Small Business Computer Consulting

Technology assessment is a growing field in the computer industry.  Before beginning a technology assessment business, it is important to research the market.  This will allow you to determine if there is a big enough market to support your services.

Helpful Tips for Market Research

First consider the technology assessment services that will be offered.  These services will need to somehow differentiate you from the competition.  Once your special services have been determined, find out what customers want or need. 

It is very easy for a technology assessment consultant to become overconfident about his services.  Listen to feedback – positive and negative.  Make any necessary changes to satisfy the client.

Think Long Term

Market research involves long-term thinking rather than short-term.  Estimates for obtaining a technology assessment market share should be closer to a few years, not a few months. 

Plan for competition along the way.  Assuming that the competition will be driven away by your superior technology assessment is a big mistake.  Instead, assume that the competition will react by trying to do better.

Define Your Market

The 80-20 rule comes into play in technology assessment.  Twenty percent of your customers will provide eighty percent of your business. 

Define who these twenty percent are and focus on them.  A well-defined market means more efficient use of a technology assessment consultant’s time.

Be Aware of Trends

Technology is a constantly changing field and technology assessment is part of that trend.  Typically, a market starts slowly, expands quickly, and then plateaus. 

Determine which stage technology assessment falls into.  You should also be wary of temporary trends.  Temporary trends lead to short-term thinking!

The Bottom Line about Technology Assessment Careers

Market research is an important aspect of a technology assessment business.  Remember to define your market, think long term, and be aware of trends.  A complete market research report will assist in growing a business effectively.

In this article, you’ve learned more about technology assessment careers. To learn more about technology assessment careers, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

One of the biggest issues you will run across during IT Audits is software licensing. If you find any such issues during IT audits, note them in your report. You might want to say something like: “These are deficiencies that I have found.  Do you have the documents around to prove you own it?”

It’s that simple, and any small business that is dealing on the up and up recognizes that. The burden of proof is on them. They need to go dig out the license agreements, the invoices, the end-user license agreements and original CDs to prove ownership.

Licenses Aren’t Negotiable

If they can’t, then you need to address it with them after IT audits. Tell them that the deficiency is going to cause a lot of headaches sooner or later and you need to figure out a remediation plan now. Most businesses will ask you what they should do about it.

With most small businesses, you may need to give them a couple months after the IT audits to let it work through the cycle–but no more.  In an ideal world, you’d love to fix it immediately to get rid of the liability and the problem right away. Licensing compliance is definitely something that should be in your service contract.

Protect Yourself

There should be a paragraph that talks about how the client’s responsible for having properly licensed software, that if you identify that there’s any deficiencies in IT audits, it’s your responsibility to develop a remediation plan and present them with the options and they’re obligated to either remove the software or purchase it. It’s that simple. 

You shouldn’t be working for anyone that has a problem with buying software legally because it exposes you to direct legal consequences as well as reputational consequences.

IT Audits: What are some remediation plans?

Sometimes businesses so underutilize software, some programs on a PC can be safely removed because they’re not being used anymore. Or someone two years ago thought they might want to use it, so they picked up a pirated copy. If you find out in the course of talking with users that they’re not actually using the program, the safest thing is to go to Add/Remove Programs and take it off for them.

If the PCs are nearing the end of their lifecycle, a cost effective way of remediating the software problem is upgrading the PC and helping them to install the OEM version.

Another option is for them to keep their existing equipment and buy the two-year site license with the maintenance, providing unlimited upgrades. 

The Bottom Line on IT Audits

Figuring out what your clients’ licensing needs are during IT audits. Just be sure you address the problem.

In this article, you learned more about IT audits and licensing issues. To learn more about IT audits, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

How do you go about pricing IT audits? In this article, you’ll learn that it should be based on your rate, but you will also want to give a discount to get your foot in the door.

Use Your Hourly Rate as a Guide

For IT audits, you’re going to have to take your hourly billing rate, and figure that you’re going to spend two or three hours there. You’re going to probably spend another hour back in the shop writing up the reports for the IT audits and writing an estimate. Figure out what you need to charge for IT audits based on your average hourly billing rate.

