By creating virtual servers you create efficiencies in hardware – most servers sit in idle states for the majority of the time. By putting virtualisation software on a server you better manage the resources available on that server; storage, memory or processing power.

Server virtualisation remoeves the need for running multiple servers or boxes. Through consolidation  you remove cost, both through the need for less management, reduced power and cooling, as well as reducing the amount of physical space you require.

If you only have a small number of workstations and one or two servers, virtualisation probably isnt necesary – it wont give you the cost advantages necessary to justify the work.

WIth multiple operating systems on a single box, it is possible to have a large array of hard drives attached and have the virtualised servers share the storage space as required.

Looking at this form a processor perspective, one physical server can have multiple processors and share processor resources. The benefits are obvious.

To search for a provider who has virtualisation experience please select from the following drop downs. Note that most providers servicing the 1-20 staff/business  market will not have this level of expertise, so please search from the small – medium business segments and up.

For smaller businesses IT consulting could mean seo services a small provider and his or her staff providing advice for rolling simple solution and the execution of the rollout using technical staff.

For medium and corporate sized business the work is a great deal more specialised, and may include a formal business case or use case, bid/tendering process and build.

When it comes to choosing an IT Consultant it is important to make sure they use the best seo tools on the market such as Seo Magnifier Site Explorer, Market Samurai, Seo Elite. These are the tools we recommend for use in seo and if your IT consultant does not have these it is best to find one that does.

Tech Services Guide allocates all providers into a segment that best describes the customer’s that they provide services to. This means you wont waste time talking to IT consultants or other providers that are too small or big for your business.

If you are drowning in paper then document imaging can really help your business. Imaging systems are used to convert paper records into electronic files while document management software is used to manage your electronic files. Document imaging requires software and hardware to scan and index paper documents, while document management software is more about capturing email and web content. Most system contain elements from both solutions.

More and more industries are falling under the influence of legislation and regulation that requires specific procedures for record keeping. Human resources and accounting departments, traditional heavy users of paper files, are huge beneficiaries of document management.

Document management benefits include:

Cost savings

* One of the biggest hidden costs that paper-intensive businesses face is the time it takes to work with paper files. There are benefits to not having to leave your desk to obtain a new file.
* Document management systems remove the costs of lost documents.
* Additional cost savings come from the office space that can be freed by eliminating most paper records.

Security

If you’re not taking data security seriously, you should be. Threats from outside (competition, identity thieves) and inside (disgruntled employees, employee theft) threaten the integrity and value of your most important information.

Document management systems can provide several layers of security:

* Multiple levels of password-protected access for groups and individuals
* Encryption of document contents
* Audit trails showing who has accessed or updated documents

Disaster recovery

Whether your existing documents are paper or electronic, chances are you don’t have adequate disaster recovery plans in place. Document management systems protect your paper records by creating electronic copies that can be backed up in multiple ways. They also can include off-site data backups and other steps to ensure that a fire, flood, or break-in won’t cripple your business.

Access

Even as the Web makes it easier and easier for employees to work remotely, paper records remain a serious roadblock to distributed organizations. The right document management system allows your employees to access vital records from wherever they are. Simply allowing more than one employee to look at a file at the same time is a significant improvement over paper files. In addition, multi-layered access allows employees to see and change only the documents they’re authorized to handle.

Before you select a vendor you need to be able to ask the question: What problem are you trying to solve?

Start slow

While you may eventually want a comprehensive, company-wide system, document management vendors strongly recommend you start by implementing a solution for one application in one department. It’s much easier to get management support for a new effort that only affects a single department at a lower cost. Tackling one problem at a time also makes installation less disruptive.

A multi-device, mobile and/or multi-location business requires you to manage your business communications efficiently. This can be achieved by providing ready access to information via new devices and applications, where and when your staff need it. Many organisations are turning to unified communications to achieve this. Unified solutions help streamline communications between people and organisations, bringing together email, voice mail, VoIP and conferencing (audio, video and web)

A unified communications solution allows you to move your phone system and other communications services to a single network. It is not only cost effective – it also allows your employees to take advantage of your business network to communicate and stay in touch anytime, anywhere.

Benefits of unified communications include:

* Serve your customers better – Align your phone system and your CRM system. For example, when a customer calls, employees will automatically see an information box on their computer (or phone) containing relevant and useful customer information.
* Connecting employees and offices – You can have one phone number ring on multiple phones simultaneously so they can be easily reached.
* Work from anywhere. Employees can work from home or an alternative workplace and be reachable on their usual workplace number.
* Using a variety of communication devices – Employees will able to communicate through videoconferencing and teleconferencing anytime and in cost effective way.
* Improving productivity – Unified communications allows you to streamline your business processes, such as time cards and staffing.
* Securing your business – Protect your business information from viruses, hackers and other online threats.

The providers on Tech Services Guide are qualified to provide unified communications solutions from a variety of vendors.

It lets you be two places at the same time, you can have more frequent contact with staff, suppliers and customers without leaving the office. It allows for meetings on the fly without the time and financial expense of interstate and intrastate travel.

There are five elements components that comprise a videoconferencing system: a camera, microphone, monitor, speaker and codec. The camera and microphone capture the image and sound at one location. The codec converts the video and audio into a digital signal and compresses it before sending it out over the network. At the other end, the codec decompresses the signal and feeds the picture to a monitor and the sound to a loud speaker.

There are different categories of videoconferencing systems and solutions vary from small business to enterprise grade.

