Does your IT service provider hold you hostage? Are you afraid of putting your foot down because you are worried about what they might do to your computer systems?

DON’T BE!

Our two newest clients were rescued from the clutches of their IT providers. (names changed to protect the innocent)

Case #1: Billy was their IT consultant whom they had been using for the last 7+ years and became increasingly difficult to get a hold of. He was always friendly but often was put out because he had larger clients that were spending more money so he gave them more attention. Acroment came in and did a free audit of their network and found that (although Billy was reporting otherwise) they had not had a successful backup in OVER 1 YEAR.

I’m worried about what he might do if we leave him. One day he was here fixing something at our office and received a call from another client. I told him that if he needed to go and service them – that it was ok and our needs could wait. ‘No they can wait’ he said. But what if they fire you, I replied. “I have all their passwords, they’ll be sorry if they do” Billy responded.

While we were at their office performing their free network audit, we fixed their backup (also for free). They signed up with our Plan A program, we immediately disabled access for their old IT provider. We only work with small businesses. We provide reports of the work we do.

Case #2: ABC Company came to use their IT consultant because they had the same company develop a custom database. As they grew and needed a server, Steve (their IT Consultant), was happy to oblige. It wasn’t long before they outgrew the custom database and purchased a new CRM system from another provider. Things came to a head when the CRM consultant needed access to the server to install the new CRM system. Steve would take WEEKS before getting back to ABC with the requested information. It held up their CRM deployment by 2 months. The cause? Steve didn’t want ANYONE (even ABC Company) to have the password for their OWN server. Steve summed it up best in an email to ABC Company:

“I’m sorry to say this so bluntly, but you are wrong in saying you should have full administrative access to your server.  In fact, I don’t think your having any administrative account represents anything except a liability to you and to us.”

We didn’t even need to do a full audit of the computer systems at ABC company before they knew that they needed to switch to Plan A from Acroment. It’s YOUR computer system, of course you should know your passwords.

Please Read: 5 things every business owner should know about their computer system.

I love the Cavs and they are certainly on a roll this year. I would argue that ANY seat at the Q is a good seat – but these are the best seats I’ve ever sat in. They aren’t exactly ON the floor (just 1 row back from the floor), but you will have all of the amenities of floor seats and be just below eye level with the players.

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It has taken the better part of the last week but I have finally re-done our website.

Special thanks to Greg Bellan who helped me resize my banner logo, my wife for putting up with my time away from home, and everyone for their feedback and support.

Please post a comment and let me know what you think!

www.acroment.com

We moved into our new offices on Feburary 1st. Using Photosynth, I offer you a 3D view of my new workspace. Enjoy!

Looking for an easy way to connect with readers on your website? I was – then I found Google Talk: Chatback.

Do you have a blog, online profile, or some other personal web page? Would you like to communicate more with your visitors? Today we’re launching a new Google Talk feature that lets visitors to your web site chat with you. We call it “chatback” because instead of you doing all the talking on your blog, your visitors can talk back to you. Sure, they could leave comments, but those are public and hard to use for a real conversation. With chatback, it’s a real instant message session.

To use chatback, you must have a Google Talk account … but your visitors don’t have to! They don’t even need to have an email address, or to have ever used instant messaging.

This solution works for me because I am the only person at my company that a website visitor would need to chat with. This may not work if you have a “team” of people who you want your visitors to connect with.

Of course, being a free tool, bells and whistles are eliminated – such as gathering (even the most basic)information about the chatter. But its benefit lies within its simplicity.

If you want to try this out for yourself – visit my personal website and start a chat with me!

Enjoy!