

1. Technology does not really matter:
This group May express pain, but push comes to shove When They are not willing to invest more or make a change to Eliminate That pain. I met the president of a With small manufacturing company recently and she Described all sorts of issues with her server environment, e-mail reliability and vendors pointing the finger at each other. I pressed in a little bit and determined to the e-mail That Were problems impacting sales and profitibility. As we Discussed what was going on, it was clear That They had a reactive information technology (IT) process and the root cause This was of Their issues. I was fairly Indicated That esta Easily solved and it would cost $ 250.00 more than what They Were Effectively paying. They did not agree to another meeting and I suspect something blows up UNLESS That, They Will not make a change Why is this? They confused with It costs vendor bills. They are paying $ 495.00 per Currently month, but we add in the When other costs, it really goes up to closer to $ 1,000.00 per month. What rational person would choose not to solve business issues Their for an additional $ 250.00 per month? One who really does not value technology. In This Case, They are likely experiencing cash flow issues and alternative Means to Have Their business run than rock solid technology. This is not necessarily the wrong answer, but it is important to be honest to determine what the best strategy for the business is.
2. Pain, while there, is not obvious at the executive level:
This group is in the toughest spot. They experience pain From their process technology in business it solutions, but do not always know They it. In some cases, pain is there, but it is really more of a nuisance. One of my partners my company Compared to a physician. I think That this is good analogy, but a hospital or medical practice is probably better. One of my relatives is dying due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). She smoked for sixty years and as recently as a month ago. Yesterday, she said, "this is all my fault." Why did she continue to smoke? She knew it was bad for her, but she did not feel enough pain to overcome her addiction. Furthermore, she did not truly Understand the impact of her lifestyle Entire on her health. While this is an extreme comparison, it is really very like in small businesses.When we walk into a new customer and Implement our process, we find twenty technology issues are out of alignment That. Not all of These issues are mission critical, so we need to drill into pose the biggest Those Which business risk or opportunity. It takes a wide variety of skills and sufficient time and process to do this. Most small businesses are simply not equiped to do it Themselves, but UNLESS They have painful symptoms, take action They Will not.
3. Technology is Mission Critical:
In this category, the company is absolutely dependent on technology. The president of one of my customers Described in it This Way. If Their IT infrastructure is down During busy season Their, They lose 70 customers per hour. Clearly this is a company That Relies on technology. Not only do they have a salt impact from poor performance and technology downtime all of their business areas are affected from customer service, marketing, finance and the executive team. In this case managed services provide tremendous benefits. They were using an IT service provider, but not a true managed services provider by my definition. After making the change, Have Their employees an order of magnitude more productivity due to Substantially lower ticket counts.