So for example, if for basic fieldwork you’re charging $95 an hour, and you anticipate that between time on-site at the client, gathering the information for these IT audits, and follow-up question/answer sessions afterwards, you spend five hours. That is five hours at $95, so you’re at a little bit under $500. Now you want to round down and discount.

Don’t Bill the Full Amount

The gist of it here is that you want to get your foot in the door. You don’t need to bill IT audits at your full amount. You’re not billing by the hour. You want to give them a certain comfort level that they feel they can afford your services -  you’re not out to just run up a huge bill. You’re really out to discover what your future clients’ biggest problems are, help them organize, and help them make heads or tails of what needs to be addressed.

Whatever the problems, it’s going to take a couple of hours to come up with some coherent recommendations on what to do first, what it’s going to cost them, and when it can be scheduled. You definitely shouldn’t be giving your expertise away for free, but you also shouldn’t be looking to recover your typical hourly billing rates on IT audits. 

It Pays to Discount

The most important thing here is you’re getting them to pry open their six-ton wallet and prove that they will spend money on your services. That’s extremely important, even if you don’t recover more than 50 percent or 75 percent of your normal hourly billing. Chalk it up to a cost of sales.

It’s up to you what you’re going to charge ultimately, but anywhere in the $250 to $350 range is typical. If you want to go really aggressively, maybe charge $199 or $200. The key thing is to make it a fixed price. The important thing here is that the prospect shows you that they’re willing to spend money on IT audits. 

The Bottom Line about Pricing IT Audits

In this article, you learned about IT audits. To learn more about IT audits, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

IT audits are really where you’re going with the sales call to a new prospect.  Unless they have an emergency that needs urgent attention and they’re really specific about it, you need to “push” IT audits. That will get the ball rolling with IT services.

Now, if they say, “We think our tape drive hasn’t been running in six months and we’re terrified that we’re one blue screen or a server crash away from losing everything.” In that case, you have something to go on and should start there.

In most cases, though, selling half-day technology assessments or IT audits makes the most sense. There are a couple different ways to approach it. 

Quick Should Be Free

You could do a real stripped-down free version where you go in for a half hour and provide them with a basic list. Keep in mind, however, that spending more than a half hour, where you’re starting to actually look at hubs, at switches, at how the Cat 5 stuff is laid out, where you’re looking at some sample configurations, opening up some control panels, unlocking server consoles, is beyond the scope of a free assessment.

Charge for Longer Assessments

That definitely should be billable and that should definitely be in the context of IT audits or tech assessments and not be given away for free. Come up with a set rate for IT audits of this type.

The Bottom Line about IT Audits

In this article, you learned about IT audits. To learn more about IT audits, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

When you conduct IT audits, you will want to see what you can solve for your clients. You will want to see what problems they have and what you can do about them. In this article, you’ll learn the kinds of questions that they will want answered during IT audits

Questions Lead to the Needs Analysis

What are potential new clients looking for? This hasn’t changed in a long time. During IT audits, they’re going to ask you what they should buy. "What’s the best product and platform for us?" "What’s the best value?" All of these questions can be answered with a simple needs analysis with your IT audit. You go in and assess their situation, spending a couple of hours looking at what they have. 

What will work together? Anyone can just go down to the store and buy a shopping cart full of stuff, but to make it work together – plug and play versus plug and pray. Integration and customization are huge needs, along with project management. Being able to coordinate things is enormous. 

Other Services Your Clients May Want

• Training, both formal and informal, is something your customers may want. This includes both end user training and administrator training.
• Handling routine and scheduled upgrades.
• Coordinating with outside vendors for an industry specific package installation
• Network installation and maintenance

Customers Want One-Stop Shopping

The big picture here is that they’re looking for a single point of contact.  They want to trust the technology advisor the same way they have a trusted accounting advisor or a legal advisor, or a managing consulting firm or marketing consultant. IT audits can help you both determine what your customers need your role to be. 

The Bottom Line about IT Audits

In this article, you learned about IT audits. To learn more about IT audits, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.