IT Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a great way to get professional services at a fraction of the price of hiring someone or a department full time. Your company may or may not be at the point of outsourcing information technology (IT) support. However, as your business grows, there is a high probability that outsourcing will become a realistic solution for you, whether it is information technology, human resources, accounting, or even sales and marketing.

For years, businesses have been outsourcing specific functions related to accounting, law, and human resources. Outsourcing is a popular business model because it allows a company to remain focused on its core competencies, while the experts handle theirs. And it appears once a company tries it, they can’t get enough. According to the Outsourcing Institute, more than 30 percent of the companies presently outsourcing various business functions are actively searching for additional outsourcing opportunities in other functional and more business-process oriented areas. One of these areas is information technology (IT).

IT outsourcing has grown tremendously in the recent years, first among large companies and now small to mid-size companies are jumping on board. Some companies have a full-time IT department and use outsourcing to handle specific projects. Others outsource their entire IT functions, including day-to-day issues and large projects. Whatever the case, the chances are good that your company will call upon an IT partner to execute a project at one time or another during the life of your business.

There are many reasons why companies outsource. Here are some of the top reasons:

1. Reduce and control operating costs. When you outsource, you eliminate the costs associated with hiring an employee, such as management oversight, training, health insurance, employment taxes, retirement plans etc.
2. Improve company focus. It is neither practical, nor possible to be a jack of all trades. Outsourcing lets you focus on your core competencies while another company focuses on theirs.
3. Gain access to exceptional capabilities. Your return on investment is so much greater when you outsource information technology to a firm that specializes in the areas you need. Instead of just the knowledge of one person, you benefit from the collective experience of a team of IT professionals. Outsourced IT companies usually require their IT staff to have proper industry training and certifications as well.
4. Free internal resources for other purposes. You may have someone in your office that is pretty good with computers or accounting, but most likely these were not the jobs he or she was hired to do. If they are spending time taking care of these things, who is doing what they were hired to do? Outsourcing allows you to retain employees for their highest and best use, rather than wasting their time on things that may take them longer than someone who is trained in these specific areas.
5. Resources are not available internally. On the flip side, maybe you don’t have anyone in your company who can manage your IT needs, and hiring a new employee is not in the budget. Outsourcing can be a feasible alternative, both for the interim and for the long-term.
6. Maximize restructuring benefits. When you are restructuring your company to improve costs, quality, service, or speed, your non-core business functions may get pushed aside. They still need to be handled, however, and outsourcing is an optimal way to do this. Don’t sabotage your restructuring efforts by failing to keep up with non-core needs.
7. Function difficult to manage or out of control. This is definitely a scenario when outsourcing to experts can make a big difference. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can forget about the problem now that it’s being “handled.” You still need to be involved even after control is regained.
8. Make capital funds available. By outsourcing non-core business functions, you can spend your capital funds on items that are directly related to your product or your customers.
9. Reduce Risk. Keeping up with technology required to run your business is expensive and time consuming. Because professional outsourced IT providers work with multiple clients and need to keep up on industry best practices, they typically know what is right and what is not. This kind of knowledge and experience dramatically reduces your risk of implementing a costly wrong decision.

Still not sure whether to outsource or not? There are many rewards you can expect when you outsource your company’s IT functions as well:

1. Access to the latest and greatest in technology. You may have noticed how rapidly software and hardware becomes obsolete in this industry. How is one staff person going to keep up-to-date with everything? Outsourcing gives you the benefit of having more than just one IT professional. And since it’s the core competency of the company, they can give you sound advice to put your IT naira  to work for you.
2. Cost savings. Outsourcing your IT services provides financial benefits such as leaner overhead, bulk purchasing and leasing options for hardware and software, and software licenses, as well as potential compliance with government regulations.
3. High quality of staff. Since it’s their core competency, outsourced IT vendors look to hire staff with specific qualifications and certifications. You may not know what to look for if you’re hiring someone to be on staff full-time, so you may hire the wrong person for the job.
4. Flexibility. Vendors have multiple resources available to them, while internal staff may have limited resources and capabilities.
5. Job security and burnout reduction for regular employees. Using an outsourced IT company removes the burden from your staff who has taken on more than he or she was hired for because “someone needs to do it.” You will establish a better relationship with your employees when you let them do what they do best and what they were hired to do.

