Filed under: Business, IT Community, small business —
Posted: 10:17
February 28, 2010

The title of this post comes from a line in a classic film, in my opinion, which is The Crow. During the film Skank is asked by Top Dollar ‘Don’t you feel that?’; he response by saying ‘I feel like a little worm on a big f*****’ hook.’, classic line. So what is the relevance? Let me explain.

For those that rotate in the same IT circles as I do then you will have seen much of the buzz at the minute surrounding the CompTIA Reseller Forum this week and the TCA Conference. Both of these events were fantastic but I will not go into how the day panned out as other have done this already, you can read about it here or here. One of the points that was raised in the resellers forum was the relationship with vendors or distributors and the IT Resellers. The fact is that many of the traditional distributors don’t give a lot of attention to small IT resellers, the kind of people that were at the Resellers Forum, as they are moving lots of boxes to the big retailers such as Ebuyer, Dabs etc. The reality is that much of the time it is cheaper for the reseller to buy from the likes of EBuyer and Dabs as they are generally cheaper than buying through the normal distribution channel. The problem for the reseller is the consumer, the very people they are selling to can buy from these guys as well.

One of the suggestions from a friend and fellow member, Richard Tubb from Netlink IT, was to engage with the vendors and distributors on a personal level by asking them ‘How can I help you’. Now this philosophy, in this context, is quite unusual. Don’t get me wrong the concept is not alien to me, as a BNI member I am a big believer of ‘Givers Gain’ which basically says if I help you then someday you will help me too. However, I have never thought of it in this context and it started me thinking about things. After thinking about this a little I realised that this was something that I was already engaged in with a distributor of mine, Security IP. Some of my fellow AMITPRO members will already know Security IP but they are small distributor by comparison to others out there but that does not make them weaker but stronger in my opinion. My account manager there is James Cole who I have known for more years than I care to recall as I knew him at the last company he worked for. We have always had a candid relationship as I explained from the outset that I would likely never bring him any *big* orders but I would do all I could to get him in front of other people like me to that they can get more business, and I did this because I wanted to not because there was anything in it for me. What has happened is that when there are any new products coming out then he calls me and we get to be one of the first to try it, more importantly our feedback is heard and, where appropriate, acted upon. I also get help with marketing

Now as a small IT reseller would I get that type of support from a larger distributer? Almost certainly not, so why would a smaller distributer want to engage me in such a way? Well that I can only speculate from my point of view but firstly we have a relationship; what I call a personal-business relationship where by the personal boundaries blur slightly around that edge of the business relationship. Secondly, from the outset we have both made a concerted effort to help one another to develop our businesses by helping the other. Not in a conscious or premeditated way, if either of who has not been able to reciprocate it would not have made any difference, the relationship was there anyway.

So what is the point of the post? The point is that we live in a time when everything has been commoditised and we go after the cheapest price, much of this has been created by the box shifters like EBuyer, Dabs even Asda and Tesco. In spite of this there are still suppliers, distributors and vendors out there that want to make those personal connections and work with small IT resellers who don’t think that they are ‘big’ enough to be noticed. So speak up because you may just be surprised.

- Rob

Comments (7)

Filed under: Business, IT Community, small business — Tags: Business, CompTIA, IT Community, TCA —
Posted: 06:07
February 25, 2010

Are you getting what the IT community is about yet? A while back I wrote a post about the power of the IT community and what it can deliver to you, it seems so strange looking back that there was a time when I didn’t ‘get it’.

Right now I am sat in a TravelLodge in Leicester as I am attending the CompTIA resellers forum at 7.30am at the Holiday Express followed by the TCA Conference at 10.45am at the Walkers Stadium. Yesterday evening all of the people attending the Resellers Forum were out for a dinner kindly laid on by Kaseya, and yes it was a room full of geeks but it was a great night out and fantastic opportunity for me to get together again with Chris Timm, Richard Tubb, Andy Parkes, William Linard, Adam Harris and many others some of whom I had not see for some time. These guys are some of the best in our industry and I proud to say my friends. On the face of it some of these guys run IT companies that are doing what I do so why on earth would I want to be socialising with them much less sharing the way we work? Quite simply because through sharing, you get the reassurance that ‘that awkward customer’ is not just unique to you and that others face the same challenges that you do. Also by working together we can all help to raise the standard in the industry and that is what the Resellers Forum is all about. If you run an IT business and are interested in getting involved in the Resellers Forum then you should contact William Linard for more information.

