Open Source Content Management

Hi All

Seeing as IT is a major driving force in most business. I would like to open a discussion on the obstacles that small businesses face in terms of maximizing IT for their business.

This could range from the cost of setting up infrastructure, to the complexity of accounting packages or even employee IT skills.

Lets help each other leverage of IT to enhance our businesses.

Thanks

Christian

IT in all its forms (PC’s, servers, laptops, phones & mobiles, tablets, etc) can be one of the most important (and expensive!) investments a company makes…

Not only does most of your staff need a PC to do work and/or serve customers, but the same PC must be wired up to the office network and printer, as well as to the internet!

So the money spent on the PC, does not include all the necessary accessories to get it online. And once online, you also need software to protect the user and your business from online threats. And don’t forget the time wasting blackhole that is browsing, social networking and online games… But there also should be a balance between what the user can or can’t do, as to not completely restrict them!

You also need to factor in energy consumption – those old Pentium4 PC’s with clunky monitors you got for free can do the job, but it costs (much) more to keep them running than it does to power a newish laptop!

As for maximizing value – you don’t need to buy the full MS Office package for every PC – there are some users that will be served just as well by the free OpenOffice spreadsheet and word processing package than Excel and Word.

As for IT skills – an in-house IT guru these days is almost always a must. But needn’t be a full time employee – you can sign a contract for remote and onsite support?

Then training – how does the government’s learner subsidy program fit into your business? Can you train some IT people and claim back the money for training them? Can the same be done for normal employee IT training?

I completely agree with Christo, IT investments can be a cash black hole if not investigated holistically.

Small business owners tend to invest directly into IT without proper consultation. An IT consultant might seem like an unnecessary cost for a small business but that's where there are needed most. Streamlined IT and business processes can help increase automation and reduce headcount.

In terms of Training, i do know that you can get points from a BEE scorecard perspective as part of skills development. IT training is not only critical for business activities but is also considered a life skill.

Christian - some more and very valid points!

Below are some more topics for future discussion?

- Backups and Disaster Recovery Procedures

- User access and rights

- Software & Hardware audits

- How to handle End of Life (EOL) of equipment? Tax implications?

- Hosted or own mail server? Or use GoogleMail for Business?

- Software licensing

- Phones – Telkom / Neotel or fixed line cellular with least cost routing?

- Customer data confidentiality and security

- ???


I'm glad I found this site!

IT maintenance is one of the major areas that IT businesses needs to focus on.

What a great discussion gentleman - and an extremely important one.

I'm working on a series of "How To" blog posts for small business owners aimed at saving them some money on IT tasks they can complete themselves instead of outsourcing. My first post is "how to register a domain name."

Are there any topics you'd like to suggest?

Hi Tim from MTN Business here. IT infrastructure is an expense for any young enterprise. Fortunately there are a number of options that you can use that will reduce the cash flow.
Purchasing brand names like Dell and HP may appear expensive but generally in the price is maintenance to cover the repair if necessary. It could be more cost beneficial in the long term than having to pay to have older technology fixed.

You can also look at different service providers for what is really baked beans these days. You are going to need email but that doesn't mean you have to start with Exchange. Organisations like Mimecast and Google provide very good mail services.

Many small business startups can now have access to accounting packages through their banks and as cloud services are increasing this is one area that I see more businesses large and small turning to. They will certainly relieve some of the high end technical expertese needed in IT installations of the past.

OpenOffice will do for the small startup exactly what Microsoft Office does for the people with the big bucks. I find the interface as good as and in some instances easier to use, especially being able to create different file types (spread sheeet, document processing) from one manager console.

I am becoming more excited as well by the BYOD concept (Bring Your Own Device). If you structure that into the package you offer your employee you may find that they will bring the technology you need but don't want to spend your startup capital on. An added benefit of that is that they will tend to look after it more than they do the company supplied goods.

Anywho if I can help I will gladly try

Hello Shelley
I've been reading all your posts/blogs with great interest. Not only is general IT out of reach for most micro and small business start-ups, but so is having a rudimentary website. The last thing a new start-up business owner needs a another month end expense - he needs a presence on the internet that he/she can advertise for free ie on stationery, vehicles, brochures and tell there friends - spread the word around.

Most people in new business have their time cut out just staying in business and planing strategies to grow incrementally with a limited cash flow - so why not have a presence on the internet with a really affordable customised website design that will provide a .co.za domain free for the first year and free hosting and maintenance for as long as the website is live - a website that can grow with the business and have no recurring monthly expense - SEO and extended bells and whistles can come later. Just about every small business owner I've spoken to haven't a clue about websites, how they work or how they get registered and hosted and don't have the time or inclination to learn.

I can get a small business owner live on the internet within 14 days and will have the option of changing content, look and feel etc without any charge within 3 months of going live, giving the owner an opportunity to include aspects of the business that were not thought of at he design stage or exclude
items that are superfluous - additional pages (max 3) can be added at no charge at any time.

If this doesn't help the small business "oak" then nothing else in web-design will. Email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.pagesmart.za.net

Regards
Derek