Meeting the Small Businesses Technology Challenge

The National Small Business Association’s recent Small Business Technology Survey found that 98 percent of small business owners agree that it’s important to keep up with new technology – but this can be difficult, and expensive, if you don’t do it right.

The following video identifies some of those problems and discusses some of the steps you can take to address your small business’ IT needs.

This is recorded in HD, so, to get the best effect, watch it full screen!

The same survey found that small businesses face many concerns when it comes to their technology. Approximately half of all small business owners consider security issues, upgrade costs, and maintenance as top technology challenges.

The aftermath of failure to properly maintain, upgrade, secure, and back up your IT infrastructure can be grim indeed.

• When your systems are down, you can’t communicate effectively with customers, suppliers, or other employees,
• This can make it difficult, if not impossible, to enter sales orders.
• It can dramatically reduce the productivity of your people, and
• Interfere with the smooth functioning of your business processes.
• These problems, in turn, can affect your reputation in the market,
• Cut into your profits and, ultimately,
• Cause your business to fail.

And yet, about one-quarter of small-business owners handle tech support for the entire company themselves. And 43 percent spend more than two hours a week just on technology problems.

The market for telecommuting and mobile computing is also exploding. Forrester Research projects that, by 2015, over 85% of the workforce will be mobile. And International Data Corporation forecasts that the U.S. alone will add more than 3 million corporate home office households between 2011 and 2015.

And it isn’t just during regular working hours. Small business owners and employees are especially likely to bring computers on vacation. 75 percent check in daily; nearly one third do so several times a day. There’s never a good time for computer problems, but encountering them while on the road or during precious leisure time is even more annoying than normal. Thus, small businesses are recognizing the need to provide comprehensive, well-managed support for telecommuters and mobile workers.

There are also direct threats to small businesses’ IT infrastructures. For example, there are the security threats posed by hackers who realize that small businesses typically lack the technical expertise to properly set up robust security and so look at small businesses as easy targets.

Industry experts have found that 80 percent of small businesses that experience a security breach go bankrupt or suffer severe financial losses within two years of being violated. If you don’t think you have the time and expertise to monitor these threats, you need to depend on a trusted technology partner who does. The investment is worth it.

For most small businesses, email consumes a very substantial part of your telecommunications bandwidth. But, it’s currently estimated that over 90% of all email is spam. When you have to download all your inbound email to in-house email servers, you’re wasting the bandwidth used by that 90%. So many businesses are moving to secure, hosted email services. By having your email service hosted, you download only the 10% or less of incoming emails which are legitimate communications.

It’s also critical that small businesses have a current copy of their data stored somewhere safe and accessible. With a purely on premises infrastructure, data is still backed up onsite where it’s subject to loss in the event of fire or natural disasters.

This is why many small businesses are considering Cloud storage or an offsite managed service for data backup and disaster recovery. Automatically storing archived data off-site in a secure private cloud keeps data safe but rapidly and easily accessible in the event of disaster.

So key IT issues that small business owners need to address are:

• Keeping your systems updated with the latest technology,
• Ensuring the security of your most critical data,
• Allowing your employees to work remotely,
• Providing for backup and disaster recovery,
• Holding maintenance and upgrade costs within planned budgets, and
• Minimizing the time that managing IT takes away from running your business.

When considering your information technology infrastructure, you really should look at the big picture. Clearly, traditional approaches aren’t working. Should you be focused on keeping your technology running or on growing your business? An outside IT provider can be a tremendous asset – freeing you up to give your full attention to your business.

These days, you need an IT service provider who can offer you a broad portfolio of capabilities. It can start with managing, maintaining, and upgrading your internal IT infrastructure. But it should also include offering hosted email and web services as well as Cloud-based backup and disaster recovery.

For those companies that are ready, moving your data and systems entirely to the Cloud can help to reduce costs. It’s highly scalable, universally accessible, and provides for automated backups and upgrades.

These are just some of the reasons I’m so impressed by DynaSis and the range of services it offers to help businesses more profitably manage their IT infrastructures. DynaSis can help you by:

• Managing on-site systems,
• Hosting email and websites,
• Providing online backup and disaster recovery, and even
• Offering full-blown Cloud Computing capabilities

based on your needs – for today and tomorrow.

If you’re not already familiar with hosted services and Cloud Computing, you may want to watch some or all of the other videos in this series. These explain what these services are and how they work, discuss their benefits, and address concerns you may have.

If you’d like more help understanding these new technologies, give the people at DynaSis a call. They’ll be glad to show you various ways to meet your technology needs.