Comments (2)

Filed under: Business, Personal Develoment, small business —
Posted: 23:24
November 13, 2009

When I first started in I.T I was young and able to absorb everything I read and memorised it all. Then as the years passed by I learned more about processes for performing regular tasks in my work and they became my own. So much so that they were engrained within who I was and I never needed to look this type of information up.

However, as I have gotten more involved in the business of running a business and not just owning a job it has become much more difficult to remember this so fluently as I used to. This gave rise to processes. Many people have come across Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which are common practice in large organisations but not so in small businesses, why? The reason is quite simple; In order for a large business to run fluently and in the way the creator designed it there must be an SOP as he/she will not be there to train every role in the business.

I am currently in the process of creating a whole raft of checklists for tasks which are undertaken at a clients site along with business processes for things that must be completed within our own business. So what needs to be documented? Anything and everything…..this sounds like a mammoth task but it isn’t. The reality is that you need to document anything which needs to be done but should not require you to perform it yourself.  For example my topic this weekend is ‘SBS2oo3 to SBS 2008 migration checklist’. This is simply a checklist to tech’s to following when they are performing this type of migration. It is not a full migration manual for SBS but it is a ‘crib sheet’ to help job the memory of a training technician so that something important is not forgotten.

Does your business need checklists and procedures? Maybe. Would it benefit? Definitely.

- Rob

Comments (0)

Filed under: Personal, Personal Develoment, small business —
Posted: 12:19
November 7, 2009

My experience of the IT community up until running my own business was..well inbred to say the least. The company that I worked for previously bordered on almost grooming you to distrust other IT companies as if they were the ‘enemy’.  To my shame this was a feeling that was exaggerated in some of my future engagements after leaving there and setting up on my own. However, about 2 years ago I joined the BNI which is an international business referral network which brings different businesses together to allow them to pass business once a certain rapport has been made. I will always remember the first meeting I went to was at Woodborough Hall in Nottingham on a dark November morning. I arrived there at 06:45, that’s right 6.45am, to a room full of people that I had never met. I mean talk about a fish out of water, I don’t think I could have been more uncomfortable if I had been stood there naked!

None the less the first person to that came to speak with me was Adam Harris from Bear-IT who came over to speak with me and discuss what I did. This totally opened my eyes to the fact that maybe, just maybe, those other IT companies were not so evil after all and that maybe, just maybe, there could be synergies between seemingly rival businesses. After this Adam invited me up to meet with him to discuss things further. I was told by another IT company that I was working with at the time not to discuss software and tools etc as they should be a closely guarded ’secret’. However, once I started talking with Adam I found that we all do the same things, same tools, same software just a different business with different faces. So I reciprocated the openness that was shown to me.

Fast forward on to the beginning of this year when I was approached by another IT consultant and fellow business owner from Birmingham. Richard Tubb from Netlink IT contacted me following some posts which I had made on Twitter. After reading Richard’s blog it seemed clear that he had travelled the business path which I wanted to embark upon, making the move from being ’self-employed’ to being a ‘business owner’, so we began to talk. Once again I was astounded at the openness of information that was being afforded to me by someone I had only known a short time. Things such as the type of tools to use, how to deliver the best customer experience, service management and delivery, all of which is normally hidden information within the IT trade. So why was all of this being given free of charge, without a catch or clause? Because Richard believed in the community and the power of working together instead of against each other. Now all of this collaboration what highlighted when in May 2009 I was drafted in by Richard and some of his peers to assist in a massive nationwide upgrade project for one of their clients, you can read all about it here. All in all there was 8 different IT businesses working together under on collaborative umbrella which meant that what was a massive project which included over a dozen servers, 200+ desktops across 13 sites was all made possible by the IT community working together instead of against each other.

It was once said by John Donne “No man is an island”, and no truer word has been said. For those that run businesses it can be quite isolating but there are people out there who are willing to work with you and help you so don’t be afraid to ask.

If you are interested in developing a strategic alliance with myself then please feel free to contact me at rob@potter-tate.co.uk. Alternatively if you have a storey you would like to share about how the community has helped you then send it over as it would be great to share.

