You might remember those words as a line from (and the title of) a George Thorogood and the Destroyers anthem. I decided to take that advice to heart. (I always get haircuts – but it was definitely time to stop sitting around on my can and find a real job; one can only participate in a limited number of “karaoke night” performances before it’s time to stop playing Rock Star and do some meaningful work.) I knew I couldn’t work just anywhere – it’d have to be a place I knew I could make a difference (I still have the Blue Monster, after all). And I have found such a place – some friends of mine (some old and some newer) got together and formed a company a couple years ago called Mavidea Technology Group, LLC. They are a company specializing in IT Management and web services. What, exactly, does IT Management mean? I’m glad you asked. Let me tell you all about it.
What is IT management?
Some of us are born geeks (and some of us have geekdom thrust upon us). But many of us are not geeks and have no desire to be. One of the things I saw quite often working for Microsoft were business owners who were IT people out of necessity – they simply didn’t have anyone else to handle the IT requirements of their business. If they did outsource their IT, it was usually a break-fix scenario. Something broke, they called their “IT guy” and got it fixed. But computers are like cars – they run better (and breakdown less often) when they are properly maintained throughout their lives. This is where IT Management comes in. We have a dedicated team of technicians as well as some “whiz-bang” software which allows us to take care of networks remotely. Back to the car analogy – imagine a service that not only tells you why your check engine light is on, but can also warn you when the light is about to come on and even fix the problem remotely so that it never does! Sounds like a service worth having, doesn’t it?
What Constitutes IT Management?
There is a lot more involved with IT Management than simply watching for problems. Those of you who deal with IT on a regular basis understand this. It’s not just about fixing (or even preventing) problems, but also includes understanding what technological solutions are available to resolve issues you’re having (such as being able to work remotely, prevent unauthorized data access, and survive a data-losing disaster). We work with our clients to provide all of these services, essentially becoming their IT department (or augmenting existing staff), from technicians all the way up to a “virtual Chief Technology Officer (CTO),” who provides strategic direction and vision customized to your infrastructure, industry, business needs and budget.
Who is IT Management For?
IT management is a good fit for businesses of any size in any industry. If your business relies on computers, IT Management is a good fit. It takes the burden of worrying about technology off your plate and allows you to focus on your business. It’s a great fit for any business who has a part-time IT person… that one person in the office who knows something about how PCs work and is now the de-facto IT department. It’s a good fit for companies who are thinking about hiring an IT person – rather than hire one person, why not hire an entire team (probably for a much lower cost)? It’s even a good fit for companies with an IT department. In this scenario, we can augment the services being provided by the IT department. Why have your highly paid technical team focused on the day-to-day drudgery of combing through event logs when you can have us do the “grunt work” an let them focus on strategic projects which can enhance the business’ overall productivity?
Mavidea is part of a national association of IT Management firms, which means we can support businesses all over the world. (We currently have clients in several states as well as other countries!) The fact that our headquarters is located in Bloomington, IL means that we can offer Bloomington pricing to businesses in markets where these services are much more expensive, which is a nice bonus.
How Do You Like it, Dan?
I love it. The company is fantastic. There is, however, a learning curve here. I’ve been delivering presentations to larger audiences for the past few years, and talking one on one with clients is a bit of a new experience. I’m finding it very rewarding so far, though, as I still get to help business owners be more efficient, productive, and profitable through the use of technology.
I’m trying to decide how I will move forward with this blog in the future. I don’t want to abandon it (because I love it), but I don’t want to turn it into a salesy-type blog, either. (Actually, our CEO, Erik, has banned the word “sales” in our office, so this is probably the last time you will see it here, too. We’re not salespeople, nor are we “account executives.” We are advisers. Our job is to try to find ways to help businesses be more stable, secure, efficient, productive, profitable, etc. That’s interesting, too, but less of a difference between this position and my last – I wasn’t responsible for directly selling anything at Microsoft, either.
I’m guessing that I will spend at least a few posts talking more about some of the things we do and the services we provide. After that, who knows? It will be a new adventure, so stay tuned. :) In the meantime, if I just convinced you to learn more about IT Management, feel free to post a comment or drop me an e-mail. I’m happy to advise. :)
7 comments:
Nice!! Best of luck. I hope they send you out to Denver some time!
Well, they're willing to send me anywhere I can find new clients. Let me ask you a question, Mike... how is your organization handling your IT infrastructure needs now? :)
We have a company similart to Mavidea. They pretty much handle everything and are on site once if not twice a week.
I'm curious, Mike... when you say they're "on-site" once or twice a week... Does that mean that they are coming in to fix things rather than handling them remotely or are you saying that they're on-site delivering hardware, etc.?
I only ask because that's one of the things I am working on communicating better -- we're not a break/fix company. We are proactive -- monitoring the health of the network at all times, rather than waiting for one of our clients to pick up the phone and say, "Something's wrong..." and I am not 100% sure that my messaging on this topic is clear yet.
They do come in and swap fans out things like that. Our web and exchange server is onsite so they are here whenever we need an upgrade or what have you.
I understand that Mavidea isn't a break & fix shop but these people do everything for us from break and fix to upgrading/ updating our servers and what not to web design, to setting up anyone & everyones iPhones & Crackberries.
Okay. . . So we purchase a bank of hours every quarter. So we buy 90 hours worth of work, any kind from swapping out the hard drive in my computer to updating the software and doing repairs on our exchange server. We use all 90 hours and then we are billed hourly, we don't use the 90 hours it resets the next quarter.
Like I said they do everything as far as IT here. The company is called Windward Networks. They also do any break/fix repairs for all of our properties. Many of the HVAC systems are run on a server, they bill that to us under the property name per hour, not against our office bank of hours.
Right! You're not alone. This is how a lot of companies operate. We're on a different business model. Rather than selling banks of hours for on-site support, we focus on remote support. For instance, our silver package focuses on remote network monitoring. We install agents on the client network and watch event logs, system statuses, etc. for problems. Anything that we see, we contact the client and let them know so they can decide if they want us to fix it. The gold package actually adds significant services above and beyond silver, including AV/anti-spam filtering, and unlimited remote support. At this point, we become the IT department for companies who don't have one or augment the IT department for companies that do. This way, even smaller companies can have enterprise-level IT support. Because the remote support is unlimited, we fix problems remotely as they arise, hopefully preventing issues from ever becoming problems where someone needs to be on-site. If we do need to send someone on-site, then we have an on-site hourly rate, just like a break/fix shop. The main difference, though, is we are proactive, rather than reactive. Rather than waiting for a phone call saying my X is broken, we are watching logs, monitoring systems, and ensuring that those issues don't become a problem that someone needs to call in about.
The idea behind this is to create a predictable monthly spend for our clients in the IT realm. Unexpected emergencies aside, they know that their networks will be taken care of for one low price each month. They're also getting 24/7 monitoring, so they don't need to be concerned about something going down in the middle of the night -- we worry about all of that for them.
Because we're so heavily involved in our clients' IT, we also perform regular "virtual Chief Technology Officer" meetings, where we sit down with our clients and help them plan IT strategy for the future. Again, this is about helping our clients understand what to budget for (as far as upgrades, new technology, etc.) and what to avoid as new technology rolls out.
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