• Is your business limping along using outdated computers or a peer-to-peer network that is constantly giving you problems?
• Are you planning on adding employees, opening a remote location or adding an additional office?
• Are you just sick and tired of dealing with conflicts, error messages, and breakdowns?

If so, this article will reveal if a server is right for your company!

If you are like most small businesses, you acquire desktop computers, phone systems, and software in a random, “buy-it-when-you-need-it” fashion as your business operations demand it.

But at some point, this patchwork of stopgap technology you’ve acquired is going to end up costing you more in downtime, system errors, breakdowns, and other problems than it would to rip out and replace everything.

If you’ve suddenly become aware that you’re at that stage of growth in your business, then you want to stop purchasing more software and hardware in a willy-nilly fashion and get serious about planning for your future growth and business operations so you don’t end up with a big pile of expensive hardware and software spaghetti that doesn’t meet your business needs.

One Big Secret To Saving Money

One secret to saving money on IT costs is to strive for as much uniformity and connectivity as possible across your business network – and the first place to start achieving that is through the use of a server.

If you have two or more computers that are loosely connected to share information, printers, scanners, Internet access, or fax machines, then you could inject a great deal of simplicity, productivity, and security with a small business server.

A server simply acts as a single specialized computer that ensures all of the computer connected to it (called “clients”) have access to the resources, information, and systems they need, faster, and with fewer problems. It also acts as a centralized manager to make sure data is secure and organized.

They’re Not Just For Big Business Anymore

At one time, servers only made sense for large organizations because of their high cost and complexity. But today, there are very affordable and easy-to-implement server systems designed specifically for a growing small business. If you’re not absolutely certain that installing a server could help your business enough to justify the cost, here are 12 surefire signs that your business could definitely benefit from an upgrade.

12 Signs That Your Business Is Ready For A Server

1. You have two or more computers that need to share office equipment (printers, fax machines, scanners) and resources (Internet access).
2. You have irreplaceable files and data residing on more than one computer that need to be secured from loss, corruption, or unauthorized access.
3. You need (or would like to have) secure access to your computer files while traveling or working from home.
4. You need to back up critical files on more than one computer, and you would like to be able to restore accidentally deleted files or previous versions of your files.
5. You need CRM (customer relationship management) software and accounting programs to manage and communicate with your growing list of clients and vendors.
6. You need to manage different versions of one file.
7. You need a central communication system that makes it easy to schedule group meetings and share information with employees, vendors, and customers.
8. You need to allow employees to share databases and other software tools.
9. You would like to send group faxes and e-mail broadcasts to customers.
10. You want to save money by hosting your own company website and e-mail.
11. You want to control employees’ access to sensitive financial records and personnel information.
12. You want a central access point for information instead of having to hunt down various files and data on various computers on your network.

The Concept of the Slight Edge

All master craftsmen demand excellent tools to complete their work. They know that the best tools allow them to focus on creating their next masterpiece rather than being sidetracked, frustrated, or limited by the tools they are using.   The computers, software, and office equipment you use are the tools you use every day to create your greatest masterpiece: your business.

If the technology in your office is not simplifying your business and making it easier for you to get more done with fewer employees, it’s costing you a lot more than the price of a server. While there is no shortage of white papers on the topic of ROI (return on investment) for upgrading technology, you and I know that this is truly a hard cost to quantify; however, there certainly IS a cost, and depending on your business operations and how you use the computers and technology in your office, the cost may be significant.

The “Latte” Factor

In his book Automatic Millionaire, author David Bach talks about the “latte” factor. Simply put, most people end up financially broke not because of the big purchases they make, but because of the small, seemingly innocent day-to-day spending of small amounts of money over a long period of time. For example, no one thinks twice of spending $4 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks every morning.

However, add that up over the course of a year and they’ve invested $1,460 into a daily cup of coffee. Why am I telling you this? Because massive loss of productivity in any business plays out exactly the same way.

Think about this: a faster processor and a faster hard drive with greater capacity allow you to open and use applications faster, saving a few minutes every hour. Information is centralized, which saves a few more minutes every hour in finding files. There are fewer crashes and hang-ups.

Each of these little things adds up to significant employee hours saved over the course of a year. Then there’s the cost-savings of outsourced IT support. A properly configured and maintained client-server network is far easier to support and troubleshoot than a patchwork of computers that are loosely connected. All of this translates into higher revenue from your technology investment and should land on your bottom line.

Learn How a Network Can Give You All of These Benefits and More!

If you’re interested in discovering how upgrading to a client-server network could help your business, contact us for a free consultation. We can sit down and discuss the pros and cons, the costs, and how a server can help address specific problems and productivity bottlenecks you are experiencing in your business.

There is absolutely no cost or obligation when you invite us into your business. If we discover that your network is just fine the way it is, we’ll tell you that and not try to sell you something you don’t need.

Your Customer Bill Of Rights

Here is what I promise to deliver if you choose us to upgrade your network:

1. We will explain all of the costs associated with your upgrade up front; you will not be surprised by hidden fees or unexpected costs later on (see #2 below).
2. We will complete the upgrade on time and on budget guaranteed. If the project goes over budget because of something we overlooked, we will incur those costs and not pass them on to you.
3. You will get answers to your questions in PLAIN ENGLISH. Our technicians will not talk down to you or make you feel stupid because you don’t understand their “geek speak”. After reviewing your situation, budget, and wish list, we’ll recommend several options for upgrading your network and accomplishing your objectives in terms that you can understand. Our goal is to provide you with the best information possible so you can make an informed decision based on the options available to you.
4. We guarantee your new network will work the way you expect it to. We’ll make sure your network is working like a well-oiled machine and to your complete satisfaction before we say the project is done; no hassles, no problems, and no excuses.
5. You should EXPECT that no damage will be done to your data. Before we start the upgrade, we will fully back up your data before we start any work on your network.
6. You should EXPECT minimal downtime or interruption to your business. Our technicians will prepare your new server in advance and have it ready to go before initiating the upgrade; this will minimize the time required to complete the installation. We can also perform your upgrade after hours or on weekends if you absolutely cannot tolerate a scheduled period of downtime for the upgrade.