If you need to cut costs while enhancing quality, increase productivity while responding quickly to the needs of your market, all the while ensuring that your systems and data are secure and confidential, DynaSis may have just the right solution for you. Call them today to find out.

And thanks for watching.

Solution Providers Must Educate SMBs on the Cloud’s Benefits

• Small and midsize customers are well aware of cloud and virtualization, yet solution providers have an opportunity to help guide SMBs’ larger, long-term cloud plans—and develop ongoing relationships with local and vertical clients.
• Small and midsize businesses are already using cloud applications such as Gmail and Salesforce. In fact, many SMBs already use at least one cloud or virtualized solution in the day-to-day operation of their business. However, solution providers have an opportunity to help guide SMBs’ larger, long-term cloud plans.

  One-fourth of small businesses were using server virtualization, according to an August 2011 study of SMBs by CDW. Of those that have not yet implemented server virtualization, almost three-fourths—or 73 percent—are researching or planning to implement the technology, the report found. That’s a lot of opportunity for solution providers, especially those with complementary expertise in prospective clients’ vertical market or geography. Virtualization obviously works, too: Those SMBs that have server virtualization have virtualized an average of one-third of their servers, a number that increases each quarter.

  The cloud is expected to be equally attractive to SMBs that, like their larger brethren, are seeking to do more with less, be more flexible and be speedily scalable. Across companies of all sizes, 84 percent were already using at least one cloud application, while 21 percent of both small and midsize companies were implementing or maintaining cloud computing, another CDW study found. These applications included Gmail, Microsoft LiveMeeting, WebEx and Salesforce, for example. Another study found 35 percent of SMBs plan to add cloud computing in 2012, “Channel Insider” reported.

  Solution providers can actively encourage clients to expand their cloud footprint, said David Cottingham, CDW’s senior director of managed services, in an interview with “Smarter Technology.”

  “There have been cloud-based email systems for years. Hotmail is cloud. People are comfortable that it’s a stable technology. What is probably lagging are some of the higher-end business processes. People are not putting their ERP system up in the cloud, unless they are very small,” said Cottingham. “That is because they have traditionally been dedicated, not even virtualized, systems. The applications they are looking at next are the things that behave well in a virtualized environment. That’s the way we guide people. Those become cloud candidates potentially.”

  Educating SMB clients is vital, agreed Mitch Merrifield, senior director of managed computing solutions for Verio, which commissioned a study earlier in 2010. The survey found that more than two-thirds of respondents were uncertain if they would purchase a cloud solution in the near future—yet many respondents wanted the benefits of a cloud offering, reported “Channel Insider.” In fact, 21 percent wanted the ability to share resources and one-fifth said on-demand resources were important.

  “This data clearly demonstrates that there continues to be a need for educating SMBs on the benefits of cloud and, more importantly, correlating those benefits to their current IT requirements,” said Merrifield. “SMBs want to drive efficiencies, and cloud technologies are some of the most innovative solutions to assist them in doing that.”

  For example, solution providers can demonstrate logical next-steps for cloud such as storage, disaster recovery and true unified communications. To transition SMBs from pilot or small cloud investments into these more business-centric or mission-critical applications, it is imperative that solution providers educate clients about the benefits—cost-savings, flexibility, integration with disaster recovery and business continuity plans, and scalability.

  Solution providers must allay any security concerns clients may have. They should discuss or show security policies, tools, patch-management policies and physical security. And if a solution provider is doing its job well, SMBs’ internal resources typically cannot compete in terms of security, reliability or cost.

• This is accurate. Most SMB’s do NOT fully understand the benefits (or risks) of Cloud Computing. It doesn’t matter how beneficial it actually is. If people don’t understand it, they won’t invest in it. For examples of excellent education on SMB technology needs and Cloud Computing see the following:
  Educational Marketing Video – DynaSis’ ASCEND Hybrid Cloud Solution (http://businesstechnologyfutur… )
  What is Cloud Computing? (http://www.dynasis.com/cloud-h… )
  http://www.e-com.com

How Has Cloud Computing Changed Business? [INFOGRAPHIC]

We have long been advocates of moving business operations into the cloud. The remote access, cost-savings and organizational benefits alone make it a no-brainer.

Now that we’ve been floating around in the digital ether for a few years, what have we learned? How has cloud computing affected company bottom lines? Has it really made operations “greener?” Why do most companies move into the cloud in the first place?

Business technology company CSC commissioned a survey of IT decision makers in eight countries to find out the motivations behind their move to cloud computing systems and its effects on their businesses. The data they distilled might surprise you, and it’s all packed neatly into the infographic below.