- Rob

Comments (1)

Filed under: Business, IT Support, small business —
Posted: 20:54
June 3, 2009

I went out today to visit a client who was having problems with ESET Anti Virus.  It transpired that despite paying for the software from their previous supplier and it being licensed until September 09 it was having a problem with the username & password for downloading updates. They did not have a copy of the username and password details nor were they able to contact their old IT supplier as they did not seem to be in contact any longer. The simplest way forward was to contact ESET directly to try to obtain the details. After a brief conversation with the main switchboard I was told that they would get someone to call us back from tech support as soon as they were available, yeah heard that before! However I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call back from their tech support team asking how they could help. I explained the situation and gave the username that we had from the software, I was asked to hold. The next thing person to come on the phone asked if I had a “query regarding why the account was suspended”. I replied that I was just trying to find out what the password was as to was not downloading updates anymore. I was then told that the reason it had been suspended was because the previous IT supplier had not paid them for the software. I was asked if I was calling from the “end user” to which I replied “yes”.  Now at this point the client had paid the supplier for the software, however the supplier had not paid ESET so by rights the dispute was between client and supplier; ESET was under no obligation to correct this situation. What they actually did was nothing short of exceptional.  The man on the phone said “ok, I will re-activate the license to the end of it’s period in September. The only thing I ask is that when it is due you renew the product with us”.  This surpassed anything that I was expecting from this situation, the fact was as I said ESET did not have to put this right but the did. 

At the end of this, for the cost of a license, they have a very satisfied client who will tell a good few people how well ESET looked after them.  It was once said that sometimes you have to give something away free in order to get more business, this is a classic example of how to look after you client even if it may cost you a little; in the long run it will be worth.

Comments (2)

Filed under: Business, IT Support, life, small business — Tags: Business, IT Support, life —
Posted: 19:37
May 13, 2009

Over the years I have seen a great many IT engineers come and go, after all 16 years is a  long time in the trade. During that time I have also taught a number of engineers the best ways to do the job, many of which had no formal qualifications such as MCP, MCSE etc. The first lesson that I have always made a point of teaching is to listen; listen to the client. Whenever you go out on a service call you will be given a description of the issue that you are there to resolve. In my opinion, the golden rule is to sit down with the client and ask them to explain the problem and listen.  There are two reasons why I always do this; firstly the information that you have been given on your job sheet will be what the help desk interpreted from the client but may not be accurate so best to check. Secondly, you will allow the client to vent themselves to you and during the discussion you can usually connect with them on some level which will invariably given you a better insight to both the issue faced and the client personally. I have always felt that this was standard, common sense in all businesses.  However, those of you that follow me on twitter (@robfranklin) will have seen the experience that I had with Dell’s tech support on Friday which left me feeling somewhat frustrated.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me: “Hi there, I have a problem with BackupExec for Small Business Server that was supplied with these new servers for my client”.

Dell: “What is the problem?”

Me: “When I enter the license key it says that it is invalid. It accepts the “Premium” license key but it will not accept the SBS key”

Extended period of silence…now 15 minutes in to the call and not progressed

Dell: “What license number do you have?”

Me: “The license key is…”

Dell: “That’s a serial number”

Me: “It says license key?”

Dell: “No that’s the serial number”

Me: “But it says on the front cover that it is the “Software License Key” and inside, just above the key, it says “Software License Key”. Surely it would say serial number if that is what it is?”

Dell: “No that’s the serial number, you need to go to the Symantec licensing portal and register the serial number”

Me: “But I have done dozens of these and I have always just entered the key into the software”

Dell: “They have tightened up the licensing recently”

Me: “Hmm, ok where do I go to register the ’serial number’?”

So now we go to the Symantec licensing portal, I complete the registration in order to log on to the site. After entering the ’serial number’ it says that the ’serial number’ is invalid.

Me: “It says the number is invalid”

Dell: “Are you sure it is entered correctly?”

Me: “Yes I’m sure but it does not say it is a serial number it clearly says it’s a license key”

Dell: “Ok I need to speak with Symantec, can you hold"?”

Me: “Err yeah ok”

So I was put on hold, 35 minutes in to the call and I had made no progress. Needless to say I did not stay on hold as by this point I was completely frustrated by the fact that the support technician was simply not listening. The conversation above it not verbatim but I must have explained to this guy about 10 times that it clearly states it is a License Key and not a Serial Number but he was not listening.

