Business Insight: Opinions

Sarah Hillier is the managing director of marketing and consulting organisation, RAW Consulting. shillier@rawconsulting.com.au

Fifty cents. That's how much U.S. businesses could save by shutting down all their PCs at night and on weekends, according to a study released last month (download file) by the Alliance to Save Energy. Of course, that's not how the report headlined it. The alliance's number was US$2.8 billion per year.

One of the most common questions I’m asked by all representatives of the IT industry is how the rest of the market is faring. It’s not surprising this issue keeps cropping up in conversation, given the economic situation.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there were two basic models for selling IT: Equipment vendors sold hardware or software. Services vendors sold maintenance contracts, professional services or connectivity. And IT practitioners didn’t sell at all – they delivered infrastructure, applications and support that their organisations (hopefully) found useful.

is having the ability – real or imagined – to “see around corners”. That is, to predict with some degree of accuracy that which hasn’t been invented yet.

John Grant is the managing director of Data#3 and chair of the Australian Information Industry Association.

Virtually every IT organisation is feeling the impact of the global downturn. But there is a silver lining. It provides an opportunity to challenge the status quo, eliminate ineffective systems and services, and make changes that management has previously refused to consider.

I hear people talking about selling solutions all the time. What they normally mean is that they want to bundle together as many products as possible to increase the sale to the customer. That to me is NOT a solution sale. It’s a drive for revenue and ultimately not something that is good business.

It seems that for far too long now, we have been talking the global economic crisis into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Australia may have been doomed to follow the world into recessions past, but some dire predictions notwithstanding, there’s a real sense of optimism on this occasion that we can ride the storm and come out stronger than many nations.

By now the holidays are becoming a distant memory and it is either the beginning of a new financial year for some, or the run to the finish for others. Welcome to 2009, a year that will undoubtedly have its share of ups and downs – hopefully more ups if some structured channel planning is put in place now.

George Peppard said as his character Hannibal Smith on The A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together." Several trends, if not a plan, are coming together in interesting ways in technology for small businesses. Mix equal parts of online applications, netbooks, and constant wireless networking together, and you get new ways to do more work in more places for less money.

Since my first column on Gershon (ARN, July 23), Sir Peter has departed our fair shores and left a series of challenging and optimistic recommendations in a report laid down (presumably) with some gusto on Minister Lindsay Tanner’s table. Last week, Tanner stated the recommendations would be adopted completely in full.

In the novel From Russia with Love, author, Ian Fleming, describes the waiting platform for the Orient Express as throbbing with the “tragic poetry of departure”. Whether we are the ones boarding the train or the ones standing on the platform watching others depart, the act of departure often brings feelings of emptiness, loneliness and sadness.

Business owners and managers can expect a difficult trading year in 2009, following the turmoil of 2008. There are many things they should do to help them through the unchartered waters they are likely to encounter including updating their business plan – or, if they don’t have one already, getting one done.

Although it may seem like your computing life is all e-mail and browsing, computer users still create files, documents, spreadsheets, boring presentations and all manner of other stored information. Which brings me to the question: Where do you store your data? And are you ready to store your data online in a service hosted by a third party provider?

Computers and applications stubbornly remain hard to use. Developers, from solo code jockeys to huge corporations, promise us things will be better "real soon." But if operating systems and applications aren't easier today than yesterday, at least we're seeing advances in how to support them. Take NTRSupport's new FirstHelp tool, a support portal. It combines information, drivers, tips, training, techniques, instant messaging, e-mail and even remote control software in a one-stop support shop.

Motivated to help the environment as well as their businesses, SMBs are increasingly embracing green practices. One of their primary approaches: employing green technology, according to recently released survey results from KRC Research.

I often hear vendors complaining that they have allocated Marketing Development Funds (MDF or Co-Op) to resellers, but it’s not being used. Then I speak to resellers who will say that they would like to find ways to grow their business but don’t have the money to do it.

1. Virtualisation is a great tool for maximising the utilisation of servers, however, it's just not applicable to all areas within SMB. Virtualisation becomes a compelling choice for IT managers when the PC or notebook count hits the 100-150 mark. It's at this point the server count hovers between 10 and 15, which is critical mass for virtualisation.