 Reasons to Outsource to Bit Computer Age Systems Limited

Proactive:

• Regularly scheduled onsite visits by IT Professional(s)
• Maintenance checklist and documentation that ensures consistent service delivery
• Thorough documentation of your network
• Your business goals are what direct our efforts
• Server maintenance and troubleshooting
• Workstation maintenance and troubleshooting
• Virus Protection and Microsoft OS updates

Available:

• Multiple IT Professionals
• 24/7/365 (Always available)
• Never Sick and Never on Vacation
• Emergency response time of 3 hours or less guaranteed (our goal is 1 hour)
• IT Professionals are available to answer your questions by phone when not onsite at your office
• Increased flexibility for busy times, slow times, projects, upgrades
• Will never quit because of career or job change like full time employee

 Affordable:

• No Interviewing process overhead, like full time employee
• No Payroll tax overhead, like full time employee
• No Vacation Pay overhead, like full time employee
• No Workers Compensation overhead, like full time employee
• No Training Cost overhead, like full time employee
• No Performance Review overhead, like full time employee
• No Background check overhead, like full time employee
• Predictable Monthly budget
• Don’t mark up hardware or software that we recommend

Accountable:

• Satisfaction Guarantee
• Support Coordinator management oversight
• Support Advisor management oversight
• Follow Microsoft Standards and industry standard best practices
• Support systems created to ensure items don’t fall through the cracks
• Detailed documentation of your network and support visits available to view 24/7/365
• Regular customer satisfaction surveys after every support visit

Areas you may consider for outsourcing

 (A) Consulting

IT Consulting That Creates Thoughtful Results You Can Trust

Bit Computer Age Systems Limited has the knowledge and experience you are looking for in a computer consulting company focused on helping small and medium  businesses make wise decisions regarding their network. Here is why.

Successful companies, large and small, rarely make business decisions without a clear goal or plan in place. Business today is fiercely competitive. One wrong move or miss-allocation of resources could be disastrous. Good, solid, trustworthy advice is more important than ever. When successful companies need to make critical decisions, they seek out those who have delivered proven results. So, how do you know what advice is good? Where do you find it and how much does it cost?

How We Do Consulting

Our consulting services can either be performed on an hourly basis or through our exclusive Technology Evaluation and Recommendations process. This method is our systematic way of approaching technology decision-making. Ultimately our goal is to give you the information and tools for making thoughtful and appropriate decisions for your business, whether it is network planning, network upgrades, or computer network maintenance.

Your customized Technology Evaluation and Recommendations report will include the following:

1. Documentation of your business goals
2. Documentation of your existing network
3. Evaluation and comparison of your business goals, existing network and industry best practices
4. Technology recommendations for all critical elements of your network based on the evaluation
5. Detailed projected software, hardware and labor budget
6. Detailed reasons, benefits and goals met for each recommendation
7. Prioritization of each recommendation based on importance to achieving your business goals

 Which Way is The Best Way?

There are actually many ways to accomplish the same goal. Some are better than others, and one is usually the clear winner. So how do you know which way is right? In business, we call that right way a “Best Practice.” Unfortunately for most small businesses, the technology planning and technology consulting they are offered falls far short of Best Practices. They usually get their computer planning from friends, relatives, the local computer mega-store sales person, or someone in their office who is “pretty good” with computers. What they end up with is usually a lot of “budget” computer equipment that doesn’t do what they had hoped and seems to have more problems than it should. In short, it becomes an expensive disappointment.

Our adherence to best practices for network planning, as well as our team’s expertise in the small business environment, gives us a unique advantage over individuals or companies who are concerned primarily with fixing what is broken or delivering cookie cutter answers instead of implementing the correct solutions for your business goals.

Good Advice from Trusted Professionals

Unlike individual computer consultants, Bit Computer Age Systems Limited is a professional computer consulting company that provides computer consulting services in the areas of computer management and network design. Our computer hardware consultants have the years of expertise, knowledge and systems to help your company go to the next level, assist you with your network planning and network upgrades. It is our goal to assist you in making the right decisions for your office, not to try to “sell you” stuff.

In fact, you can trust that our hardware and software recommendations have your company’s best interest in mind. This is because we do not resell hardware or software. We do this because we don’t want there to be any question as to why we are recommending something for your office other than it is the right technology to meet your specific business goals. We want to be on the same side of the table as you are in making recommendations that are in your company’s best interest and hardware and software recommendations that are not only excellent products but provide excellent service as well.

