Hosted solutions

It is a new catchy term, hosted. It appears more and more in technology so get used to it. There are a few key areas in communications technology that this term is cementing itself. First of all database and application hosting. Up until know most businesses have tried to manage these services on their own. Hiring IT people, purchasing hardware, and maintaining services within a "telco" room. But it is becoming more attractive to move these services off premise (off location) and let someone else manage them for you. The end user pays a flat fee to have these services maintained.

Phone systems are also now becoming hosted. In the past companies would purchase hardware like routers and servers or PBX phone routing systems, and then deal with several carrier providers for local voice and data. Then the company would employ IT people to manage those services. The problem is the management of a network can bombard an IT person's day taking away the very thing they were hired to do which is provide Intelligence to c level folks. Plus it allows companies to preserve capital by lowering up front costs. Let's face it that is a major concern these days.

I am now allowing Intel to Host my Quickbooks data. It is a great feature for a small business. I do not have to worry about backing up the data manually or through a software purchase. Also for disaster relief scenarios, you cannot beat hosted services. What would happen to your business if a natural disaster like Katrina ruined your city? This hosting idea will be a valid market for businesses to take advantage of over the coming years.

Welcome to the future

Mike

Dedicated internet connection 101

I find businesses trying to cut cost from week to week, it make sense, business is off. But buyer beware when it comes to your Internet connection.

I spend time consulting my clients on this topic. There are several forms of catching an Internet connection in your office. Wireless, cable, DSL, and then there is dedicated. If you can afford it, I recommend businesses using dedicated connections. In other words it is a connection that only your office uses. It is not a shared connection like we see with DSL or cable. The speed does not fluctuate. If you purchase a 512k dedicated connection then it is always 512 up and down, that does not change, plus it is more secure. It provides superior performance and most the IT folks I know would agree with that. You will hear cable providers and phone companies DSL service promise 4 to 7 MB download speed but that is if there is nobody else using the Internet while you are. What are the odds of that?

So before you cut that tie and go DSL or cable and share a connection with your neighbors to save money, make sure you understand the performance consequences. We can negotiate with the service provider on price which will be not much more than DSL. We can bundle the Internet services with your voice calls and LD. Don't cut the corner on this one, I think you will find yourself regretting it if you do.

Welcome to the future.

Mike

Sprint/Nextels unlimited plan is hard to beat

I got a call from a potential client a couple weeks ago. They were looking for a Blackerry roll out and because they are high end users, wanted unlimited usage on all of them. Initially they had mentioned they were partial to Verizon wireless services. That is fine Verizon wireless has a great product. But the unlimited Verizon plan runs at $129.99 monthly without any text messaging included. My consultative voice inside of me had to ask them. "Why are we not considering Sprint?"I was told that because Sprint was losing subscribers that this customer would not consider them. I found this extremely odd. Sprint has a very thorough national digital network. Is it as good as Verizon's, maybe not but the Verizon network is not worth another $40 plus dollars per month per subscriber in this example? Especially in these times. On a 2 year contract, this was a huge difference in price over the 2 year term. But at same time, this same customer was extremely worried about the cost of the handsets. It did not add up for me. To set the record straight, Sprint offers THE most complete unlimited plan in this business. There are carriers that still do not offer or have an unlimited plan. Sprint includes unlimited voice calls, unlimited data which means e-mail and Internet browsing, unlimited texting and even GPS navigation. Recently Boost Mobile which uses the Nextel network offered their unlimited plan for $50. In a time when car manufacturers are offering unique plans for laid off workers, both consumers and businesses alike need to recognize this great value being offered by Sprint.

Welcome to the future.

Mike