By Neal Upton, CEO enChord

There’s a lot of technology out there that can help you run your business more efficiently – if you’re a big business. Most small companies get left out in the cold because they can’t afford the up-front costs or a full-time staff to manage changing technology needs as their business grows.

Considering that the average business spends more than $8,000 each year to purchase, support and maintain EACH computer and $20,000 per year for local, long distance and wireless telephone equipment and service, it’s easy to see why small businesses often have to compromise on the technology they choose and the level of support they maintain.

Limited Options for Small Businesses

In the past, small businesses typically only had a few options for managing technology, including:

1. Hiring a full-time technical professional with a limited skill set
2. Contracting with an IT consultant on an hourly basis
3. Delegating technology responsibility to an employee who has little or no technical background

The problem with these options is that no single solution offers it all – affordability, full-time assistance, depth and breadth of expertise and consistent support. Often, the end result is a solution that does not support the organization’s goals, but is deemed «good enough.»

1. The Internal Hiring Challenge

When small businesses start the search for a full-time technical person, they quickly realize that they cannot afford a seasoned expert. So, they compromise by hiring a junior-level person (maybe an intern) who has limited experience. This person can probably set up computers, but has no idea how to select or manage a phone system, integrate a business accounting package, secure an e-commerce Web site or configure the network so employees can access files from the road. Even if a company could afford a more senior-level person, it is virtually impossible to find one individual who is an expert in every aspect of technology and telecommunications.

2. The Consulting Dilemma

Hiring a technology consulting firm on an hourly basis is another option, but leaves the small business owner on his own to navigate the world of local and long distance providers, phone system vendors and Internet service providers – a daunting task. And, these firms typically do not sit down with you to learn about your business, make technology recommendations based on your budget and goals or help you define a long-term technology strategy. These are the people you call when something breaks. By charging hourly, they don’t have a vested interested in taking «ownership» of your technology or ensuring that your business is supported appropriately.

3. Wearing Too Many Hats – And None of Them Fit

Delegating IT responsibilities to a non-technical employee (like an administrative assistant or HR manager) is the riskiest of all available options. It leaves an organization vulnerable and will lead to guaranteed downtime. For example, if a virus threatens the company network, this person probably will not know how to fix the problem. Most likely the company will end up scrambling to find a computer consultant who can bail it out, wasting hours or days and potentially resulting in lost sales if the company relies on its network to conduct business, communicate with customers, and generate revenue.

Don’t Settle for «Good Enough»

A ground-breaking new technology service category called unified IT and telephony is emerging to give small businesses a better option. It helps small organizations access the same sophisticated technologies as big businesses, despite their limited budgets.

This unique method for technology service delivery is characterized by three factors: it bundles both phone and computer service and support; equipment and files are hosted off site; and it is delivered for a fixed monthly fee. A subscription for unified IT and telephony typically covers all of the technology services a variety of vendors would separately offer: technical support, software upgrades and maintenance, local and long distance phone service, a phone system, Internet connectivity and network setup and management.

This hosted model helps keep technology costs low because all of the small business’ software, files and phone systems are securely housed and managed off-site by one service provider. It allows businesses to take advantage of a professional technology infrastructure that has already been developed, sharing common costs with other customers. Additionally, it eliminates significant up-front investments in phone systems, computers, network equipment and manpower.

In addition to cost savings, hosted technology offers small businesses three additional benefits: remote access to the network, longer shelf life for computers and consistent software across all desktops. Imagine the productivity increase your business could achieve if your employees had secure access to their files from home, offsite locations or from the road. What if you didn’t have to replace all of your computers every time the industry standard for technology changed? And, think of how easy it would be to support your employees’ technology needs if they all ran the same version of software. With a hosted model, all of these benefits become a reality for the small business owner.

Another advantage of hosted technology is that one company can solve any technology problem. Gone are the days of calling one service provider for help with computers and networks, another for long distance service and yet another for Internet-connectivity problems. This means small businesses no longer have to determine what is causing a problem before they can figure out who to call for help.

The Bottom Line

Unified IT and telephony provides big business technology benefits at affordable prices. It can save small businesses 30% to 70% on their computing and phone costs, while providing higher levels of service and support. And, it is perfect for any type of small business – dental offices, law firms, accountants, retailers, non-profits, churches, real estate agencies, manufacturers and any organization that:

· Wants one fixed, monthly cost for phone, Internet and computing services and support
· Wants expert technical support but prefers not to hire a full time professional
· Wants to focus capital and people on what they do best, not on managing technology
· Wants to work with a single company that can set up and support local and long distance service, Internet connectivity, phone systems, computers and networks
· Wants to house equipment and data off-site in a secure facility

With a hosted technology model, small businesses CAN have it all – affordability, consistency, expertise and full-time support.

Neal Upton is an entrepreneur and founder of several Indiana-based technology businesses. He has been providing technology services and support to mid-sized and enterprise-level businesses for more than 20 years. Upton is currently focusing on his newest venture, enChord, Indiana’s first provider of unified IT and telephony services. He can be reached at 877.enChord or nupton@enChord.net. More information about enChord is available at www.enChord.net.

M5 Networks Adds Over 600 Cisco Phone Users in June 2004

NEW YORK(BUSINESS WIRE)Aug. 3, 2004--M5 Networks, the Northeast’s leading provider of outsourced IP phone systems, today announced that it had added a record number of Cisco phone users to its customer list in June 2004. New customers included the Betty Cuningham Gallery, an art gallery in Manhattan that will be reopening in September, Interstate Financial Group, a full-service financial planning firm in Hartsdale, NY, and multiple office locations for InsPara Networking Technologies, an IT consulting firm headquartered in Cranford, NJ with a second office in Manhattan.

«Our existing customer base is clear evidence of our leadership position in this market and we’re aggressively pursuing additional customers to maintain our profitable growth, especially as some competing providers withdraw from the New York City market,» said Dan Hoffman, CEO and President of M5 Networks. «After working for four years to build a business model and infrastructure to handle the type of growth predicted by analysts for our market, we are pleased to see that the growth curve for this technology is significantly accelerating in New York’s small business market.»

During June 2004, M5 added 15 business customers and over 600 Cisco phone users, growing its customer base over 6 percent and number of seats served over 10 percent in just a single month. M5 started the second quarter providing its outsourced IP phone system to more than 200 small business customers and serving more than 5,000 seats in total. Even more significantly, the average customer size continues to trend upward, further demonstrating that adoption rates are growing in the upper portion of New York’s small business market.

Small to medium business enterprises (SMEs) are those businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Of the more than 64 million business lines currently in operation in the US, it is estimated that the SMEs account for more than 53 million business telephone lines. Analysts at In-Stat/MDR anticipate that SMEs and branch offices found in multi-tenant buildings are expected to contribute significantly to the future revenues of broadband service providers, especially those SMEs located in high-density areas, such as New York City.