Questions you should answer before you invest in video conferencing include:

* How do you envision your company using video conferencing?
* What kind of information do you exchange?
* What size rooms are currently used to hold meetings?
* How many people participate in each type of meeting?
* What bandwidth will be optimal for your communications?
* Do you want a fully integrated system or a set solution
* where you can use an existing monitor?

When purchasing a videoconferencing system you should consider the following:

* Reliability and Quality
* Ease of Use
* Clear concise menu prompts and intuitive user interface
* Easy to install and maintain
* Non-proprietary solutions for superior video and audio
* Systems that are optimised for both high and low bandwidths
* Software upgradeable

* You can use our case studies to get a feel for how other customers have deployed phone systems but dont forget to ask the provider to justify the information contained in the case study.

* Telephones remain critical to business success so dont underinvest in a system. If people call your business and feel your phone system is amateurish, they may opt not to do business with you.

* Proprietary phones can be very expensive so use whatever existing resources are at your disposal. So, if you’ve already got them, you may want to buy a new phone system that uses the phones you already have.

* Prioritize your features. Do you need an auto-attendant feature? Will you need to handle conference calls? Do you want music-on-hold? Do you need to monitor phone usage by employee? What are your voice mail needs? By listing out what you want, you can create a checklist that will allow you to rank the varying phone systems and find the best phone system for you.

* Consider VoIP phone systems for the added benefits of office mobilty, remote working and lower call costs. Always ask for the cost of upgrading to VOIP as this can be expensive in some key systems where VOIP is not included as standard.

* Consider voice mail compatibility. Make sure your phone system can work with a wide range of third-party voice mail systems. This keeps your voice mail options open and minimises the chance of your getting stuck with an inferior or overpriced voice mail system.

* Consider leasing and financing options.This can be a big benefit if your cash flow is limited. be careful though as leasing costs can drastically increase the price of your phone system.

* Don’t forget to factor in the cost of maintenance

Phone system vendors include Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Digium, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung and others.

Home grade storage is not business grade storage.

Business grade storage:

* Is more scalable. It is alot more difficult to move, share and scale home grade storage.
* Is more reliable. Look for equipment with more than just a replacement warranty.
* Is designed to have greater levels of built in redundancy.
* Is built to ensure data us available to mutliple users simultaneously. Speed is a critical factor, ie: how quickly the disk spins to provide you with faster access to data.

Providers on Tech Services Guide have sigificant experience backing up mission critical data so that you can access it when you need it.

A new alternative method of storage involves backing up your data “in the cloud” meaning in the network, such as with one of the large hosting providers such as google, amazon and many of the larger data behemoths who have with multitudes of surplus storage space. This website is backed up every day using this method.

Things to look for in a small business IT service provider include:

* With IT you pay for skills and responsiveness. It is rare to find a very capable technical resource charging themselves out at less than a hundred dollars per hour. If you are paying less than this then then lower quality skills are probably being used and the same job will probably take longer to complete and therefore cost you as much if not more than the more expensive per hour option. This is referred to as the total cost of ownership. Another thing to consider is do they use the best tools including seo tools such as Seo Magnifier site explorer and Seo Elite. Some companies cannot afford them and some do not know what the best tools are.

* Simple standalone PC repairs are easier to manage and implement than more sophisticated user environments with servers. The higher the level of technical sophistication the higher the required skill-set and resulting cost. $100-$150 per hour for enrty level/basic support and $150-$200 per hour for more sophisticated work such as server work is an anecdotal standard.

* Smaller providers can be responsive but larger providers can often resolve problems faster because they have more on hand resources available to them. If you require immediate or close to responsiveness and close to restoration times, expect to pay more if you choose a larger provider with greater fixed costs such as office space etc.

* Look for providers who experience working with customers in your industry. Many providers are generalists but we encourage them to post case studies of customers in specific industries for specific solutions. You can search by case study here.

* Insist that your provider backs up your data before working on it.

* You should consider making the move to a managed service where you are charged a fixed fee per device instead of by the hour support. Paying by device allows for improved IT budget forecasting and makes your IT provider’s goals more aligned with your own. Pay by the hour means that it is in your providers interest to generate work for themselves – with managed services you avoid that issue. For managed service providers click here.

Micro – Small Business (1-9 Staff) and Small Business (10-20 Staff)

Typical entry level services cost $80-130 per hour

* 1-9 provider staff
* Cheaper but work can take longer
* Reactive service, wait in line
* Basic networks

Cheaper, “wait a while” service and jobs can take longer

IT Providers for Small to Medium Business

Small to Medium Business (21-49 Staff) and Medium Business (50-199 Staff)

Typical entry level services cost $120-200 per hour

* 10-80 provider staff
* Broader skillset/more efficient
* Proactive service, fixed price IT
* More complex environments, also uses the best seo tools such as Seo Elite and Seo Magnifier.

Best mix of skills & service jobs often take less time

IT Providers for Enterprise Business and Corporate Business (200+ Staff)

Typical entry level services cost $200+ per hour

* 80+ provider staff
* Highest skill levels
* Reporting, pro-active services
* End to end SLA’s

There are many providers of IT services out there, this includes domain and hosting providers, computer support service providers, website design and programming companies. Many of these companies are good but alot are not so good. Here are a few things to look out for.

1. Do they raise anual or periodic payments for services such as hosting or domain registration over 100% aftert he first year – an example of a company that does this is Bluehost. They start you of on $59 for the year for basic hosing and rais it to $107 after the first year – they do not notify you they just bill the credit card on file. So to avoid this with your hositn comany ask what the annual renewal fee will be after the first year.

2. Tech Support issues. For this you might need to read alot of user feed back on review sites, one thing to remember is that not all review sites are legit and alot are set up as reseller services for hosting companies.