information technology functions” according to Joe McKendrick in an older ZD Net article on the subject. McKendrick mentions that business executives generally seem pleased with the way the information technology is helping organizations get through these difficult economic times, “navigating the rough seas” as he put it.

“The survey also suggests that organizations that took the most advantage of information technology going into the downturn may have come out the strongest” observes McKendrick.

The McKinsey & Co Study, authored by Roger Roberts and Johnson Sikes, reported that the economic downturn actually increased awareness of the role information technology can play in improving business processes and reducing costs. As for the quality of services delivered? The study revealed that non-IT executives largely believe their IT functions responded effectively to the economic crisis. A majority said current performance in providing basic IT services is very or extremely effective. In contrast, IT executives had a dimmer view of their performance, with only a minority being satisfied with service delivery levels.

There have always been questions about the alignment of information technology to the business need, and IT is often perceived as being out of touch with the business. In this research, McKinsey & Co indicate that IT executives are very aware of the issues of keeping up with the business and are finding innovative ways of addressing them.

Make sense?

If you need assistance deciding how to get your applications and business online, or selecting and implementing with a service provider, we can help.

January 23, 2013

Licensing and Virtualization: Changes to SPLA May Impact Provider Cost Models

In many application hosting environments, machine and operating system virtualization provide the only realistic means for delivering services for applications which were never designed for high-volume multitenant implementation. In these environments, providers rely upon technologies from Microsoft, VMWare, Citrix and Parallels to provide containment of application environments, creating frameworks where single-tenant applications and hosted infrastructure may be affordably offered to subscribing business customers. Because many of the applications being hosted today do not conform to the various standards which exist for high-volume and multitenant delivery, providers have taken what we’ll call “creative” approaches to virtualized application and environment implementations. Under certain licensing models, these approaches may be sustainable for a period of time. However, recent adjustments to core licensing components and pricing from key providers, Microsoft in particular, may significantly impact the cost of service delivery for providers with less than optimized infrastructure.

One of the notable changes in the Microsoft SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) is the treatment of Windows and RDS users in the “desktop as a service” model. In previous editions of the SPLA, as was offered with 2008/R2 licensing and prior, providers could select from two different models when implementing service: the SAL-only (server access license) model, which applies on a per concurrent user basis to the infrastructure, or the PL (processor license) model, which applied to the processors installed in systems with Windows operating system and SQL server instances.

For high-density and multitenant environments, the per-processor approach is far more cost efficient to implement, as it allows the provider to create a scale economy with the infrastructure, leveraging hardware and resources across many subscribing tenants. Reducing the cost model to a base infrastructure rate also introduced predictability and stability in recurring costs for the provider, even as subscriber numbers and subscription revenues increase.

The problem reveals itself with the providers deploying “not optimal” infrastructure, whether by design or due to legacy application requirements. These providers rely upon the per-user pricing models to support access and usage to the infrastructure, largely due to the fact that the infrastructure has grown “out” and not “up”. Deploying more servers and more VM instances allowed these providers to present legacy applications as part of a managed application service model. While the management of the infrastructure is greatly complicated with this approach, it is often the only means to addressing the needs of popular “noncompliant” applications (such as Intuit QuickBooks and Sage 50). With the SPLA changes introduced for Windows 2012, these service providers may be in a bit of a tough spot. You see, the per-user option for licensing Windows server access is gone, and only the per-processor licensing model remains.

Microsoft is wisely addressing the needs of the market which is demanding more capability and affordability in terms of cloud-based access to applications. These pricing adjustments are necessary to support the needs of service providers who are increasingly stretching their infrastructure investments to deliver higher user density at a lower per-user cost. Further, application developers seeking new markets and delivery models are taking advantage of these virtualization approaches, creating hybrid and hosted solution models around their legacy application products. The licensing approaches which support these higher density application deliveries introduce options for developers to optimize their applications for the hosted model rather than dealing with immediate comprehensive re-development (which isn’t an option for many ISVs – independent software vendors).

The IT world is forging ahead with cloud computing, high-capacity infrastructure, and heavily virtualized environments supporting larger numbers of users. Software developers must take heed, and embrace these deployment models (or at least adjust to the point of supporting them) in order to have a chance at keeping pace in the anytime, anywhere world of today’s business technology. This means working collaboratively with hosting service and infrastructure providers, crafting services which have the required scalability and incorporating a deployment model agile enough to take advantage of infrastructure licensing benefits as they are introduced.

What was a serviceable pricing structure yesterday may be an anchor holding your profitability down tomorrow. Service providers – make sure you’re keeping a close eye on licensing requirements and delivery cost models, and consider that building up your infrastructure capability is often more cost efficient than building out.

Make sense?

BuildingUP.biz | CooperMann.com

Licensing for Hosted Application Services: Why it costs what it costs

read more about the confusion over hosted licensing on The Progressive Accountant http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/tech-tips/confusion-over-hosted-licensing.html

December 12, 2012

The True Cost of the Cloud

Excerpt from article on Intuit Accountants News Central: The True Cost of the Cloud

“Accounting professionals are strongly encouraged to adopt cloud computing models in their practices, and there can be little argument that mobility and access are driving the need. In concert with the messages supporting mobile access to business information – and the value of anytime, anywhere access – cloud service providers are strongly suggesting that the overall cost of purchasing and maintaining information technology (IT) in the business is much lower when a cloud computing approach is used.

Arguments over the total cost of IT and related services become somewhat subjective. Many business owners and managers fail to consider the value of their own time spent dealing with business technology issues, much less the time spent by in-house employees and remote workers. To further complicate the issue, dramatic changes in process support and delivery, connected service and cloud computing approaches are impacting business productivity and profitability in new and dramatic ways. As a result, every business should consider the costs and the benefits of this new connected and collaborative working model.

At the core, cloud computing is really just an outsourced IT service that addresses the various levels of application and computing infrastructure. From IaaS (infrastructure as a service) to SaaS (software as a service) and all things in between, a viable cloud computing approach for a business may encompass little more than co-location of physical server and network resources with a third-infrastructure provider to something much larger scale, such as offloading virtually every aspect of application management and delivery to a SaaS solution.

Because there is no single, correct definition of what makes up a “cloud” service model, attempting to compare costs directly to a more traditional IT approach is quite complicated.”