In the early days of the business I had one client. One huge client called Sasol. They had thousands of PC’s. At one stage I had more than 20 technicians working permanently for them on-site. Then government regulations changed and my company did not comply with their sub-contracting criteria. Sasol did offer to employ all ...…
Before I continue, I would like to debunk an irritating little myth that has been hampering my progress for years. There is no single magic bullet that is going to solve all your automation procedures. You need to see your business as one large machine that consists of individual cogs and bearings and processes, each ...…
Robin Robins introduced me to the concept of a Shock and Awe package. This little package that you put together should be handed to the prospect on the first appointment and should literally “Shock and Awe” them on how fantastic your company and services are. The contents of my Shock and Awe package: Press releases ...…
Yes, we all like to have a look at the menu. At one of the local restaurants, they have two offerings of the same dish – as a starter and a main. I tend to always go for the starter version as I can then have a couple of dishes at a cheaper price. Makes ...…
So you need to hire someone new? [Sigh] The entire process is fraught with potential stumbling blocks. The largest investment in time and capital that you will ever make in your business is your staff. And a wrong decision may take months to rectify. You MUST get this right. My primary concern is always whether the new guy will ...…
So we’re waiting to be let into the big chief’s office. It’s a new prospect that found us by clicking on our Google Adwords link. I have a new sales guy with me. He has watched me do this pitch a couple of times. I’ve given him training on the seven steps of the sales ...…
Okay, so business is going well. You’re conducting your weekly meetings like clockwork. And still… At the back of your mind something is bothering you. Getting to work on your business and not in your business has one serious drawback – operationally, your not dealing with the issues that your staff get to work on ...…
You need to extract yourself from your business. In the beginning (to me at least), solving PC and server problems was fun. Leaving the server room to an ovation and encores because you managed to remount the Exchange Information Store is inspiring and heartening. However, you are going to find that it doesn’t pay the ...…
I have always been a computer tech at heart. I would solve technical problems by tackling them in an orderly and chronological sequence. There are a couple of ways to solve a problem, but usually only one or two correct ways. Unfortunately, running a business doesn’t always work that way. Random things happen to upset ...…
I know that this isn’t a prerequisite to running your practice, but I firmly believe that you should have a good web site to enhance the image of your company. As far as the tools to build the web site is concerned, I tried them all, from FrontPage to Joomla, WordPress and Weebly. It just lacked that special “something”. ...…
We recently asked the Zenith NOC to install a Blackberry Enterprise Server at one of our clients. I thought that I would try their new service called “Zenith NOC Service Miles” out as I had some Service Miles Credits available. I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the whole project went. We assigned one of ...…
One of the biggest problems that we identified during a weekly workshop was that we weren’t communicating with our clients effectively. Clients would phone us to find out what the status of their jobs were and they would cancel their MSP contracts and opt for break fix contracts because they couldn’t see what value we ...…
In the past I would switch on my PC screen and login to the Zenith Ticketing System as I do each and every morning. And I would switch it off immediately and start banging my head against my table in sheer frustration! Why do we have so many open tickets on the Zenith ticketing system ...…
Handing in a professional and detailed Managed Services Proposal to a potential client will go a long way towards them seeing you as their “Trusted Advisor”. Make sure that you cover all the bases in your proposal. The Managed Services Proposal is a compilation of documents that I put together from Kaseya (www.kaseya.com), the Managed ...…
One of the first thing that you will need to do when signing up a new client is to get the Zenith Agents installed on all the PC’s and Servers. Here is how you do it: 1.)Login to the Zenith Support Portal at https://itsupport247.net 2.)Click on Configuration->Site Management 3.)Click on ‘Add MSO Site’ 4.)Enter the ...…
This post is courtesy of Zendesk Product Support Team and they explain how we SHOULD be using problems and incidents properly – make this a part of your Operational Work Plans. Not all support tickets are the same – your customers have different reasons for getting in touch with you. As such, not all Zendesk ...…
A workstation signoff sheet is a MUST when completing a project at the client. During the initial Technical Project Meeting, figure out what needs to be included on the signoff sheet. As you finish up with every workstation, leave the signoff sheet with the clients and ask them to confirm that everything is working as ...…
Nothing convinces a potential client more than someone who has already made use of your products and services and are raving fans. In our social media world, it is getting ever easier to ask your friends and peers about their experiences with a product or company. It is crucial that you collect all the kudos from ...…
The “Bomb Report” is an idea that I got from Gary Pica. Essentially it is a summary of all the reports that we compile on a monthly basis. As one of Gary Pica’s clients told him “I guess bombs are bad, hey Gary?”. And that’s the idea behind the bomb report. We discuss the bombs ...…
11 Things We Do Better 1. 100% Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee – We are the ONLY technical support company that offers a no-risk guarantee. You deserve complete satisfaction with our products and services. We take extra steps up front to make sure we understand the problem, and create a well thought out approach for solving it. ...…
Hi All, I would like to begin to thank each and everyone for your patience and understanding during these last few weeks in completing what has been a very successful and fruitful IT Project. With the new Server there will be new and exciting things and features I would like to bring under your attention ...…
When a new technician joins our company, we give them a manual as part of their orientation. The manual helps them find their feet, so to speak. We try and cover all the basics in the manual as you will see from the following example: Omniholdings Technician’s Manual Compiled By Arno D Joubert MCSE + ...…
Please note that the bomb report is a summary of the Executive Summary Reports in the SAAZ Portal, it will probably take between 1-2 hours PER BOMB REPORT to complete correctly. The bomb report is an intelligent human’s summary of the entire computer generated data. You will be going through reams and reams of reports ...…
Garth Hayward, Regional Manager for Kaseya recently wrote an interesting article on Managed Services in ITWeb. I’ve posted the article here as it gives a very good insight into the emerging role that managed services are starting to play in the S.A. IT landscape. “As this is the first edition of the managed services newsletter ...…
During the course of a sales call or visiting new prospects, I often get asked exactly WHAT our Unique Selling Proposition is. That got me thinking… In a nutshell it is this: Concentrate on running your business, we’ll run your IT. We also have a few other key components to our success: 1. Our People We ...…
