Making sense out of chaos

Most small businesses these days have some sort of IT suite.  It might only be one PC sitting in a home office, but what makes it an IT suite is the sheer number of suppliers and technologies involved in making it work.  If we look at a typical small office with five PCs, one server and a network there could very easily be over 10 suppliers and/or major technologies working together: -

Hardware Suppliers

  • Operating System (XP, Vista, Windows Server, Mac OS X, etc.)
  • Anti Virus and Security (Symantec, McAfee, etc.)
  • Backup
  • Network cabling and/or wireless
  • Uninterruptible Power Supply
  • Printers, Copiers and Faxes

Software Suppliers

  • Accountancy Software (Sage, QuickBooks, IRIS)
  • Core Business Software (Collections, Billing, Account Management, CRM, POS, etc.)
  • Reporting and Business Intelligence (Crystal Reports/Server, Business Objects, MS Reporting Services etc.)

Service Suppliers

  • Email and Web
  • Telephony and Call Monitoring
  • Broadband

The list can go on and on.  Focus IT can take over management of these technologies and their suppliers in the same way an IT Director of a large company would by grouping them together into three operational areas of IT SupportBusiness Intelligence (reporting) and Business Analysis.