Chicago IT service companies shouldn’t resell equipment to their clients.

Whenever I have a contractor do work on my house, the contractor brings the materials they are going to install in my house. They also bring their knowledge, their tools, and their time. I never ask them what they need to do their job and then go buy it somewhere else myself. This is not the case when it come to IT services for small businesses.

Most small business clients prefer there be a separation between the services company and the hardware/software reseller. In other words, the client wants the consultants recommendations on which equipment they should get to be based on their positive long term experiences with the equipment they are recommending rather than whatever kickbacks the consultant is getting from the manufacturer or wholesaler. I totally agree with this and have always thought it sounded like a much more attractive proposition to new clients considering us at their Chicago IT service vendor.

Over time our team at Xerillion has learned which hardware and software works the best. We know when we need more power for a solution and less power. We know when it is smart to save money and smart to spend more. We make our equipment recommendations based on wanting a long term relationship with our clients. In order for his to happen, we must recommend equipment that has a great track record for us in the real word.

We always prefer well known, name brand equipment with great support. There is nothing more frustrating to me to purchase some lesser known hardware or software and find out they only support machanism they have is email support and I can’t reach anyone by phone.

When you are considering an Chicago IT service company, check to see if they will be reselling you the hardware and software, or if they will be purchasing it on your behalf using your credit card and your account number – the preferred method. at Xerillion, whenever we purchase new equipment for clients, we always use a credit card number they approved for us to use, use their account number with a supplier, and all the equipment is shippped directly to their office. When it all arrives, we set it up. The client feels good knowing we recommended this equipment without consideration to how much of a markup we got on the equipment, and we feel good knowing the client feels good!

Overall, there is nothing wrong with a IT company reselling equipment to clients, and tons do just that. I believe though, that an IT service company should really focus on their services, and that is exactly what we do at Xerillion.

-Wayne Chapin

(Wayne Chapin is the founding partner and president of Xerillion, a Chicago IT service company for small businesses)

Is your computer network tech good enough?

If you own a small business, or are in charge of the IT for a small business, you likely work with a computer network consultant. How confident are you in your computer network consultant? Do you sometimes wonder if they have all the qualifications needed to fully support your company’s IT infrastructure?

Likely you yourself are not technical so you can’t say for sure if your tech has all it takes, but I can share with you what I believe it takes to be a great small business IT consultant. I own and manage an IT consulting company for small businesses. I have learned lots of valuable lessons over many years of hiring employees into our company, some that have worked out, and some that have not.

I have had almost no turnover in the last 2 years, and I like to think it is because I have learned what kind of qualifications a tech needs to be successful for the work that we do:

1. Someone that is confident in what they do, but also respects the intelligence of those people that do not work on computers every day.
2. Bright, ambitions, friendly and humble – a nice person.
3. Very clear communicator that isn’t overly “techish”
4. Long term resident of the Chicago area
5. At least 6 years of full-time experience providing IT support for businesses
6. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification (with Exchange certification)

Hiring is never an easy process of course. I often go back and forth between what I think is harder in running a business – hiring employees or finding new clients. When I hire, I always have multiple interviews, including a technical interview, an interview done by 2 senior members of my staff, as well as reference checks. At the end of the day, it comes down to a “gut” feeling. I sometimes even second guess my gut feeling too. I have had people that didn’t interview well work out great, and I have also had people that interviewed spectacularly that didn’t work out.

Generally speaking though, I can tell if I have a good candidate within 2 minutes of meeting them face to face and shaking their hand. If someone looks, bright, fresh, clean-cut, and confident, they either have it, or they don’t. You can’t put in a suit and cover up those missing points.

The good news is, that when you work with an IT consulting company for your small business, they handle all the legwork with finding a great tech to manage and support your IT infrastructure, and hopefully the techs they provide you with are full-time employed with their company. At my company, Xerillion, each client gets a single dedicated, highly qualified tech that works exclusively on their account and is employed full-time with our company. This creates a very consistent service experience for the client and also is enjoyable for the consultant because they build a close relationship with the client.

When you interview IT consulting companies for your small business, just remember the qualifications I have stated above, but above all else, you should feel immediately comfortable and confident with the owner of the company when they come onsite to meet you for the first time. I’m a strong believer in face-to-face time, both by the owner of the company, as well as the tech working on your network. If the company you are considering hits all the points I mentioned, you should be in for a long-term rewarding business relationship.

-Wayne Chapin

(Wayne Chapin is the president and founding partner of Xerillion, an IT consulting company servicing small businesses in the Chicago metro area. www.xerillion.com )

3 things that tell me all I need to know about a computer network.

Over the last 10 years I have personally visited, reviewed and made proposals on 300-400 small business computer networks throughout the Chicago area. Over time I have realized there are 3 things that tell me all I need to know about a computer network I’m looking at. If all 3 things are in place, the computer network is in great shape. If all 3 of these things are missing, the computer network has been built by someone who didn’t know what they were doing, and completely neglected by the business owner.

#1: Backups – far and away the most important thing an IT consultant does when setting up your computer network is make sure your data is safe. Hardware can always be replaced, software can always be reloaded, but losing 6+ months of data is disastrous. I would say roughly 10% of the computer networks I visit for the first time don’t even have proper backups running. I have seen cases were the backup software was never installed, or the backup software simply stopped running, and the owner was not even paying attention. Nothing scares me more the thought of data loss. If a company has backup software, and backups running daily, we are usually off to a great start.

#2: Disk Fault Tolerance – one of the easiest ways to protect your investment in a server is to make sure that if a hard drive fails on your server, that your server keeps running. A simple way to handle this is to setup ”disk mirroring” where the primary hard drive on your server has a second hard drive that is its mirror copy. Anything that gets written to the primary drive, gets written to the mirror drive. Anything that gets deleted from the primary drive gets deleted from the mirror drive. I would say 20% of the servers I review don’t even have this simple and cheap system configured on their servers. If you don’t have disk mirroring setup and your primary drive fails, you lose your server. Your server has to have the hard drive replaced, then the operating system reloaded, reconfigured and all the client computers reconnected, all the business applications reloaded, and man you better prey your backups were good. If your backups are not good, you will be starting your system from scratch. A simple disk mirroring system adds another $100 to the cost of a server and takes 15 minutes to configure.

#3: Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) – 30% of the servers I visit for the first time don’t have a backup power source should the building power fail. The whole point of a uninterrupted power supply is to prevent crashing the server and risking corrupting important operating system files on your server which could make your server impossible to restart, or even worse, cause you to lose a lot of your company’s data. A good power supply is $300-$500, and takes 30 minutes to configure. There should be a special cable between the power supply and the server and special software installed on the server so the UPS can notify the server when it is low on battery life and then the server will gently shut itself down avoiding any damage to files on the server.

A good IT consultant should be able to look at your computer network and network server within 15 and determine the status of your system. An IT consultant should zero right in on the things I have mentioned above because if they are in place, your data will be safe and your network will be stable. If these things are not in place, there are probably quite a few more problems “under the hood” and should be delt with promptly.

-Wayne Chapin

(Wayne Chapin is the president and founding partner of Xerillion Corp. (www.xerillion.com), a small business IT support and service company servicing the Chicago metro area.)