The most important skill that any person who is in a customer facing role can do is just listen. By not exercising this most fundamental skill during this call my whole experience with Dell’s “Pro-support” was completely destroyed and had this been my first experience then I would be one very unhappy client and would think twice about buying Dell again.  That said only a week before I had spoken to them and the support tech I spoke to I cannot say enough about. He listened and acted on what I was telling while verifying what I was saying was correct.

I can only assume that my bad experience was a one-off but none the less it was a bad experience.  So if nothing else, don’t talk just listen and everything else will take shape.

Comments (0)

Filed under: Business, small business — Tags: strategic web masterclass, web marketing —
Posted: 21:18
April 8, 2009

Following on from my recent post about Strategic Marketing Masterclasses, the same company is now running Strategic Web Masterclasses. So what is a “Strategic Web Masterclass”? In simple terms it will help a business owner or the person tasked with looking after the website to be able to an action plan that is tailored to their business and not just something off the shelf. For those that are interested the course can be fully funded for eligible businesses. Read on for more info:

Overview
Award winning marketing consultancy, Fresh Marketing Solutions have put together a course to help all businesses maximise the return from their website. The 1 day Web Masterclass will provide the opportunity for learners to put together a website action plan that is tailored to their business. They will learn about the different considerations when producing a successful website and will be able to put together an action plan to be used in their business.

Masterclass Content
During the intensive 1 day course, learners will cover a variety of topics such as graphic design and page structure, web standard and technologies, getting the right content, search engine requirements, being realistic with your budget, planning your website and writing a brief for web designers. The course is suitable for any team member that wants to understand how to maximise return from their website.

The Benefits
Upon completion of the course each learner will have a good understanding of the various elements that will help their website to become more successful. By having this first hand understanding you will be in a better position to chose the right web company and get the most from their current website.

The Web Consultant
With over 10 years experience, our Web Consultant selected to run the Masterclass has a wealth of experience across businesses from a variety of sectors. These range from large organisations, small to medium enterprises and independent sole traders.

Course Details
Masterclasses will be held in May 2009. The course will be delivered in a local training facility where refreshments and lunch will be included. Specific details of location, times etc will be issued in the learner packs sent 2 weeks before the course begins. All learning materials will be provided.

The course is priced at £500 per learner (excluding VAT) with the option of group discounts.

Funding Now Available
For eligible companies*, Fresh will be able to arrange government funding to meet 100% of the course costs.

Important Information
The course will be delivered over 1 day from 9.30am to 5.30pm You will receive notification by email that we have received your booking form.
A pre-course information pack will be sent out to all learners in advance of the course. The course must be paid for in full before the start of the course. This booking form constitutes a legally binding contract. In the event of cancellation, refunds will be made minus any associated costs.

* For businesses that are eligible for funding, payment will be required prior to the course which will then be reimbursed to the learner.

If you are interested then please feel free to contact me directly rob@freethecityone.co.uk or contact Fresh Marketing Solutions directly on 01623 786786

Comments (0)

Filed under: Business, small business — Tags: Business, marketing, small business —
Posted: 20:26
April 2, 2009

I try not to do any shameless “whoring” but sometimes it just has to be done for the greater good.  There are a great deal of small business out there trying a great deal of marketing tactics without success because it lacks structure. Unless you have a natural flare or have had training it can be very hard to market your business/product and succeed but with a little training you can.

I am pleased to say that a fellow BNI member and good friend of mine, Kirsty Cambers from Fresh Marketing Solutions, is running a marketing masterclass.  Now in conjunction with Business Link eligible business with 2-249 employees that have not had previous Lead to Succeed Training should be eligible for Business Link support.  This support means that the course cost is reduced from £650 + VAT to just £75.00 + VAT!!  If you are interested please read on:

Overview
Award winning marketing consultancy, Fresh Marketing Solutions have put together a course to help all businesses achieve their commercial objectives in 2009. The 2 day Masterclass will provide the opportunity for learners to put together a strategic marketing plan that is tailored to their business.

Masterclass Content
During the intensive 2 day course, learners will cover a variety of topics such as tools and techniques for analysing their business environment, objective setting, evaluation of different marketing tools, implementation planning and measuring key performance indicators. The course is suitable for any team member that wants to have a structured approach to business growth or who may be relatively new to marketing.

