Ed Anderson

I thought I would continue on my same train of thinking from my last blog since I just scratched the surface when it comes to focusing on your business.  The idea of ensuring that any business owner focuses on the core of his/her business is crucial to the success. 

IT is one very important factor when looking at ways to reduce wasted time, downtime, costs, etc.  But as I have learned over the past few years, there are many types of ‘distractions’ that can take away from the focus a business requires.  And while I do not profess to being an expert in this area (there’s always much more to learn), I thought I would share some of the key ideas that have helped me keep my own focus:

• IT: ok, I had to use this one first since it’s front and center of what we do.  But it’s worth mentioning that we went through a complete overhaul ourselves over the past 18 months and now have all of our core systems running in our Kelowna datacenter.  I can tell you first hand that not having the systems in-house where there are environmental factors such as dust, improper temperatures, etc. have improved our systems to the point where we have no downtime.  I no longer have to spend any time worrying about our systems.
• Time management: this was probably the single most important factor that has helped become more productive.  I won’t go into the finer details of the what/how/when since I think each and every person have different working habits (for example, I’m a morning person and love starting my day in the office at 6:30/7am, while others are most productive in the evenings).  But just knowing that I had to improve my time management skills forced me to look at my days and tweak them so that I get the most out of my time.
• Eliminating distractions: I will be the first to admit that this one is very difficult to do once you have certain habits; for example, turning off email while working on anything that requires your full attention.  While this seems easy, for those of us who live on computers all day long, it took some time for me to adjust to this (and thanks to Mike for helping with this!).  Other little things such as turning the phone on do not disturb, letting others know you are working on something important, etc. all make a huge difference in focus. 
• Scheduling everything: while this may not be for everyone, it made a big impact again on productivity.  I schedule every single thing that I have to do in my calendar so that I know exactly what I want to get accomplished each day.  While this can change on the fly due to many different reasons, it does ensure that the priorities are set so that nothing gets left undone.
• Planning: I know that business plans, financial plans, etc. are discussed at length by many organizations and people, the one thing that I learned is that it doesn’t have to be exhausting.  It can be a very neat and simple plan that outlines all the critical items you want to get done over periods of time (the Rockefeller habits can greatly simplify this as well).  Just having this written down and reviewed regularly is an improvement over not having any plan whatsoever. 
• Delegation: I’ve learned that I wasn’t the only business owner who had a problem with delegating and letting go.  The only way any business can grow and mature is by enabling our staff to also mature and grow with you.  Letting other staff perform the work that you have been doing for years isn’t an easy task to take on since we all believe we can do it better (but that is definitely not the case!). 

These are just some of the small things I have learned over the past few years and while there are many more, I’m certain there’s just as many more yet to learn.  IT is just one component that should not be a distraction for small businesses but it still seems to be a consistent one for some.  It should provide you with the tools to help run your business better and become more efficient.

I thought I would shift the focus a little away from the technical side of things and talk about the business aspects of IT.  For many of us that run small and mid-sized companies, we are acutely aware of the importance of every minute of the day.  Hence why it is very important to ensure the focus is spent on the core of the business instead of worrying about those pesky IT issues.

Having a full time IT Department is a luxury that very few small to mid-sized organizations can afford, and probably wouldn’t want if they could.  What this too often means to those firms is they spend too much time having to worry and deal with IT issues that come up on a daily basis.  And unfortunately it’s usually the owners, directors, CEO’s, CFO’s, etc. that end up getting involved and spending enormous amounts of their time trying to work through the issues.

Fortunately, there are solutions out there that can resolve this problem.  There are organizations, such as Dyrand, that can provide all of the functions of an IT Department at a fraction of the cost.  There are many different names for these services but Managed Services seems to be the most commonly used.  These services have evolved extensively over the past 10 years and there are many variations but the key ingredients should at minimum provide the following:

• Helpdesk: having a dedicated team of technicians that provide a helpdesk to all of your staff members is crucial to freeing up other people’s time. 
• 24X7 Support and monitoring: having monitoring systems in place 24X7 is also critical so that problems that arise afterhours can be dealt with properly.  Having a support team that also provides the 24X7 service is no longer a nice to have, it’s a necessity.
• Records and accountability: each and every transaction that occurs on your systems, whether it is a simple password reset, printer issue, or major upgrades must be properly tracked in a PSA (professional service automation) system.  This can provide valuable reports, trends, etc. that can help decipher larger problems and aid in planning budgets, implementations, etc.
• CIO: as in any large organization, having a dedicated person or team to help guide the organization through IT planning and ensure that the IT needs match up with the business requirements is critical.  There are still too many organizations that get sold equipment and software by vendors that have no idea what those systems will be used for.  Having a CIO manage this process will enable the organization to closely match business needs with IT requirements.

