We don’t sell workstations, servers, printers, scanners, network equipment, keyboards, mice, monitors, CCTV systems, door access control systems, tablets, phones or two way radios. We don’t see it as being the best use of our time and resources. Instead, we advise our customers on what they should buy based on a good understanding of their current needs and future plans.
Every new customer we speak to without fail isn’t happy with their computer manufacturer or their IT services provider. That’s not necessarily because the IT services provider or computer manufacturer has done something wrong. It’s generally because the expectations that the customer had weren’t properly communicated or understood.
For example: we spoke to a very nice gentleman from Kilkenny on Thursday who felt that he was being over charged for web hosting. We spoke to him by phone for two hours to determine exactly what he was charged for and by what companies. He was very frustrated at the beginning of the conversation because his perception was that he was finding it very difficult to get straight answers out of anyone. 30 minutes into our conversation, we started to understand what was wrong. His web hosting fees had moved between companies because of mergers or company closures. To cut a long story short, it turns out that this person was paying for hosting that he wasn’t using but he was also getting hosting from a very nice company that hadn’t ever charged him. When I asked why, they said that he was a nice man that was just confused and they just wanted to help him out. The outcome of the conversation was he consolidated his hosting with two providers instead of four and he now has a complete view of exactly what he’s paying for. The point here is that if any one of his existing providers took the time to talk to this gentleman in plain English he would have been more than happy. It is also important to note that he was getting exactly what he needed and because a very nice company were providing hosting for free, he hasn’t saved anything by talking to us but he’s gone away happier with his hosting providers than he was before. As an independent consultant, we are able to advise you on the best course of action to take because if you buy a server for €500 or €50000, we don’t profit from it. Our only motivation is to find you the system or service that is most suitable for your needs.
So, the next time you look for quotes for new equipment in your office, give us a call. We won’t promise to find you the cheapest quote but we will find you the most appropriate quote for your specific business needs and plans.
Questions we ask are:
- What do you have at the moment?
- How much storage is used on each PC? How much storage is used on the server?
- Do your PC’s download and install Windows updates regularly?
- Do your PC’s get antivirus updates regularly?
- Do your employees move between PC’s?
- Do you need access to mail on your mobile phone?
- Do you need access to the company network when outside the office?
- What do you think is the most critical part of your IT infrastructure?
The following are a number of problems we have fixed in the past due to poorly specked systems.
- Insufficient disk space.
- Insufficient RAM.
- Consumer licenses of Windows and Office resulting in limited functionality.
- Slow network connectivity resulting in long waits while opening files on the network.
- Poor security.
- No redundancy resulting in lost data.
Here are some of the tasks we completed recently:
- Moved a single server from a purpose built rack to a temporary location while construction was ongoing.
- Added proactive monitoring to a server to specifically test for internal temperature changes and fan speed.
- Added a mail relay server virtual appliance. Used to scan all inbound and outbound mail for spam and viruses before delivering it to an Exchange mail server.
- Sourced and installed a new network switch in a growing office.