K2 Technical Service Partnership
Technology Spending Trends for Small Business
Forrester Research predicted that small and medium-size businesses will increase spending on information technology by 6.6 percent in 2004, compared to a 1.7 percent rise predicted for larger companies. This trend is expected to continue for subsequent years.
Forrester surveyed more than 1,000 IT decision makers in companies that have fewer than 1,000 employees and found those companies to be far more upbeat about their business outlook than large enterprises. Nearly 81 percent described their business climate as moderately strong, and 78 percent expected further improvement as the year progresses.
The growing optimism in the small-business market will see more money being spent on hardware, security software and information management software. New security investments are likely for 75 percent of small and midsize companies. About 74 percent are planning to purchase new servers, while 65 percent plan to buy new storage gear. Nearly 70 percent are looking to buy additional Internet connectivity and bandwidth, with 85 percent of these also likely to shop for networking hardware.
Additionally, companies are getting more for their money these days. Aggressive global and domestic competition has led to much lower costs for computer hardware, computer software and telecommunications services. Today small businesses are able to invest in technology that was out of reach only a few years ago. With more dollars to spend on products that cost less, it is clear that small businesses are poised to make some big changes this year, and in coming years.
Increased Complexity and Risk
Making the Right Choices – Never before have there been so many technology choices. New products and services are released almost every day. New jargon is constantly evolving, and “speaking” the language requires a significant learning investment. Businesses are justified in their fear of choosing the wrong technical strategy, purchasing the wrong product or contracting for inappropriate services. These decisions require specific technical knowledge and analytical skill to carefully weigh the criteria and evaluate the choices. Once a decision is made, specific contract/agreement language is generally required to protect the interests of the business should problems occur.
Technology is Complex – Although many technology vendors have made great strides in providing products that are easier to implement and manage, there is still a great need for people with specific technical talents to do the work. Most vendors oversell simplicity to business customers. At worst, these vendors are disingenuous and tell customers what they want to hear to make the sale. Most technology projects will experience implementations that are inherently more difficult than expected. Unplanned cost overruns can impact expected cash flow and profitability. Technical problems can consume valuable time from business managers. There are a myriad of details to be managed.
Need for Skilled IT Resources
The IT Workers – Making sound technology decisions requires the advice of experienced analysts who speak the language of technology and can translate to the language of business. Likewise, technology implementations require hard work from a variety of experts within the technology field. These experts include: business and technical analysts; technical architects; software engineers, programmers and designers; computer engineers; network engineers; database engineers; technical administrators; computer operators; information security experts; disaster recovery experts; asset and configuration management experts; IT legal and regulatory experts; system testers; etc. Managing these resources requires special leadership experience unique to IT projects and IT operations.
Managing the IT Workers – Information technology can be viewed as a unique type of business within a business. Although a key success trend for progressive companies has been the tight integration of business and IT, this is not for the faint of heart. The fact is that business and IT sometimes blend like the proverbial oil and water. Technology workers speak a language that is unique to their respective field of expertise. Many talented IT workers lack the ability to communicate effectively with their business partners. They employ unique work methods that can seem foreign or even counter-intuitive to experienced business managers. Capable IT managers bridge the communication gap between these two parties, and provide the necessary leadership to ensure that technical resources consistently meet the performance expectation of their partners in business.
Managing the IT Projects – Many business managers do not have the background necessary to effectively manage highly-complex technology projects. Additionally, capable managers should consider the impact to their time for overseeing other critical business responsibilities. A good analogy for most business managers is provided when asked: “Would you be your own general contractor when constructing a building or house?” The typical answer is “no”. Most people would retain a general contractor with a proven track-record in the field. The same should hold true for technical project. Experienced IT project managers can minimize the unnecessary distractions to business managers and deliver the expected results.
