"...Why do I need to hire an IT Consultant?"
After securing your DBA and inking the contract on that perfect property, your first order of business will be to hire a General Contractor to oversee the construction or remodeling process. While this crucial step is meant to relieve your burden, General Contractors have a tendency to "bully" their clients by taking full control, thereby limiting your options, enforcing contract stipulations, and demanding exclusivity. Before your GC makes all the decisions for you, have your IT Consultant review the plans. You have every right to ensure the job is done right. After all, it's your money and your entire business depends on solid IT infrastructure.
Your IT Consultant will help you manage:
Voice and Data Cabling
General Contractors are not licensed to install Fire Alarm Systems, so in order to pass a Fire Marshall inspection and be granted building occupancy, they are required to hire State Certified Alarm Systems Installers. Similarly, General Contractors are required to hire State Licensed Electricians to follow National Electrical Code (NEC) and Fire Safety standards when installing high voltage cabling. But while GCs usually follow the laws on high voltage cabling, they almost NEVER hire IT Contractors to install low voltage communications cabling, which is subject to the very same NEC and Fire Safety standards. Instead, they make critical mistakes such as running ethernet cables in parallel with high voltage cabling or in close proximity to lighting fixtures which emit EMI. They often leave bundles of voice and data cables resting on ceiling tiles or suspended from ceiling grids. The solid copper wires of a Cat6 cable are only microns thick. Thus, mishandling the delicate cable by bending it sharply or not creating service loops, creates breakages, effectively ruining your ethernet runs. Trying to cut back on materials by not leaving enough slack at both ends results in having to re-run the cable, creating more waste (the most expensive cable is the one that is cut 1" too short).. Also, excessively long runs beyond the manufacturer specifications result in packet loss, crippling your voice and data networks. And finally, using non-certified CCA or non-plenum cabling in breathable air spaces is flat out against the law! Does all of that sound confusing or highly technical? Well, it IS... Before allowing your General Contractor to run low voltage communications cabling throughout your building, you should discuss your daily operations with your IT consultant who will review your blue prints and ensure your building has adequate cabling that is installed to NEC and Fire Safety standards, thereby minimizing potential disasters, laying the foundation for a strong network backbone, and avoiding costly construction delays.
Phone and Internet Service
A common mistake business owners make is rushing out to sign up for internet and phone service without giving any thought to what type of phone system and internet speed is appropriate for their long term needs. There's a lot of pressure to have a working internet connection at the new office during the transition and build out phase and that can cause panic, resulting in hasty decisions. A sales rep will always push the latest and greatest while presenting it to you as the most sensible or even "standard" package - but it's impossible for the sales rep to see things from your perspective, as they have no familiarity with your daily operations or IT needs. Talk to your IT Consultant about phone system options (there are LOTS of them!) so that you can subscribe to the right type of digital or analog lines and the correct number of phone lines for the phone system that you will be purchasing. Your internet speed is also important. Introductory offers for the fastest speeds available are often very attractive, but can balloon after the first few months. Your IT Consultant can help you choose an affordable plan with adequate speed and bandwidth.
Equipment and Purchasing
Technology is a dizzying subject, comprised of limitless options for your business platform: "Do I need VoIP or analog phones? Do we need basic accounting software, a CRM or an ERP, and which one should we purchase? Should we host our services in the cloud or install them on-premise? Which will cost more and which one will give us the greatest flexibility and the best return on our investment?" As a business owner, you are ultimately responsible for these tough decisions but without careful consideration, you could be walking into a minefield. Through long term exposure, experienced IT Consultants are equipped to help you choose the apps and technologies that will bridge the gap and propel your business into the future. Furthermore, a seasoned IT Consultant will know what pitfalls to watch out for, helping you avoid costly mistakes. From phones, firewalls and switches, to servers, workstations and printers, barcoding and inventory systems, and even website hosting, you will be much more successful with an IT Consultant to help you through the procurement process.
HIPAA Compliance
If your business handles ePHI, then you are all too familiar with the stringent protocols involved in managing data and access controls. While HIPAA regulations are often restrictive and sometimes unclear, it helps to have an experienced IT Consultant to guide you through the migration process, and ensure that you retain your precious data and maintain compliance every step of the way.
Ongoing Support
Now that you have taken sensible steps to secure your network, consolidate your list of vendors and services, and successfully deploy your communications infrastructure, regular maintenance is the crucial next step. In a perfect world, Windows would never act screwy, WiFi would always be blazing fast, and printers would never go offline, but in an office buzzing with staff and a steady flow of customers, you are bound to encounter technical issues. On top of that, in order to maintain a secure network and keep all your system components up-to-date, you will need to stay on top of software updates, security patches, and hardware testing. As the CFO of your small business, you know how vital employee productivity is to your bottom line. So rather than playing the role of Tech Support, it's important that they spend every moment on the clock working toward your company goals. Your IT Consultant is the person most qualified to handle the role of Tech Support. After all, who knows your system better than the one who helped you design and deploy it?
Backup and Disaster Recovery
No business plan is complete without a Disaster Recovery plan. It has been statistically proven that most businesses will NOT survive a major data loss or security breach. From customer accounts and marketing plans, to tax records and accounts receivable, company data is the lifeblood of your organization. Hard drive failure rates, ransomware, cyber security attacks, and poor security practices are responsible for destroying countless small businesses and causing millions of dollars in annual damages. To their detriment, business owners develop a false sense of security, trusting their data to the cloud. In fact, more than HALF of the world's business data is hosted in the cloud. Your data is not safe unless you or someone you trust is ACTIVELY monitoring your backup scheme, which should consist of MULTIPLE copies in different locations, with at least ONE offline copy. This is called the 3-2-1 rule and while it's highly effective at mitigating the risk of data loss, you'll need to spend a considerable amount of time researching how to effectively implement it, or you'll need to rely on the expertise of a seasoned IT Consultant to strategize your backup scheme and provide you with reasonable Disaster Recovery options so that you can maximize your uptime and secure your company's future.
"I'm ready to talk..." Great! Let's find out if we're a good fit for one another.
You might be surprised how easy it is to get answers to difficult tech questions.