Why are there so many specialists in IT and do we really need them?

In small business we a see a lot of specialists working as generalists. By this, I mean a couple of things...

One scenario occurs when the founder of a business is a specialist but becomes the business generalist, working on all aspects of the business because they lack the funds to hire specialists.
The other scenario occurs when technical specialists are forced to work as generalists because of a lack of specialists in other areas.
I also see business owners who are not IT savvy, and fail to see that IT is a massive industry with a rapidly expanding knowledge base. No single person can possibly have it all covered. Ultimately, for me, specialisation ties in with quality.

Let me explain...

Specialisation has many forms, and the simplest example in our business is our total focus on a single brand of PC hardware. We could offer many brands as we have access to most of them through our distributors, but we have been well served by specialising in just one.

Why? With just one brand of computer across thousands of PCs, and almost 200 hundred servers, we have very deep experience and expertise; not just with the technology, but with the company behind the technology. When it does fail (after all, all brands have failures) we know who to call, how to report the fault, and how to get the fastest possible repair carried out for the lowest impact to our clients.

We also know how to patch, manage and maintain the computers. Through our job-tracking system, we can see that statistically it takes us longer to manage the same issues with other brands of computers where clients either had existing machines when we started managing IT for them, or didn't take our advice on purchasing decisions.

Another example of specialisation over generalisation is our helpdesk, where we have multiple staff all answering general questions on computer malfunctions. We have a policy that we don't train more than two of them to any depth on any one technical topic. The reason for this policy is that we need depth in each topic, but we also need breadth. If we have a whole bunch of email specialists, who will know about the details of wide area networks or security or other equally-important topics? We then encourage our techs to depend on each other to share problems, and use the best specialist to resolve problems quickly so the client is not left hanging.

We need specialists more than many realise; as does any complex industry. In IT the answers are always available online, but a specialist will typically find the answers faster than a generalist. A specialist is also more likely to recognise the solution when they find it, and so spend less time experimenting with possible alternatives.

Something I have observed over 22 years of working with computers is that the less experiments are run on a computer (or trial fixes) the more stable the computers tend to be. So less time fixing them leads directly to better performance.

So, when you think about IT and the quality of a solution, or the speed of resolution of a problem, you need to think about finding the right specialist – not just a person who can eventually figure it out. IT is no longer that thing on the side of your business that you can work on once your staff have gone home. If it breaks, you need a well-trained, experienced specialist to get it fixed right and fixed fast.

Click here to read more IT Systems expert advice. David Markus is the founder of Combo - the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth.

Is cloud computing the future for business?

My kids are four-and-a-half and seven years old. They have only ever used cloud-based software! Does that make you feel old all of a sudden, because you still use software that has been installed on your computer? There is no longer any doubt in my mind that in future, software will be something we connect to rather than install and use.

Here's a quick computer/software timeline for you.

We started with software on disks which we loaded into memory and executed. That was the 1980s. We then added tape drives for additional capacity – I was doing this on a Commodore 64 in 1985. By 1986 we had PCs with a hard drive onto which we could load programs from big floppy disks. By 1995 we had software on CDs and by 2000 we had it on DVDs. Now, 10 years later, we all expect to be able to download software from the internet and use it.

So the next logical step is not even to download it. Just use it where it was built. This is kind of what cloud computing is. Of course, we're talking IT, so it is never quite that simple.

Cloud computing can mean your server is no longer in your office and runs as part of a larger system in a data centre somewhere, or it can be that you use an application such as email or an accounting app that sits 'in the cloud' – which is just a newer way of saying 'on the internet'.

Examples of this sort of technology include Google's Gmail and other office apps (such as Google Calendar and Google Docs) and if you don't want the cost savings and compromises that go with moving to Google there is also the Microsoft Telstra joint venture T-Suite which offers a host of cloud based applications including Exchange server, SharePoint and OCS the communications hub. There is also the MYOB challenger, Xero.

They're all great for micro businesses that don't want to worry about servers and backup and stuff. Then there is Salesforce.com (a client database) for CRM and other similar solutions. All of these solutions are encouraging you to use shared, cloud-based infrastructure and to move away from having your own in-house solutions.

Other products that can remove technology and related issues from your business include BizProtect, which offers cloud-based backup of your servers. It gives you totally automated backup to offsite storage by taking snapshots of your server every 30 minutes and sends the data offsite at the end of each day. Very new tech.

Then there's hosted PABX, which can save you from installing a phone system and instead gives you an elastic phone solution where you always have what you need but only pay for what you use.

This 'only pay for what you use' is a fairly common thread with cloud-based solutions. If you do not buy it and install it, you do not need to own it. The prices are set such that it is about the same price over three or four years to rent what you need and no more. This is great for businesses that are volatile or seasonal.

Don't expect big cost savings overall just yet, however, as more people get onto the new solutions we can expect costs to drop significantly. Support costs shift from maintaining infrastructure to managing connections and supporting people who need more training. Certainly in the short-term administrative costs will remain the same. Once key players emerge the administration costs will reduce as standard practices are established.

The downside is, of course, that your dependence on access to quality internet services goes from not much to 100%. When you are offline you are out of action. This is another reason we need the National Broadband Network (NBN) to be rolled out in a hurry. Of course, with a spare mobile broadband device you will be able to access you services from any location any time, even when your primary connection is down.