Need for Partnering, Collaboration and Leadership
Partnering Defined – “Partnering” can be an over-used term with product vendors and service providers. Many of these companies are just exploiting the perception of partnering. Effective partnerships include defined and understood roles, and commensurate participation and contribution within these defined roles. Beyond this division of labor, there must be a common commitment to the target goals and objectives, and open lines of communication that enable effective collaboration. This concept can be characterized by saying: “If we don’t succeed together, then we all fail individually.”
Technology Collaboration and Leadership – There has been much written about the needs and challenges for aligning IT with the business it serves. There has also been much written about effective teamwork and collaboration. The challenge is to put into practice what the books and articles say. Most businesses cannot survive today without substantial investments in business technology. In terms of strategy execution today, no significant work gets done without solid collaboration and teamwork. Even with technology projects that are generally smaller in scale, small businesses benefit from a close working relationship with their IT providers. Best-practices for business-technology partnering, collaboration and leadership can be a small business’s competitive advantage.
How K2 Technical Services Can Help?
K2 Technical Services consultants - "K2Pros" - are highly-experienced, top-level, information technology professionals who partner with and provide services to small businesses to ensure their success with technology. K2Pros are all hand-picked veterans of the corporate IT world. The average K2Pro has more than 10 years experience in management, technical project management, or as a top-level senior analyst.
A k2Pro provides services in four general categories:
•IT Management Services
•IT Project Management Services
•IT System Development Services
•IT Technical Support Services
IT Management Services
What is Information Technology Management? – Today, very few businesses can prosper without significant investment in business systems technology. These systems generally require a small army of specialized human resources. The combination of these technical systems and the related human resources creates a challenging need for specialized analysis and planning, decision support, oversight and control. IT Management is, both, the specialized discipline and the unique function that addresses these needs. IT management can be explained as a communication and control layer of activity between the business manager and the technical environment.
IT Management Service for Small Businesses – Any business with significant investment in business systems technology requires IT management services. Large companies generally hire full-time personnel to fill the role. However, many small businesses cannot justify the expense of full-time, experienced IT management personnel. Small business managers may instead use their own good business judgment to make technology decisions. After signing the purchase contracts, these managers may simply rely on their technology vendors to supply the needed oversight and implement the necessary control processes. Many vendors fail to deliver on this because of their own lack of experience or the natural conflict of interest that comes from selling the products. Consequently the risk for mistakes and cost overruns increase, and overall client satisfaction drops.
What Will a K2Pro Provide? – Every K2Pro that provides IT Management services will have a broad IT background that includes at least 10 years working as a senior IT analyst, a senior IT project manager or an actual IT manager. In addition, each K2Pro can draw on the significant experience and knowledge of their peers. Also, the value of IT management service increases as the K2Pro develops strong working relationships with key staff within the business organization, and learns more about the existing business strategy and operations. A K2Pro can provide the following IT management services:
•Advice and technology decision support.
•Business-technology strategy planning and management.
•Technology hardware, software service contract review, contract negotiations and contract management.
•Systems/software development analysis and coordination.
•Technology vendor relationship management.
•Technical systems operations audits, reviews, staff training and management recommendations.
Project Management Services
What is a Project? – The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product or service”. The terms “temporary” and “unique” are the keys to understanding how the K2Pro IT Project Management Service differs from the IT Management Service. Unlike any ongoing IT operation, projects have a definite beginning and end. Projects are the means to respond to requests for new or changed products and services that cannot be addressed within businesses’ normal operational limits.
What is the Role of a Project Manager? – A project manager works directly for the project sponsor. The project sponsor is the individual within the client’s organization that has the primary accountability for the business implications of the project, and who has the authority to make the critical funding decisions related to the project. The project manager is a specific role that includes the responsibility and accountability for planning, driving and managing all the activities required to deliver the expected results of the project. Projects are generally initiated after appropriate feasibility analysis. Therefore, project managers typically are not engaged until the client has decided that the project has merit and will be funded. Standard project management responsibilities include:
•Eliciting scope, schedule, and resource targets from sponsor.
