December  2008
In this issue...

 ►Hiring Internal IT - Think Again
 ►Business Continuity
 ►Leasing Adds Benefits
 ►Holiday Marketing
 ►Just for Laughs
 

Leasing Offers
Added Benefits in
Tough Times
reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center

Today's economic climate of rising energy costs, uncertainty in global financial markets and relentless pressure to drive down business costs poses multiple challenges for most companies. With the economy sluggish and financial "fuel" scarce, making the financial commitments needed to enhance or even maintain an IT infrastructure can be difficult. Yet those firms that make sound decisions in tough times by strengthening their infrastructure will be best positioned when the economy recovers and demand picks up.

Spending slows but still grows
According to IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice, IT spending is slowing—but still growing. Year-over-year spending growth for total IT is expected to slow in 2008 and 2009 before picking up in 2010.[1] In a June 2008 customer survey by HP Financial Services, some 75 percent of respondents said that current economic conditions have detrimentally affected their budgets. Nearly three in four said their companies have delayed or canceled new projects, 59 percent said they have scaled back or delayed new hardware deployments, and 52 percent said their companies have reduced head count.

What conclusions can we draw?

Just for Laughs

Thinking About Hiring Your Own Internal IT Staff
– Think Again!
Outsourcing your IT brings additional business value
by Stuart R. Crawford, V.P., IT Matters, Inc.

Businesses today wrestle and grapple with the thought of hiring their own technology support staff to support their daily need for IT support without fully understanding the risks and the costs associated with having their own team of technology professionals.

Business owners, C level execs and Managers are attracted to the idea of having a team or a consultant readily available within shouting distance down the hall, basically having an IT resource committed to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, many of today’s business owners across the country are not aware of the total risks their business is exposed to by electing to bring their technology support in-house.

More often than not it is purely a cost based decision, on the surface it may appear to be more cost effective to hire a consultant or employee who is committed as a full time employee. CFOs and Accounting Managers often look only at the cost of having their IT outsourced and or attracted to hiring someone for a few thousand dollars a month as part of their staff will save their company in the long run. This is not the case in reality and by having a full time employee will actually end up costing business today more in the long run.

So what are the advantages of having an IT Partner who focuses on delivering a complete managed technology solution? There are a number of immediate benefits over having a full time employee.

Business Continuity: Business as usual. No matter what.
Five steps every business should take to prepare for a business interruption.

When people think of disasters, they generally envision hurricanes, tornados or floods - catastrophic events that devastate communities. But for a business, a disaster can be something as small as a failed switch or computer virus. These seemingly minor events can have a shocking impact on a business, often bringing operations to a standstill.

“The impacts of an interruption can be stunning,” says Bob Boyd, President and CEO of Agility Recovery Solutions, the industry leader in mobile business continuity solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. “Statistics indicate that about 60 percent of the businesses affected by a disaster will not survive because they do not have a recovery plan in place.”

Creating a basic, executable business continuity plan is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your organization and assure business as usual – no matter what the scenario. Here are five key steps to help you get started.