The key idea here is to allow the key people in your organization to focus on their primary functions.  I know as a business owner myself that focus on the key elements each day is no longer something that I should be doing, but is a MUST in order to continue to move the firm forward.

Well, I know it’s not the most exciting topic but since it does seem to get discussed at most meetings these days more than anything else, I thought I may as well write a little about it. And I know I have been negligent in getting my posts going again since the holidays but fortunately for us, it has been an unbelievably busy start to the year!

Backups versus Disaster Recovery

I know these are almost always used in conjunction with one another, but they can be quite different. Backups are generally used so that you can easily and quickly retrieve data that gets accidently deleted, corrupted, etc. They are frequently performed onsite (so kept at the same location as the live data) and thus are prone to elements that affect a complete office.

Disaster recovery solutions are designed to ensure that your company can get their data and their systems back and running again in the event that a serious problem occurs at a site. This usually (and should always) means that the data and hopefully system files are stored at a second location, sometimes at a datacenter or remote office. Larger organizations often have ‘hot sites’, which can take over almost immediately should a complete site go down. The key to deciding what your company requires is simply by asking how long you can be down before it really impacts your business or worse, go out of business completely. There are many variations of disaster recovery plans but the key is starting by evaluating the business impacts and requirements.

RPO versus RTO

Most organizations start with these 2 critical objectives when designing their disaster recovery solution: recovery point objective and recovery time objective. RPO can be simply described as the maximum level of data loss that is acceptable following an unplanned event. For example: if a firm decides that the RPO is 2 hours, then the DR plan’s objective is to only lose 2 hours worth of data when an event occurs. This means that the backups must be running at least every 2 hours to be able to meet this RPO. If the RPO is 24 hours, they must simply ensure they have proper nightly backups running to meet this objective. RTO is described as the period of time that the business/technology systems must be restored following an unplanned event. For example, for some online firms, their RTO is almost instantaneous, however, for most small businesses, the RTO can be a day to a few days in length.

Backups and Disaster Recovery solutions vary from very simple to very complex, depending upon the need of each organization. The key to getting started is asking the key business questions and then applying the correct technology to come up with the solution.

While attending my annual (and favorite) conference, I realized that I missed one of the key elements to controlling IT costs in my last blog: standardization.  And I think it’s an important enough component that I have to dedicate this post to just that topic.

Trying to support an environment where there is no standardization can be a very costly venture.  I like the analogy that a colleague of mine used recently: imagine trying to repair and maintain cars and/or trucks of a particular manufacturer if they used different components for the same model of vehicle.  Every time a car comes in for repair, you not only have to try and troubleshoot the problem, you also have to figure out what part the vehicle is in need of replacement and then determine which version of that part. 

The same can be said about IT.  When you have a multitude of various operating systems, software versions, networking equipment, hardware platforms, etc., it will inevitably take longer to troubleshoot issues (not to mention there will be more of them) which will cost more time and money.  It can create a lot of frustration for the end users who will have problems communicating properly, sharing documents, as well as create an environment that is very difficult to maintain. 

The standardization of your IT infrastructure will save you money, without a doubt.  For anyone that’s ever worked in a large enterprise organization, you have seen this first hand (I would be very surprised to hear of any large enterprise where this isn’t the case).  You don’t get to choose what type of laptop or what version of software you get on that laptop; you also can’t just install your favorite screen-saver of the day or start downloading music or movies.  The reason is simple: they standardize on everything so save on support costs and improve efficiency, which obviously saves money.

More and more small businesses are starting to follow suit for all of the same reasons.  I see firsthand every day the difference between a standardized infrastructure and one that is a free for all.  The non-standardized environement will always cost more, both in hard dollars and in efficiency and productivity.