•Developing a plan to meet scope, schedule, and resource targets with team.
•Driving a project to meet goals, objectives and deliverables within budget and on schedule.
•Performing as the central point of communication between sponsor, team, and stakeholders.
•Tracking and reporting on resources, schedule and budget compared to plan.
Service for Small Businesses – It is a common statement that ALL technical work is project work. Technical work is generally unique and temporary; it must be carefully planned, fully communicated and risk must be managed. Large companies generally hire full-time personnel to fill the role of project manager. However, many small businesses cannot justify the expense for this. Instead, many small business managers may provide the necessary project oversight themselves, or they may rely on other employees for this role. Some managers may simply rely on their technology vendors and support service providers to manage the projects. This approach can work when the project is not complex and risks are very low. When project complexity and risks are high, many managers, employees, vendors and support service providers fail to deliver. They are generally constrained by their lack of IT project management experience, and the time and motivation for fulfilling this role. Invariably this results in higher than necessary project costs.
What Will a K2Pro Provide? – K2Pros are highly-experienced, certified IT project managers that will ensure the highest probability of project success. They utilize a uniquely-tailored, industry-standard, work methodology that helps ensure a consistency and flow. This project management methodology is highly flexible and allows the K2Pro to “right size” the amount of project management rigor to the needs of the project. For example, a simple software installation project may only require a simple plan and simple communication using email and phone conversations. Conversely, a project to develop a mission-critical business system may require many face-to-face meetings, a comprehensive written plan that requires several revisions, and a complex communication plan that ensures all people who have a stake in the project are consistently informed of all issues and progress. The K2Pro project management methodology includes the following steps:
Discovery – This is the step where business opportunities are explored and analyzed for feasibility.
Initiation – This step follows the acceptance of the feasibility and authorization of the project to proceed. This is the actual beginning of the project.
Planning – This step is performed by the actual resources assigned to the project. Based on the scope, constraints and expectations outlined in the previous step, the project team must determine what work needs to be accomplished and in what order.
Execution – Once the plan has been approved, real work can commence for the project.
Controlling – Controlling is less an incremental step and more the umbrella process that spans the entire project. Changes to the plan are processed through a standard adjustment and approval procedure. Status reports are provided by the project manager.
Closing – The closing step is often overlooked, but it is extremely important for most IT projects. During this step all project document revisions are completed, and the documents are archived. A “lessons learned” document is generated to benefit future projects. Finally, and most importantly, the responsibility for project management is terminated and ownership for a similar role is transferred to the business “product” owner/manager.
Database System Development Services
Buy or Build? – Every new system development project should begin with a thorough analysis of the viable alternatives. Whether purchasing a packaged software application or developing a custom system, important costs, risks and opportunities should be considered. The variety of "canned" business software solutions has increased and this competition has effectively driven down costs. However, at the same time development tools have become more powerful and easier to user - thereby lowering the costs for customsoftware development.

The following table illustrates the generally expected tradeoffs for a decision whether to buy or build new software:

 
Purchased System
Custom-Developed System
Initial Cost
Lower
Higher
Ongoing Maintenance Costs
Higher
Lower
Match to Unique Business
Unlikely/Limited
Likely/No Limit
List of Built-in Features
More
Less
Customizability
Less
More
Training Required
More
Less
Project Phase Complexity/Difficulty
Implementation, Configuration & Integration
Development
User Help Quality
Higher
Lower
Technical Help Quality
Lower
Higher

High Skill Required - Custom software development - whether building a system from scratch or integrating two or more existing systems - requires a robust working partnership between the intended business users and the developers. The most skilled programmer cannot be successful unless he or she can learn and understand the business details. To gain the necessary understanding, the developer must have strong analysis and communication skills built on years of experience. Beyond this, the developer must have master skills using modern development tools. Beyond this, best-practices in software development methods must be utilized to ensure project success.

