Information is The Key to Your Success: White Paper

If you feel like your business has stumbled regardless of a solid working business model please read on. We will show your how you can explode your growth by leveraging modern Information Technologies making only reasonable investments.

You may also find your business growth out of control, which—while an issue—is an interesting and exciting task to handle. We will try to give your a wide overview of how you can build your Information Technology infrastructure to facilitate your current and future growth, and how to use and manage your business information to your success.

We see examples of excellent business models that brings too many customers. Too many customers? That's another good one.

Whatever it is that you think is holding you from becoming very successful can be completely eliminated and sometimes improved upon to a great extent.

Today, we encourage you to look at only one part of your business. Sometimes our current matters and chores dominate our minds so much that we literally cannot think of anything that is farther than an order a customer placed a few hours ago. Really.

Once you have your mind wrapped around what we would like to discuss here - act on it, and be persistent. And we will be here to help you understand what it is you need, and will walk you through the whole concept. Surely we can work with you on actual design and make your ideas and dreams come true, or you can do it yourself, or you can simply call your favorite IT company. Our goal is only help your mind engage and start going into the right direction.

Let's start with basics.

Basic Element No.1: Managing Your Business Data

Now that you we don't yet have a solid IT Strategy, we have no idea of and do not need to worry about the implementation, now it is the right time to start thinking about the data. What data?

It is the information your business operates upon is what makes your business go. Or not.

But before we even start talking about how we can efficiently manage your business data let's break one myth a lot of people believe in. Many say "Or, I install this new server and my business will double". Or, "Yes, I would like you to write a custom software for me that I can press a button and it will do the rest". Sounds familiar?

Despite the fact that Information Technology is used at every corner it is still worth nothing—by itself. Why? Because - and it is the most important lesson you will have to learn about IT - it is only a tool. Very powerful one, very complex one, but still - just a tool. A soldier can stop an armored vehicle with a grenade luncher. IT is a grenade luncher but it is worth nothing without the soldier.

The information is your soldier. By making right IT decisions you can equip it with a grenade luncher. And no, customers are not your armored vehicle.

Do you see where I am going?

The information your business has in your most valuable asset. You can replace equipment if you even use one, you can rebuild a lost building destroyed by Mother Nature, but you cannot replace lost or mismanaged data. And I am not talking about a hurricane that would destroy your office. I am talking about an art of managing how your information flows in your business, and how you and your customers can take advantage of every single bit of it.

Some companies make their business only by processing information. 100% of the business model is based on it. While for some others it is only a byproduct it is still remains a very important link that hold business together. There is no business that would not benefit from correctly managing its information.

A good way to become very successful is to learn early on what is the main company asset and how one can manage it efficiently.

Basic Element No.2: Information Technology Strategy Planning

You are probably thinking "Why do I need to care about it? I am not a global corporation with thousands of offices throughout the world." Maybe, or maybe not yet. No matter how large or small a business is it can face similar problems when it needs to grow. This is true especially for small businesses as they do not have millions of dollars to cover their mistakes. One large mistake and a business is gone. One correctly implemented strategic decision - and a business becomes large.

While we think you do need to understand what an IT Startegy Planning is and why you need it, you do not need to be faced with the fact that one day you will have to define it—all by yourself. Because you probably cannot - unless you are CIO. Wait, small businesses do not hire CIO usually. Right. We will help you with that. Now consider this.

Because tomorrow your business will be much bigger than today. And because you probably do not want to hear from your employees that you cannot accept new customer or provide a new kind of service just because you simply cannot. Your existing IT Infrastructure does not support it, or maybe nobody knows how hard would it be to change it so it would, or maybe you would need to upgrade it, or to build a new one? Or maybe something else?

We know you may be facing questions like this too often to pretend this issue does not exist. That's why we are here to help you with that. No, we do not want to sell you a piece of equipment and try to convince you it was exactly what you needed. We neither want to develop a piece of software for you and tell you that it was your solutions to the issue. We do not, because it would not be.

Here is what we do want to do. We want to build a long lasting relationship. Wait, you will say, what about IT Strategy? Right, we want to build this in order to better understand your business so we can better help you understand what IT Infrastructure you need.

Let's define what we mean by IT Infrastructure. It is a combination of all Information Technology elements including (1) hardware - such as your network, servers, desktops, laptops, and any portable mobile devices you might have, (2) software you use to run your business - including general purpose, operating systems, custom-developed, bought with your hardware, and (3) your company data that is of value to your business.

There are hundreds, probably thousands of combinations of these IT elements that can make your business successful or to make you feel miserable. Unfortunately.

That's where we come in. We have tens of years in experience of combining these IT elements into what we call IT Infrastructure. We know what works well and what does not. We are experts in all these.

Please note that you will never hear any advice from us on how to run your business. Why? Because not we but you are the ultimate expert in that. Do you see what we suggest? We suggest to create a winning team of experts.

You are an expert in what your business does, we are an expert in Information Technology.

And as it was stated in a research paper "Paths to success: Three ways to innovate your business model" completed by IBM Institute for Business Value study "While many paths may lead to successful business model innovation, innovations in enterprise structure that focus on network plays or external collaboration proved to be the most common type of business model innovation in our sample. In fact, 15 of the 35 cases we studied, or almost half, focused extensively on this strategy".

If it works for the top 35 companies in the world, do you think it could work for us too?

Together, we can build the best IT Strategy and IT Infrastructure your business can have. The one you normally never notice existed. The one that can let your business grow as much as you want it to and not as much as you can.

Basic Element No.3: Implementation

The best plan in the world worth nothing if it stays on paper. That's something we do not need to tell you. Now, once you have a good idea of what you need, no, you have a good business plan of what you need, how do you go about implementing it? Do you hire a dedicated IT staff, do you sub-contract it, or maybe you do it yourself? Or maybe none of the above? While you have many choices here, we consistently see top results from the strategic cooperation where all involved sides are benefiting each other.

That is why we want to walk with your through all the stages and make sure your money is spent on a rock-solid IT Infrastructure that will work for you day and night, 24/7, all year round.

As we already mentioned, there are many, many combinations of elements that can either make you appear on the next Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies list or make you go look for a new business adventure.

We use proven methodologies and our successful experience to improve on what we already know worked well for our customers. We never digress just to try what is "cool" and we never test new concepts on your business. Yes, we are conservative. Like Swiss bank system. If we make a mistake we will fix it - for free, we will learn from it, and we will do all we can to never repeat it again. You would be surprised to know how many IT companies produce an inferior product, sell it to you, and them lure you into a "maintenance" agreement so they can fix their bugs for your money.