With cloud computing it does not matter what size your business is; there are solutions to suit any size. That said, you should not leap into contracts based on the sales pitch from the software company, because they know how to sell their solution. As I say with all IT decisions, find a trusted advisor who has your best interests at heart and listen to their advice on cloud solutions that are the right shape for your organisation.

I regularly assist businesses with 15 to 150 PCs to find the right technology. Products I am currently advising clients to take up include cloud-based email, CRM, project management, business planning, backup and PABX. I have not yet had a client take up the option of a cloud-based finance application but expect I will soon.

In my business, Combo, we currently use the following mix of cloud-based technologies to deliver our services and I must say it is all working very well. For CRM we use Salesforce.com, for backup we use BizProtect, for HR management and business planning we use Workitonline. In the next few months we will adopt a hosted PABX, as our phone system is about to be out of warranty and will then pose a significant risk to our business.

Over the next five years I expect we will see a lot of hybrid sites where there are still servers and PCs using local data and software as well as some cloud-based solutions. However, once the NBN has been put in place, there will be no reason to keep IT gear local. We will be making use of cloud-based everything and using very lightweight computers and pads to connect to whatever we need from wherever we are.

If you have not yet identified a good digital guide (IT advisor) for your business, now is probably the time to find one as the next few years will bring more complexity in IT than ever before. Once the dominant players in 'the cloud' emerge, it may settle down. Or it may be that we learn more ways to complicate our lives with a wider array of technologies.

Do keep in mind that, in 10 years time, a significant proportion of the workforce will be doing jobs that do not exist today. For example, could you have imagined in the year 2000 that there would be such as thing as a full-time job in connecting one cloud-based application to another to synchronise data? Today that is a $150,000 a year job, if you know how to do it well. Could you have imagined a job in search engine promotion? What about digital media production?

We live in a world of rapid change and the change on the horizon is definitely cloud-based. It may be time to make sure your digital guide is an experienced pilot!

Click here to read more IT Systems expert advice. David Markus is the founder of Combo - the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth.

How do we improve our technology intelligence?

So, you've built a successful business, you've hired some good staff, and you've survived the GFC. Now you need to ramp up your business capabilities to deliver without ramping up your costs. You want your business to run to a winning formula, and you have a hunch that your IT systems are – or soon will be – impeding your growth.

IT systems typically grow organically as businesses grow, but there comes a time when this approach becomes expensive. If you have 20 staff and 20 different computers, and a pile of servers in the server room of various ages, you probably have enough work to keep a full-time IT person very busy. You will have 20 unique problems across the 20 unique machines, and probably have a mix of operating systems and applications as well.

What I have learned over 16 years of looking at business systems, is that the system you get will reflect your thinking.

On a scale of one to 10 (where one is 'untrue', and 10 is 'true') how do you rate yourself on the following?

• We have an up-to-date IT plan as part of our business plan.
• Our IT plan has a realistic or costed budget assigned.
• We have the right resources assigned to resolving each of the parts of the IT puzzle, including: web strategy, finance system, line of business applications, infrastructure, help desk, etc.
• We have the right infrastructure now and for the next three years.
• We know who is accountable for each aspect of our plan and our support.

So, how did you score?

If you are serious about growth and committed to doing it profitably, you will have scored each of the above statements at seven or above, so a score of 35+ is encouraging.

Unfortunately, most businesses do not have an approach to IT that sees them building the platforms required to support their growth. Often this will lead to high delivery cost of goods and services, and frequent disruptions to business. Ongoing IT problems also lead to unmotivated staff, especially the sub-40 year old set who do everything via computers.

So, how do you – as a business leader – upgrade your thinking?

The first point I would make here is that you need to tap into a pool of specialists. IT is forever becoming more specialised, and so you need to find the right specialists for each aspect of IT; from strategic overview to project delivery to day-to-day maintenance.

It is now highly unlikely that an SME business will find an all-rounder who really knows where all the future benefits in IT will be found. In my business, we have a team of people assigned to exploring new technologies to find the ones that actually add value to a business quickly and effectively. Many technologies we look at seem impressive but turn out to be distractions or disasters for one reason or another.

In the last six months, we've assessed a dozen off-site backup solutions. So, when you ask our team about this technology they have both a broad and deep knowledge of this emerging technology area. This knowledge is held in a team – not in an individual – and the cost of accumulating this knowledge is high, so it should not be borne by a single SME company. In our case, the benefit to over 100 clients justifies the expense. And, we do this for many areas of technology, from spam filtering to security to server performance, and beyond.

My next suggestion is to remove yourself from the low level aspects of device technology, and start thinking strategically about what systems your business will need for the management of resources and communication going forward. Then, leave the bits and bytes to the technical team. There's no point having a great network with terrific PCs and servers, if you lack the tool to build your communication systems, such as a document management solution, a services management database, or a production management system.

Now, add in a suitable budget with informed requirements and pricing so you can afford to implement without spending a day on cost cutting to save $50 on a purchase. Better still – form a relationship with a supplier who will always give you a fair price and build on the trust to reduce your involvement. Do check up on them intermittently to ensure they're keeping your best interests at heart. It is always better for a supplier to make a regular small margin than an occasional large one, but not all suppliers think long-term – find one that does.

These are some good first steps to get you out of the daily grind of high-stress IT in a small business. Of course, there is always more you can do, but it boils down to finding a trusted advisor and building lasting relationships that allow you to focus on your business – not the IT problems within your business. This will give you capacity to handle growth without ramping up costs.

Click here to read more IT Systems expert advice. David Markus is the founder of Combo - the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth.