IT Solutions – Simple when you know how.

Developing IT solutions for the small / medium size business environment has never been simpler. This does not mean that every small business have the employees with the skills or Knowledge to deliver the IT solutions. However the days of employing a large IT consultancy firm at a huge expense to help a small business develop a simple IT Solution are over. MS Office is often seen by the small business owners as something that is used to write letters or respond to emails, however this package can do so much more and having a bespoke database created by an independent solutions expert can cost very little and provide a very efficient solution to many business problems.

Often we have found that simple issues exist and businesses struggle on without asking for help, simply because they believe the cost of asking for help would be too high. In fact we have resolved many issues with free advice over the phone or via email, one company did not know how to resolve a problem of emails being downloaded to just one of their office PC’s and wanted to know how all the emails received could be retrieved by all employees. There was a simple Outlook setting that could resolve their problem and although we could have invested a great deal of time in discussing an office email server option they were happy with the solution suggested. The benefits of an email server were considered but for the additional costs it was decided that until there business grows they were happy to work with the simple free solution we had suggested.

This confirms what we have always believed that small / medium businesses are often sceptical in requesting help for their IT solutions as they fear that the costs would be so expensive. This is not without foundation, as some of the businesses we have visited have an a IT solution installed that at the time it was installed would have been very costly and a simpler solution offering better value for money should have been considered. IT Solution companies have an ethical duty when dealing with customers who know little about IT to ensure the cost of the solution is relative to their business, by ensuring the business invest money in the right areas will ensure that business has the best chance of growing and the IT solutions required will grow as their business grows.