Challenged by the tremendous array of options available for technology support in the marketplace?  What should I look for when outsourcing to a third party or when hiring my next IT Director?  

Now is the time to re-evaluate how your organization obtains support and guidance.  The human costs of technology support are frequently the largest budget line item in the overall IT budget.  Recent enhancements in generally accepted industry practices, tools available in the marketplace, and third party service offerings geared toward doing more with less can drive systemic improvement in performance, cost of support, and end user satisfaction.  ANALYSYS not only offers consultative discovery, audit and assessment, and strategic guidance services, but also has the staff and infrastructure to provide the area’s most effective and competent ongoing support program available.  Let us help you understand the options and what to look for based upon your unique situation.

Tactical Support Personnel
A partnership with ANALYSYS bears the full availability of all the support staff and knowledge within our company.  Locally based specialists are available for telephone and onsite support 24x7x365 and provide some of the fastest response times in the industry.

Preventive Support Systems
ANALYSYS utilizes enterprise-grade monitoring systems to actively scan for and detect potential weaknesses in the information system.  Problem areas are detected and resolved often before they negatively impact functionality.

Strategic Guidance
ANALYSYS’ team of professionals dedicated to strategic consulting services provide a wealth of knowledge and assistance to decision makers such as independent assessments, CIO support, technical liaison, staffing and staff development, project planning, and more.

Scalability
ANALYSYS serves small business clients, through to organizations with a national footprint and thousands of employees.  Simply put, we believe that providing a relevant and comprehensive yet affordable service is critical to long-term client satisfaction.

We are inundated with messages everyday about the state of our economy and the ripple effects this is having.  No one has been immune to these effects from the small towing company down the street to the large Fortune 500 companies, like Wall-Mart and Home Depot.  Bob.  A small business owner approached us recently to share the frustrations he has been having moving his business forward without a new server, backup system and virus protection.  We were able to offer him a 48% savings by implementing an offsite virtual office that not only hosted his website, but provided him the essential tools he needed to focus on his clients and mission.  Bob’s virtual office gives him an enterprise level solution, like a large company, but with no upfront costs and a manageable monthly budget line item.  

While economists and governments seek to find solutions to our economic problems, it is the grass-root efforts throughout the country that are the test bed for real and immediate solutions.  Think about the ways you are adapting with all the highs of success and the lows of hard lessons learned.  What we have done for Bob and other business owner’s like him is presenting a compelling answer to the problem of maintaining stability.  Information Technology outsourcing is the best kept secret in town, and can be the key to any business’s continued existence.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW
Let me first explain what I mean by IT outsourcing.  As opposed to an internal IT department with limited resources, it is developing a strategic partnership with an organization that is solely focused on improving your use of information technology, which liberates your business from the shackles of IT nightmares.  Rather than worrying about the backup solution or virus protection, you can focus on meeting the demands of your customers by leveraging all the capabilities an outsourced solution brings with it.  There are three basic ways to integrate a solution provider into your organization.  First, human resource augmentation frees up internal staff with limited resources and time, and allows you to re-task those employees to other areas of your business that need attention.  Secondly, infrastructure augmentation moves those servers, backup devices and other hardware to an enhanced secure facility that makes business continuance much more cost effective and reliable.  Finally, by working with a solution provider you can receive independent vision and strategy development to be sure your organization is moving in the right direction when it comes to those important and potentially costly technology solutions.  

SCALABLE RESOURCES
Now that we have a basic understanding of these IT integration methods, let’s take a closer look at your options.  Now more than ever, it is important to look at the cost of maintaining, troubleshooting and supporting the technology that strengthens your entire organization.  Every responsible manager knows that all options are on the table.  Think about it.  Do you pay someone to internally create electricity for you to use?  No, you pay a provider to deliver that essential business need.  Likewise, you should think about how essential it is to keep the flow of business moving with technology and how important it is to have the experts doing the job.  “The biggest advantage to outsourcing for us,” said Emily VanLoon, the CFO of So Others May Eat, “is when you outsource, there is an entire infrastructure of people behind you that collaborates on problem solving any issue that arises.”  So Others May Eat is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that relays on outsourcing IT, so that they can focus on their mission to help the poor and homeless.  This created an incredible cost benefit enabling them to do more with less, which is essential in the non-profit industry.  Some companies have been able to realize a 50% or more savings!  An expanded knowledgebase and tremendous cost savings are key benefits to IT outsourcing human resources.