Educational Marketing Video – DynaSis’ ASCEND Hybrid Cloud Solution

Here is yet another video (below) in the series of educational marketing videos produced for DynaSis. This video describes their Ascend Hybrid Cloud Solution. Again, this is is an excellent example of Web Video Marketing. The other videos in this series describe what Cloud Computing is, the benefits of Cloud Computing, address concerns some may have about Cloud Computing, describe technology challenges small businesses face, and describe DynaSis ITility Hosted Cloud solution.

The purpose of these videos is to educate their target market of small to mid- sized companies on the business value of their solutions. To see all of the DynaSis Cloud Computing Videos and White Papers, go Here. The results, I think you’ll agree, speak for themselves.

These set the stage for this video which, without being “salesy”, describes the capabilities and benefits of the Ascend solution in a straightforward manner closing with an appropriate call to action. In addition to generating leads, these videos help to reduce sales cycle times, increase business development productivity, and improve close rates.

Email me or call me at 770-910-5969 if you’d like to discuss how you can use web video and other educational marketing tools to accelerate your revenues.

This is recorded in HD, so, to get the best effect, watch it full screen!

New Video on Cloud Hosting

This video (below), describing the ITility Cloud Hosting Service by DynaSis, is an excellent example of Web Video Marketing. It is one of a series of educational videos on Cloud Computing. The others in the series describe what Cloud Computing is and the benefits of Cloud Computing and address concerns some may have about Cloud Computing.

The purpose of these videos is to educate their target market of small to mid- sized companies on the business value of their solutions. To see all of the DynaSis Cloud Computing Videos and White Papers, go Here. The results, I think you’ll agree, speak for themselves.

These set the stage for this video which, without being “salesy”, describes the capabilities and benefits of the ITility solution in a straightforward manner closing with an appropriate call to action. In addition to generating leads, these videos help to reduce sales cycle times, increase business development productivity, and improve close rates.

Email me or call me at 770-910-5969 if you’d like to discuss how we can use web video and other educational marketing tools to accelerate your revenues.

This is recorded in HD, so, to get the best effect, watch it full screen!

Why Web Video?

B2B marketers are increasingly utilizing online videos to inform, engage and even have a little fun. Here are some of the key reasons why:

Forrester reports that, with proper optimization, video increases the chance of a front-page Google result by 53times. They also note that adding video in to e-mails increases click-through rates by two to three times.
– (Forrester, January 2010)

This bears repeating. Web videos are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google than text or static images. So obviously an effective web video is going to generate more qualified leads.

Even busy executives with no time for fun and games do have time for the sound and motion of video, according to Forbes Insights. In many cases, they prefer it to text for learning about products and services.

They also found that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same page. Three-quarters of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week.
– (Forbes Insight, December 2010)

The value of video goes way beyond lead generation. By answering many of your prospective clients’ basic questions quickly and effectively, it also slashes sales cycle times and multiplies sales team productivity.

By providing consistency to your messaging, video ensures that your key sales points are always reliably presented to your prospective clients. This allows those who are not good fits for your solution to disqualify themselves. For those who are qualified, video increases close rates.

Here are a few more reasons from other sources as to why you should be using web video:

1. People want to see what you can do. They like speed. Your message can get delivered in just a few minutes and finally people like a multifaceted experience of visual and auditory stimulation.
   – (New Evolution, June 2011)
2. To demonstrate ideas in a way that is best done through video. Reading is fun, but watching can stun! To make an impression and be remembered.
   – (Richard Grace, January 2011)
3. A minute of video is worth 1.8 million words according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.
   – (Forrester, January 2009)
4. According to Cisco, video will increase from 30% of Internet traffic to 90% of Internet traffic by 2013.
5. Finally, video enhances your brand image. Fast Company lists the following additional ways that Technology Solution Providers should be using web video to accelerate their revenues.
   – (Fast Company Expert Blog, March 17, 2011):

• Visually demonstrate how a product or service works
• Communicate a specific message or company news
• Executive summaries and video versions of white papers
• Case studies
• Share content from webinars
• Interview partners and customers at a trade show
• Hold a Q & A session with an expert within your company
• Give a sneak peak at product releases
• Product visualizations
• Elevator pitch videos and video brochures.

For a great examples of effective use of web video see below.

This is recorded in HD, so, to get the best effect, watch it full screen!

The purpose of these videos is to educate their target market of small to mid- sized companies on the business value of their solutions. To see all of the DynaSis Cloud Computing Videos and White Papers, go Here. The results, I think you’ll agree, speak for themselves.

Corning Video Explores the Future through a Lens of Glass

While this is a thought leadership piece for Corning’s glass business, it is an excellent illustration of ways we will interact both with technology and with one another in the near future. It has great implications for the designs of technology solutions and business processes. Enjoy!