Summarily our IT consultancy focus on the following:

Advisory Services

We assist organizations in identifying and recommending best-fit and best combination of various IT offerings after a thorough and in-depth study of the organization’s vision , mission, short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives.

Evaluation and Selection Exercise

We partner with organizations in the process of shopping, evaluation and selection of Critical Mission Application for both financial and non-financial business concern.

Recruitment

We assist organization in the recruitment of able IT manpower resource both at management and non-management levels.

Software Implementation

Help organizations in the planning and supervision of major IT implementation exercises base on the world acclaimed Professional Quality Implementation Services (PQIS).

Planning, Policies and Procedure (PPP)

Furthermore, we draw up policies and procedures documents and help in the planning and drawing up effective IT Departments.

Research

 Conduct research on selected theory or new IT topics and issues for organizations.

(B) Computer, Peripherals and Network    Repair

Knowledgeable and available computer services for the computer repair issue you are struggling with today. We have literally fixed many computer issues and have not encountered something we could not resolve. We guarantee the work we do and guarantee your satisfaction. See the list below to for many of the computer and server issues you are dealing with.

We Can Resolve Your Computer Issue, Guaranteed.

• Do you have computer problems that need attention today?
• Do you have network issues that are driving you crazy?
• Is your email down?
• Does your server or workstations keep freezing or crashing?
• Do you have nagging technical issues that need to be taken care of professionally?

Bit Computer Age Systems Limited can address the following computer repair and server repair issues:

• · Compaq computer repair
• · Computer Consulting Services
• · Computer Maintenance
• · Computer Project Planning
• · Computer Slowness
• · Computer Viruses
• · Computer virus removal
• · Data Back Up issues
• · Data Recovery
• · Dell computer repair
• · Dell laptop repair
• · Firewall Installation
• · Firewall Repair
• · Email Problems
• · Email Security Issues
• · (Generic) Laptop Repair
• · Hardware Consulting
• · HP computer repair
• · IBM computer Repair
• · Internet Connection problems
• · Internet Security Issues
• · Microsoft NT Server repair
• · Microsoft 2000 Server repair
• · Microsoft Server 2003 repair

• Microsoft Exchange repair
• Mobile device issues (Windows Mobile, Smartphone, Blackberry, PDA)
• Network Consulting
• Network Design
• Network Maintenance
• Network Security
• Network Upgrades
• OnSite Computer Repair
• Printing Issues
• Remote Access to Networks
• Router Issues
• Server Installation
• Server Repair
• Small Business Server 2000, 2003, 2008
• Spam Blocking
• Spyware removal
• Windows NT repair
• Windows 98 repair
• Windows XP repair
• Windows Vista repair
• Windows 7 Repair
• Wireless Networking Issues

© Projects

On Time. On Budget. No Excuses.

What is a technology project? A project can be a network upgrade, setting up a new network at a new or remote office, connecting new workstations to the network, installing a new server, or implementing network security and virus protection systems network wide, computerization one or more aspect of your operation.

At Bit Computer Age Systems Limited, our primary goal is to transform the technology needs of your business into an industry standard solution that produces clear, tangible results for your business on time and on budget.

Technology Project Process Summary

So how do we do it? Network planning and network upgrades performed by Bit Computer Age Systems Limited follow the accepted best practices of successful IT companies in the areas of network planning, design, deployment and follow-up. This process and our exclusive 100+ point project checklist ensure consistent results with minimal disruption to your office during the course of the network upgrade, server installation or new computer installation.

Since we place our highest values on consistent, reliable solutions for the long-term happiness and productivity of your office, you can feel confident we will only recommend proven solutions that will accomplish these goals and not those that are the “coolest” or “newest” at the time. Also important to note: Network upgrades and installations are designed specifically with small business schedules and budgets in mind.

Bit Projects are overseen and managed by our Chief Consultant to provide appropriate technical expertise, accountability, and consistency with your business goals.

 The Benefits of a Project or Upgrade Performed by Bit Computer Age Systems Limited

• Detailed Project Planning and Design
• Follow Industry Standard Best Practices
• Zero or Minimal Disruption to Office during Projects
• Implement Proven Industry Standard Solutions for Small Businesses
• Careful and Accurate Technology Procurement
• Microsoft Certified Staff
• Project Management
• Clear, Tangible Results

Thinking about Outsourcing Your IT Project or Network Upgrade?