ENHANCED INFRASTRUCTURE
The second way to understand IT integration is through infrastructure hosting which utilizes virtualization technology.  Virtualization technology enables a company to purchase a slice of a server rather than the entire server, which helps to mitigate upfront and ongoing costs.  For added reliability a server, a workstation or an entire remote office solution can be provided through a secured remote connection from your office to an advanced hosted facility.    This means you only pay for what you use rather than making continuous outgoing costs for maintenance, power consumption and upgrades.  The cost savings can be so striking that one client was able to save nearly $20,000 in upfront costs to upgrade their business productivity and mail servers, in favor of a low monthly cost to have a hosted solution at our colocation facility.  Part of what makes this possible is that a recent change in Microsoft licensing enables companies to pay monthly subscription rates for these network environments rather than having to pay annual licensing fees.  

VISIONARY STRATEGY
The final way to integrate IT solutions into your business is to use the breadth of experience, resources and support personnel to seek strategic analysis, guidance and development for the future of your business.  This will strengthen your organization and provide an independent examination of your current IT infrastructure.   For instance, have you thought about going green?  Do you know how to make your organization more energy efficient, cost effective and reliable?  IT consultants who implement these types of solutions for their clients are a wonderful resource for organizations looking to move in this direction.  They have done it before, and learned valuable lessons and insight on best practices.  Green computing solutions can make an immediate impact on the bottom line of your organization with virtual transparency to your employees.

NOW MORE THAN EVER
You need to be asking yourself during these tumultuous economic times, “Why should outsourcing appeal to my organization, and can we survive without it?”  The honest answer is that it may not apply and you may be able to survive without it; however, it is vital for any business to continuously evaluate their business model.  When is the last time you have performed such an evaluation?  Your business will change, develop, grow and sometimes contract over time.  Change is inevitable.  But will this change be brought about through the internal forces of a planned, phased and organized approach?  Or will you be forced to change to maintain your survival and prosperity by the external economic forces that are knocking at everyone’s door?  Look at IT integration and outsourcing solutions has a way to continuously adapt to the changing economic climate, and could very well be a game changer for your organization.

MAKE IT HAPPEN
Now, let’s focus our attention on how to make this change in your business model.  First, analyze the value delivered to your clients and make adjustments to ensure that you remain relevant.  Then evaluate the partnerships presently in place with your clients and vendors and adjust.  Finally identify the relationships and services that afford the opportunity for continued growth.  That is how you affect change internally and prepare your business for the future.  IT integration and outsourcing can be an effective change for your organization with either a cost neutral solution or even no upfront costs at all.  This will change the way you do business for the better by offering a controlled cost that can be budgeted, and the ability to leverage the competency of a highly capable team of professionals who provide a heightened level of efficiency and lower cost as compared to most insourced support models.  Finally, you will have the flexibility to scale resources to meet an ever changing demand.  That even means if you need to change to an insourced model than you have the ability to make that transition easily.

My company, ANALYSYS, is entering into our fifteenth year of providing excellent service to our clients.  We have remained viable in an ever-changing and highly competitive industry by finding ways to adapt over the years, and obviously you have as well.  We can help you continue to adapt, by offering our years of experience.  IT integration and outsourcing solutions are what we do for our clients everyday with our various models.  We are always there to provide the human element of technology through our support, augmentation, and training.  Whether we are performing strategic assessments to develop strategy and vision, or setting up a hosted virtual office in our colocation facility to secure infrastructure and business continuity.  Are you thinking of how to change?  Are you wondering if our services are right for you?  Take advantage of our free discovery process, so that we can craft the best solution to meet your specific needs.  We want to continue this conversation and look forward forging new relationships.