For all small and mid-sized businesses, controlling all of the costs and expenses of running the business is very important.  The IT costs of those businesses are often a topic of discussion and so they should be.  Fortunately, there are a number of ways to keep those costs in check and ensure there is a budget in place so there are no big surprises along the way.  Here are just a few ways to try and control your IT costs:

• Proactive Maintenance: Ensuring that all of your systems are kept up to date with the proper updates and patches, routine checks and cleaning of temporary files will keep your systems running faster and with less problems.  This will help avoid having to rebuild the systems as often thus reducing downtime, increasing productivity, and avoiding unnecessary bills for the service. 
• Replacement Planning: Whenever possible, it is a good idea to plan on the replacement of your workstations, servers, etc.  It’s beneficial to have a rotation plan in place whereby you replace a certain number of workstations each year, by quarter, etc., so that there is less disruption to your office and it helps even out your budget.  Servers should be looked at every four years on average. 
• Subscription Based Support: One of the biggest factors that can contribute to IT costs is support.  For most small and mid-sized companies, it’s not cost effective to hire a full IT team so they rely upon outside firms to help them.  The most unpredictable and least cost effective method of doing this is to simply pay the support company by the hour to fix and update your systems.  In this scenario, the IT firms make the most of their profits when your systems aren’t working properly since they charge by the hour to repair the problems.  Fortunately, there is a way of controlling these costs: subscribe to a monthly subscription based support system where you simply pay a monthly fee to ensure those systems are running properly.  This aligns the needs of both companies; you need your systems running with minimal problems and now so does your IT support company since they don’t charge to repair the problems, they are getting paid to ensure there are minimal problems to begin with.

Controlling your IT costs can seem like a pipe dream to some businesses, but there are ways of ensuring you not only control the costs, but also ensure that your systems are running optimumly.  Having the needs of your business and your IT provider aligned is likely the single most effective way of doing this.

In my next writing, I’ll go into more detail on how to escape the hassles and costs associated with IT by diving deeper into how the subscription based service help prevent problems before they turn into a massive problem.

Since most of the questions I receive are still centered on Cloud Computing, I figured I had better get back to writing about it and answer some specific questions I get asked.  Here are some of the topics of conversation I’ve had over the past several weeks.

• Risk versus cost analysis: Of course there are risks with this technology, just as there are risks when you walk across the street or drive to work.  And there is almost always a savings when moving technology to the cloud.  The key to making the decision is determining the risks and weighing them against the costs savings.  There may be security risks when moving your data to a public cloud that a business may determine aren’t worth the savings and thus either move it to a private cloud or keep things completely in house.  Sometimes the costs force businesses to simply overlook those risks because the savings are just too high to ignore.  On the flip side of this, sometimes the costs and risks of keeping the technology in house (such as the risk of outages due to fires, hardware failures, etc.) are higher than the risks of moving this to the cloud.  One thing is for certain: every business must look at both the risks and the costs in detail before making this type of decision.
• Growth plans: Another key factor that ends up being a deciding factor when evaluating Cloud Computing is the growth plans of the business; specifically, if a business has plans to open new offices in other locations.  As soon as a business has multiple locations, it becomes more apparent that collaboration between the staff starts to exhibit challenges (these can be rectified, but most small and mid-sized companies realize this only after the fact).  Having parts or all of your data in the Cloud simplifies collaboration and makes it much easier to expand.  Think about moving offices as another example: if you have all of your infrastructure hosted at your office, when you move you have to carefully plan to move this equipment, be shut down for an extended period of time, ensure all email, websites, etc. are all pointed to the new addresses.  However, if this is located in the Cloud, most of this planning is eliminated and you simply have to move your end user devices and some basic equipment. 
• Applications in the Cloud: if you do a quick search on this topic, you will find an endless array of hits that outline the vast scope of what’s already available.  However, each and every day there are more and more applications being developed for the Cloud, most of which are being pushed on the vendors by consumers and businesses.  Each and every time we perform assessments and evaluations for companies, one of the things we always need to look at is the applications the business use and whether or not it can be hosted (in either a private or public cloud).  We end up contacting the vendors to find out the requirements and if it isn’t quite ready, what their ETA is to have it ‘cloud ready’.  We are all pushing this forward (just as we are pushing vendors to have everything working on our iPhones and iPads!) and it’s really not that far off until we have all applications ready for the Cloud.

This is obviously a topic that has been written about and will continue to be written about for a very long time.  So long as this continues to be the hot button for most of the people I talk to, I will try and answer most of the questions that come up as part of those conversations.