A large proportion of our business comes from referrals from happy, satisfied customers. We want you to recommend us and we know that you will only do this if you are happy with the services we provide. That is why we work so hard to go above and beyond the call of duty.

• 25% of all PC users will suffer from data loss each year.
• 80% of small businesses that experience a major data loss go out of business within 1 year.
• 15% of all laptops are stolen or suffer hard drive failures.
• $12 Billion – The annual cost of data loss. Can you afford not to back up your data?
• 95% of all business workstations are not being backed up.
• $55 Billion – The annual cost of virus related damages to U.S. businesses.

Regardless of whether your company has a large or small amount of data, it’s vital that this data gets backed up. With hundreds of offsite backup services to wade through it’s important to understand how offsite backup works, the differences between providers, and the hard and soft costs associated with offsite backup and data loss.

Offsite Backup at its most fundamental description is protecting your data by copying it offsite. This fundamental definition is where the similarities between offsite backup providers end. To understand the intricacies of offsite backup we will examine 4 separate technologies.

Encryption

Most offsite backup providers use some kind of encryption to “scramble” your data before storing in their data center. The encryption methods vary greatly from provider to provider as each of them have opinions on the level of security each encryption method has. MySecureBackup from Vertex Consulting Group encrypts your data using the AES-256 encryption method – this method is trusted by the U.S. Government to encrypt it’s top secret documents. It is also important to note that with MySecureBackup your data is encrypted before it leaves your computer and not upon arriving at the data center. Encrypting your data before sending it through the internet ensures that anyone “listening” in the middle cannot gain access to your data.

Data Centers

Most offsite backup providers (including those who advertise heavily) store your data in a single data center. The downside to your data residing in a single data center is that disasters, failures, and service interruptions can and do happen at data centers. MySecureBackup from Vertex Consulting Group stores your encrypted data in multiple geographically disperse data centers ensuring the reliability and accessibility of your backups in the event that you need them.

Block-Level Updates

Almost all offsite backup providers charge for both storage usage and bandwidth requirements. Block-level updates reduce the amount of storage and bandwidth required by only uploading parts of the file that changed, and not the whole file itself. Block-level update technology provides reduced backup times, and reduced storage costs. No cost bandwidth usage, block-level updates, and low per GB storage costs makes MySecureBackup from Vertex Consulting Group the best in class offsite backup solution for your business.

Configurable Retention Policies

Almost all offsite backup providers have little or no flexibility for backup retention policies – keeping only the most recent backup, or keeping too many backups. This can have a disastrous effect because on average 4 days lapse before a user realizes a file was accidentally deleted, or was corrupted. A backup retention policy that only keeps the previous backup job provides no protection against a situation like this. On the other side of the spectrum some providers retain backups for months, and in some cases years. Although some business models require the ability to restore from a backup taken months ago, they are the exception and not the rule. MySecureBackup by default provides a retention policy of 30 days but is configurable for more or less restore flexibility. Configurable retention policies paired with block-level updates provides you with a custom offsite backup solution designed for your budget and business model.

Data Loss Costs

In order to better understand the trust cost of data loss we must first examine the causes of lost data.

40% of data loss comes from hardware failure.
29% of data loss comes from human error.
13% of data loss comes from software corruption.
6% of data loss comes from viruses.
9% of data loss comes from theft.
3% of data loss comes from hardware destruction.

The hard costs associated with data loss are typically very apparent and include replacing the lost, stolen, or damaged hardware. The soft costs associated with data loss are often over looked. Soft costs include the cost of continuing without the data, the cost of recreating the data, and the cost of notifying users in the event of a compromise.

A national computer security association survey reported that without adequate offsite backup it takes:
19 days and $17,000 to recreate just 20 MB of sales and marketing data.
21 days and $19,000 to recreate just 20 MB of accounting data.
42 days and $98,000 to recreate just 20 MB of lost engineering data.

MySecureBackup from Vertex Consulting Group is the best in class offsite backup solution for your business.

Microsoft® Communication Services from Vertex Consulting Group helps busy, pragmatic businesspeople like you to manage your digital communications with customers, share files, and schedule work while on the go—and that’s productivity. It’s easy to:

• Take back your life by being proactive. Get back to managing your e-mail, instead of letting it manage you. Now it’s easy, even when you’re on the run, to experience the full capabilities of Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client on your desktop, on the Web, or on your mobile device. And you can coordinate meetings, access documents, and coordinate tasks with coworkers as if you were sitting in front of your computer.
• Bring big-company collaboration power to your small business. Now just like the world’s most successful corporations, you can have instant access to coworkers’ calendars, contacts, tasks, and documents—easily and affordably.
• Let the experts run the software. With support 24 hours a day and seven days a week, antivirus and antispam filtering, and a full copy of Office Outlook 2007 for every computer that needs access to your mailbox, you’ll have the tools and the team of a reliable messaging solution.

It’s now possible to help make your business more productive, efficient, and competitive. Contact Vertex Consulting Group about Microsoft Communication Services. It’s affordable. It’s easy. It will help you run a better business.