The Benefits
Upon completion of the course each learner will have an accurate and relevant marketing plan to implement within their business. The marketing plan will be an action plan to ensure their commercial objectives are met for 2009. By attending this course, businesses have a much more cost effective method of obtaining strategic focus than hiring in a 3rd party which can cost thousands of pounds in consultancy fees. There will be options for post-masterclass support to ensure that the newly produced marketing plan is being implemented and remains relevant to their business.

The Consultants
With over 10 years of experience, both Consultants selected to run the masterclass have a wealth of experience across businesses from a variety of sectors. These range from large multinational organisations, small to medium enterprises and independent sole traders. Both Consultants are of a high marketing pedigree with proven expertise as practitioners and hold Chartered Markeeter status.

Course Details
Masterclasses will be held across April, May and June 2009. The course will be delivered in a Nottingham training facility where refreshments and lunch will be served on both days. Specific details of location, times etc will be issued in the learner packs sent to you.  All learning material will be provided.

The course is priced at £650 per learner (excluding VAT) with the option of group discounts.

Funding now available
If you have 2-249 employees and have not had previous Lead to Success Training you should be eligible for Business Link support. If you are eligible for funding you will receive a £575 contribution towards the cost of the course.

Kirsty will arrange for Business Link to call you and allocate the funding. If you are eligible for funding you will be reimbursed by Business Link for the amount that you are entitled to. You will be asked to pay the full amount up front then you will receive the £575 reimbursement from Business Link.

If this is of interest to anyone, which it should be at that cost, then please use the form below to contact Fresh Marketing Solutions.

End of shameless whoreing, have a great week all!!

- Rob

Comments (0)

Filed under: IT Support, Light relief, insane stuff, small business —
Posted: 21:41
April 1, 2009

One of our clients called a couple of days ago to say there was a problem on on of the workstations.  In summary the workstation kept crashing on the user and was generally unstable.  After looking I found a number of errors on the workstation and the main one which caused me concern was the errors below:

When we look closer at one of the entries we see the following:

Quite clearly this is a problem. Now the “D” drive is actually a CD/DVD drive and after checking with the client the drive was empty.  The errors were occurring throughout the day as well as overnight when clearly no-one was using it. So I recommended that he call Dell support as the unit was under warranty and it was most likely going to be a hardware fault probably a controller issue.  I spoke with him again later to check how things went and he told me the guy on the phone, in a strong Indian accent, has got him to run the diagnostics and everything checked out fine.  He was told that the error he was being shown was “normal” and was caused because there was not a CD in the drive!!! I really wish someone would have told me about this…all these years I was under the illusion that this symbol combined with the word “Error” was a problem.  I’m so glad that a “quality” support service was able to clarify this clear mis-conception of mine, cheers Dell

- Rob

Comments (0)

Filed under: IT Support, small business — Tags: IT Support, small business, technical support —
Posted: 09:40
March 28, 2009

I was talking to a friend of mine recently and he was telling me about some problems he was having with a new client that his company was looking after. Now he’s no stranger as he has been working with this ISP for more years than I care to remember and during this time he has been supporting end users and businesses with their Internet connections.  This typically covered ADSL connections, hosting, email, ftp etc so he’s no stranger to support but this type of support was a new thing as he was providing IT support. Anyone who provides IT support will know that it is a broad spectrum of support that is provided as we are expected to support servers, workstations, scanners, printers, routers, switches, photocopiers, smartphones and the list goes on.

One of the key characteristics of IT support technicians, in my opinion, is to listen to what the client wants or needs. Once you listen then you can deliver exactly what they are looking for from you but without the very first step you are headed nowhere fast. Now IT support on the “frontline” and Internet support have some very different characteristic but on key difference the scope of products and devices that need to be supported.

It turned out that the main issue with this particular client was that the person coordinating the IT internally did not really understand it which meant that they wanted to know every single last detail about everything on the system.  The was not because of anything other than a fear of having to deal with and support (internally) something that they really didn’t understand on anything other than a desktop use level. What we do is to help the client to understand what they need to know and explain why they don’t need to know about the disk configuration on the server.  This is the core of true IT support, it is the ability to not only support the technology but to also support the clients as an individual so that they can understand and more importantly how it relates to their business.

If your business is not getting good IT support from its supplier or you want to know how your system works for your business then contact us

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