Get ready for a big cliché that totally understates the obvious: “Technology is changing the way we live and work” Now here is what people most suspect and dance around: Most small business aren’t taking advantage of technology the way they could or should.

There are so many tools out there, so many different web services, web apps, phone apps, etc, it is very difficult to make sense of it all. Choosing a proper technology amongst overlapping options can be confusing. And the choices that you make are really the key: which technology services can you use to make life easier, to be more profitable and work smarter?

Case 1

A company was looking for software to manage their website. The choice came down to 2: one open source, one $15,000. We helped narrow down the feature set differences. In the end, it was just two must-have features that separated them. We spent $2,500 having those two features custom written for the open source solution, getting the best of both worlds and saving over $12,000.

Case 2

After using index cards for 15 years, a small business was ready to move to digital record keeping. They had access to a program provided by their master distributor that was billed with a monthly subscription. We wrote a custom web application the company could own and paid for itself inside of 6 months.  

Case 3

For 3 years, a company was paying an IT management firm to maintain their email, file and backup servers. What was once a good solution had gotten stagnant and stale. We reviewed their setup and made recommendations that gave the customer more control over their information, better access to documents, and less monthly costs.

There are so many choices that companies very often try two different approaches: one – do nothing at all or two – throw money at whatever sounds good and hope for the best.

We’ve been through the choices. Should you work with something off the shelf or build your own custom app? Ditch your direct mail program for web only ads? Use a service to convert your voicemail into emails? Develop a custom application to track inventory, use a cloud app or see if Quickbooks can be hammered into working? Some questions have obvious answers, some are more complicated.

We can help you cut through the clutter and find a solution that matches your resources and objectives.

By resources, we are talking about the financial budget, the people-power, and the brain-power to make a technology work. Because there is no silver bullet. No magic technology that provides a solution overnight to increase sales through the roof. There are choices. Where to spend money, when to go off-the-shelf, when to go open-source and when to not. A solution that costs $1,500 that generates $200,000 in sales is a success, the same solution at $50,000 is not.

We’ll help you establish realistic and obtainable objectives. By setting expectations at a reasonable level, we can get a good picture of value and worth of a project. We’ll help you get an idea of what is possible and help you avoid the sand traps.

Once we get to know how your company works, what its strengths are and where it needs help, we can help craft a plan to use technology intelligently and effectively.

Call us today to schedule a free consultation.