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Avoid the I.T. Trap!

Stop I.T. from being a distraction to your business’ success

Cary M. Root, President of Root-InfoTech

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Welcome!

BBB Flash Webinar

Newest programming addition from your Better Business Bureau

Purpose - to share tips, tricks and traps from one member to another

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Welcome!

Today’s topic is “Avoid the I.T. Trap and stop I.T. from being a distraction to your business’ success”

Objective is to deliver a lot of useful information in a very short time

30 minutes plus Q&A

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Your Speaker

Who am I & why should you believe me?

President and Founder of Root-InfoTech, formerly ALG

45 years of extensive IT experience

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Your Speaker

Worked with over 2,000 businesses in

every major industry segment, from

home-based 1 person companies to the

Department of Defense

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Your SpeakerBoard member and/or technology advisor for 11 organizations:

Ohio Commerce Bank / Peoples Bank Suicide Prevention Education Alliance Better Business Bureau Jewish Family Services Association Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities Children’s Tumor Foundation BBB Education Foundation Solon Chamber of Commerce Breakthrough Charter Schools Council of Better Business Bureaus Western Reserve Safety Council

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How is Your I.T. Spending?If you’re a typical organization…

More than half of your time and resources are spent, not on innovative projects, but on "keep the lights on" activities

Sole purpose is to prevent existing systems from breaking down.

And sometimes the percentage is a lot higher than that

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How is Your I.T. Spending?I’ve seen many organizations where

“keep the lights on” is 80% - 90% of the I.T. budget!

I believe it should be no more than 40%

Imagine the benefits to your business if you could spend significantly more of your budget as an investment and not an expense

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How is Your I.T. Spending?Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Of course everyone would want that, right?

The question of course is…

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#1 Don’t Do-it-Yourself

Are you the kind of person who would operate on himself or herself?

Why not? Scalpels and sponges are cheap

In fact you can buy a scalpelon Amazon.com for $8.09

Save tens of thousands of $$over a skilled surgeon in ahospital

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#1 Don’t Do-it-Yourself

Don’t recall your high school anatomy?

No problem – Google and Wikipedia will clearly explain everything you need to know

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#1 Don’t Do-it-Yourself

Ever know someone who defended themselves in court?

How about repairing the high voltage electrical lines going into your building?

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#1 Don’t Do-it-Yourself

Why is it then, that so many businesses don’t do that with their information technology?NephewsSons and daughtersSummer internsPart-time helpersLow paid hire without required expertiseWorst of all – existing staff, partners, and

owners who “know” I.T.

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#1 Don’t Do-it-Yourself

Spend the moneyQualified, experienced, productiveFull time or out-sourced

It will pay you back many times over

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

Better to be proactive and keep little problems from turning into big ones

Common sense, right?

Take your car in for maintenance a few times a year, so it doesn’t die when you’re driving home one day in rush hour traffic

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

And yet very few organizations are proactive with their I.T.

Planning when to replace computersMaintaining warranty on serversAutomated, redundant, secure backupsKeeping up with OS security patchesEasy way for staff to report issues

You can turn those things around

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

The tougher part to being proactive is the incredible complexities of I.T.

Despite the attractive and sometimes fun interface of Windows or your Mac

And manufacturer efforts to make you believe the opposite

Beneath the surface where problems occur is highly sophisticated and complex

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

There’s been an evolution of tools to help manage the thousands of things that can go wrong with I.T. in a business

Email Alerts Alchemy Eye Spiceworks

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

Newest and best of these tools are called Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

Software sensors installed on all computers and servers

Special ways of communicating with printers, switches, routers, firewalls, etc.

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

RMM Tools

Each sensor can monitor hundreds of technical factors

Such as drive space, memory usage, CPU utilization, anti-virus interruptions, mail box size vs. capacity, needed updates to Windows and applications… MUCH MORE

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

RMM Tools

All of this is tracked on every computer, server and device in your business

Displayed and prioritized in real time on a central console

Automated alerts and reporting

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

RMM Tools – Let’s Take a Look at One

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

RMM tools are designed to be used by professional I.T. engineers

Not a do-it-yourself system (see #1)

Let’s back up and see how an RMM system has helped my clients spend less money on maintenance and repairs in this past week

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

Identified a workstation where a virus had disabled its anti-virus software and made it look like it was running

Identified a server hard drive that was starting to fail, but had not

Identified a business-critical workstation that only had 5% disk space left

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

Identified a failed backup

Identified a print spooler that stopped, which stopped people from printing

Identified that email service completely stopped and reported the cause

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#2 Stop Being Reactive

Use an RMM service for the ultimate in being proactive with your I.T. infrastructure

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#3 Improve Your Business

Go beyond solving I.T. problems

Use I.T. to make your business better

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#3 Improve Your Business

Form an I.T. committee

Discuss recent maintenance & costsConfirm efforts to be more proactivePresent new technologies that can

improve the businessDiscuss user pain points and how to

use technology to address themPlan upgrades, replacements, projects

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#3 Improve Your Business

Who is on the I.T. committee?

Management – 1 or 2 representativesUsers – 2 or 3 vocal or interested staffI.T. expert – technician and manager

The I.T. people do not lead these meetings. They are participants

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#3 Improve Your Business

Meet monthly

Pre-schedule meetings for the entire year

Require that each participant prepare for the meeting before-hand

They must actively participate to be on the committee

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Let’s Recap

Don’t Do-It-Yourself

Stop Being Reactive

Improve Your Business

Avoid the I.T. Trap!

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Questions?

PowerPoint slides availableon BBB groups website

Want more? Sign up for my free blog calledRight Clique Weekly at http://root-infotech.com

Thanks for taking the time to join us!

Contact information:

Cary M. Root, PresidentRoot-InfoTech30640 Bainbridge Road, Solon OH 44139cary@root-infotech.com440.349.5555