An IT project is an endeavor with a definitive timeline (start date and end date) during which specific goals and objectives are met. Projects occur in addition to the regular maintenance of your network and technology equipment, and often emerge as a result of issues discovered during regular maintenance. Since you may not have a full-time technology staff, there is a high probability that you will outsource an IT project to an IT consultant like Bit Computer Age Systems Limited.

So, what is the strategy for success when outsourcing an IT project? Below are listed four points

1. Have a vision and goal for the project in mind, but seek out the professionals to implement the specifics.
2. Manage the expectations of those who will be affected by the project.
3. Select a certified and experienced IT support provider team.
4. Create a specific contract with your IT support provider as well as have realistic expectations about the costs of your project.

Structuring and governing the outsourced project successfully is the most important factor in achieving a positive outcome and a working relationship for the future. Though this requires some shopping and goal-setting on your part, the due diligence you spend up front will more than pay for the successful new or upgraded system you depend upon daily.

(D) Maintenance

Proactive Server and Computer Maintenance

Bit Maintenance is the systematic, proactive and immediate technical support for your network, servers and workstations, managed by our certified IT Professionals and Support Staff. The end result of a network maintenance plan is an office that is happy and productive. If you have always thought that there must be something better than the break-fix approach your current IT support provider is giving you, then you will love our method to supporting your company’s computers.

Every business owner or manager wants a stable and reliable network, but getting there involves a more proactive approach of regular maintenance and monitoring. Whether it is our As Needed services, Fixed Price Maintenance plans, Custom Maintenance Plans or assisting your full time IT staff, Bit Computer Age Systems Limited has the right support plan for you.

Bit Maintenance Plan Core Features

• Available 24/7/365
• Emergency and As Needed Computer Repair
• Comprehensive Maintenance Checklist and Documentation
• Continuous Server and Backup monitoring
• Client web access to all Network and Support Information
• Regularly Scheduled Maintenance
• Management Oversight

Why is Maintenance Necessary?

It is easy to think computers are so advanced that they don’t have the same problems as other machines. They should work perfectly all the time. Set them up once, and they just work, right? The truth is that your computer network is a collection of complex machines and software, communicating simultaneously, performing trillions of calculations, using hundreds of parts and wires, and under constant assault by the processing needs of the applications, unwanted viruses and spyware and their own users. Here are ten reasons every business needs regular and proactive server and workstation maintenance:

Microsoft critical security updates need to be applied at least once a month

1. Firewall, virus and spyware protection needs regular review and management
2. Daily use of servers and workstations by office staff can create random network issues
3. Management of backup status, data selected and data testing is critical to data recovery
4. Proactive server and workstation standardization minimizes problems
5. Management of hard drive resources prevents storage issues & server crashes
6. Analysis of server event logs can identify issues before they create network problems
7. Regular optimization of server(s) and workstations to increase speed and efficiency
8. Proactive maintenance provides real peace of mind that someone is regularly caring for your network
9. Predictable monthly budget and support minimizes financial and technical surprises

Because of these and other factors, your computers require regular computer service maintenance to keep the big problems away and maintain optimal performance. This program is often referred to as a computer maintenance contract, service level agreement, or computer network maintenance plan. We call it a Bit Maintenance Plan because of the unique and powerful service features that we bundle together to ensure the health and security of your network.

What is Monitoring and Why Is It Important?

Bit Monitoring allows us to monitor your server every business day of the year. It also allows us to proactively track and manage business critical elements of your server between scheduled Bit Maintenance visits.

Bit Monitoring provides visibility into your network allowing us to more quickly determine and address the root cause of many server issues, and reduce the task of issue diagnosis. This results in cost savings and reduction of downtime.

Key Advantages

• 24/7/365 Monitoring
• Peace of Mind
• Notification of a Failure
• Notification of a Threshold Passing
• Provides Historical Data of the Network
• Immediate Issue Diagnosis
• Web-based

(E) Consumables

One of the areas that company loses money is in the purchase of computer consumables such as printer ink and toner. Outsourcing this area to us will not only save your company a lot but also give you guarantee of quality product that will eventually prolong the life span of your peripherals e.g printers.

Bit Computer Age Systems Limited will always make available the consumables at a competitive price which will avoid the inflated price given by supplier due to addition money to appreciate the staff given the opportunity of supplying the consumables.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATION

At Bit our concern is your satisfaction; our charges are competitive and flexible. What will determine the cost depend the area you want to outsource from the above highlighted areas.

Click here to get in touch with us in any of the above area