Experience Equals Value - Our K2Pro developers are battle-hardened veterans of big-company IT - with years of experience developing database software and database-driven websites. Their skill-focus is strong on business analysis, communication and design skills, coupled with top-level experience using the most current development technology. Lastly they possess a thorough understanding of the best-practice methods in successful database software development. Our goal is to always hit the mark for our client's expectation at the lowest possible cost. We achieve this goal with a careful and methodological approach that minimizes the rework that tends to be the primary driver for project cost overruns.

IT Technical Support Services
Small Business Trends - For many small businesses, the office administrator or office manager oversees network and server operations, coordinates technical support needs and answers simple technical questions. In addition, most small businesses employ one or more "power users" that assist other employees for more involved user questions. Beyond this, a small business will generally contract with a small technical support company for more complex technical work. Larger companies will hire one or more full time employees to replace the contracted support company. This arrangement can work well initially, but as a businesses increase their reliance on more sophisticated technology, the challenges can outstrip the capabilities of all involved parties.
Variable Expertise Required - Technology has grown affordable. Now, even the smallest businesses can cost-justify sophisticate technical solutions. However, although much technology has grown easier to implement and use, it still requires certain subject matter experts for design, implementation, configuration and ongoing support. The level of expertise required should be "right-sized" to meet the needs of the implementation or ongoing support. For all but the largest businesses, it is not financially feasible to permanently hire experts in every required technical discipline. Because of this, most organizations contract with high-level outside IT talent from time to time. Unfortunately, many small businesses with their home-grown internal support and/or contracted general external support, lack the experience or time required to adequately identify their needs supporting sophisticated technology. Consequently, implementations that start out simple grow overly complex and problematic. Long-terms costs escalate and the overall perception of value is pegged lower than expected.
The "K2" Difference - K2 Technical Services technical support consultants are all highly-experienced experts within their respective disciplines. We provide specific experts when needed to supplement internal staff and more general technical support resources. We support small businesses that acquire complex new technologies or that seek to fully exploit high-end technical features of existing systems. We provide high-level technical troubleshooting service when more complex and critical system problems seemingly stress the capabilities of the existing technical support personnel. To get started, contact us for a free initial assessment of a particular technical problem or project.
Is K2 Technical Services Right for Your Business?
Are you a progressive small or medium-sized business with significant technology investment in need of an experienced IT professional on a part-time basis?
Do you need to supplement the technical management skills of your existing staff for a period of time, or for a special project?
Are you contemplating a business change or expansion and need the advice and counsel of an experienced and assessable IT management consultant?
Are you overwhelmed with complex technical choices or issues and desire a single point of contact for advice and delegation?
Do you have persistent technical problems, or have general concerns about the performance, capacity, security or disaster recovery capabilities of your business technology?
Are you bothered by problems with your technology vendors or service providers, or need someone to help you manage these relationships?
Do you need to spend more time running your business and less time dealing with all the distractions related to technology?
If you are a small business owner/manager and answer yes to one or more of these questions, you can probably benefit from our services. We can help almost any small business improve their return on their technology investment. Our value proposition is based on the expectation that we ultimately help you increase revenue and reduce expenses.
How Do We Get Started?
We start with an initial introductory meeting, and then proceed to an interview to determine needs and recommend services. Once an agreement is reached on the general level and scope of service to be provided, we hand-pick a qualified K2Pro based on your general needs, and assign him or her exclusively to your account. Then we work to create and execute a service agreement that covers your specific needs.
From there your K2Pro will develop a workplan and schedule. He or she will immediately start to deliver results by establishing strong working relationships with your key employees and your technology vendors and service providers. Strong working relationships are the cornerstone of our methods for providing excellent service through careful planning, execution and control.
Contact Us
Whether a short-term project or a long-term engagement, we rely on our full depth and breadth of experience to ensure you receive the utmost value for your technology investments. Our objective is to become your trusted business technology partner and your competitive advantage.