With the launch of our new website comes the introduction of a simplified way to present our core services. We call it the Set You Free IT model:

The model shows the four fundamental outcomes we deliver to businesses, how these build upon each other and what our core services are that help achieve these outcomes.

If I was to describe it in a sentence:

“Evolve IT helps optimise and manage core technology systems, which leads to staff working faster and smarter, helping to improve the customer experience which ultimately allows your business to further enhance and evolve.”

We’re passionate about seeing small and mid-sized businesses adopt fantastic technology solutions to drive success. And we think our new Set You Free IT model gives a clearer picture of the path Evolve IT can take you on to achieve it. What do you think?

Follow me on Twitter @claytonhm

We’ve recently been letting all our clients know the Small Business and General Business Tax Break finishes at the end of December.  So you only have a few weeks left to take advantage of this business tax incentive being offered by the Federal Government!

Eligible small businesses can claim an additional 50% tax deduction, and other businesses up to an additional 30%, for capital equipment purchased prior to the deadline. Read the latest press release here for more detail, and Evolve IT recommends seeking advice from your accountant or tax agent regarding eligibility.

Take advantage of the offer to get the technology you need now to help you:

• Reduce costs - New core technology allows you to do more with less, can reduce power costs and can lower the number of physical servers you may already have, creating a saving in ongoing support and maintenance.
• Work Faster and Smarter - New core technology can help provide your staff with the tools to perform their job better. From accessing information from anywhere, anytime to being able to collaborate on projects in real time.
• Improve Customer Experience - New core technology can provide an enhanced experience for your customers and provide you with a competitive edge.

Contact us now about making a strategic investment in technology whilst taking advantage of the Federal Government’s offer.

Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

This post, originally titled “Don’t Rely on Your IT Guy”, was first posted in May 2009 on another blog I contribute to, Small Business Daily.  In the past 6 months I’ve received great feedback - primarily from other companies just like Evolve IT trying to highlight the value they offer to small business customers.  I also receive a number of requests each month for a link to the article, so I thought I’d repost it to perhaps make it easier for people to find, and hopefully to have a whole new bunch of people read and find value in the post.

Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

Every time I move house I realise how much “stuff” I have. You know, it’s the stuff that lives in boxes in the closet, and under the bed, and in the garage. Stuff I just shift from one location to the next even though it has no immediate purpose. Yet I don’t want to throw it out.

But in this decade, more than ever before, the stuff we accumulate and carry around with us extends beyond physical possessions and in to the realms of the digital world. From music and video to bills and tax records, the amount of digital data we store is growing exponentially.

This applies just us much in our work lives and our businesses. Think about the last time you changed jobs, or even just bought a new computer. Even though you may have a company server and tend to store most formal work related data there, I’m willing to bet you still had a bunch of other “stuff” on your computer that was copied off separately. Stuff that you don’t use much, but can’t be without.

>>Read the rest of this post on Small Business Daily.

Looking for an Online Backup Solution? Evolve IT can provide it! Check out our Managed Online Backup Service brochure, or contact us today on 1300 85 88 99.

First published on Small Business Daily, Sep 17th 2009.

It’s astounding how many fantastic free resources are made available by some of the big technology vendors out there. It’s even more astounding to discover how many people fail to utilise, or even know about, these resources! So in this post, let me introduce you to a couple of resources you never knew about. These tools are so useful you’ll want to keep them a secret from others so you can “skill up” on the sly and become a genius!

HP Learning Centre – Free online classes, 24/7! This site is like a mini online university. It offers everything from quick “how-to” videos to comprehensive instructor-led online courses. Yes, that’s right; instructor led, for FREE. Click on the “See all classes” tab and you’ll find a long list of classes covering a broad range of topics. Try out “Create and print your own high-quality marketing materials” under home office, or “The other 90 percent: unlock your vast untapped potential” in business basics, or for the weekend, “Beyond basics: fundamental photography techniques” in the digital photography category.

Microsoft Business Resource Centre
An excellent resource for small businesses, courtesy of Microsoft, that offers personalised self-help, support, community connections, training and articles based on a simple profile created on sign up. So a small business owner with 10 employees in the finance industry will see content relevant to her, whereas a Creative Director in a 200 staff advertising agency will see different content more relevant to him. Note that this site is still in beta so it’s subject to changes and content may be a little light-on currently.

Jump on and sign up now – just do it!

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems - Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

You know, sometimes I used to kick myself when at a function and someone would invariably ask “So, what do you do?”, and automatically I launched in to terms like infrastructure management, managed services, virtualisation, IT procurement…ho hum….are you bored yet? Probably.

People aren’t really interested about what business I’m in, they genuinely want to know what it is we do. Like, really, what do we ACTUALLY DO? Now that I understand this my answer to the question in much better: We help small and medium businesses be more successful through using technology. Specifically, we help businesses outshine their competition, help employees collaborate and be more efficient, unchain workers from their desks, allow access to information from anywhere at anytime, give business owners more time and help them cut costs and manage cash flow. Wow, now I understand how to communicate my marketing message better, and don’t sound like an uber-geek, people actually want to talk to me at functions!

>>Read the rest of this post on Small Business Daily

Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

I have just returned from the Microsoft World Partner Conference in New Orleans. It’s fair to say there is a lot of excitement brewing around Microsoft’s new desktop operating system, Windows 7 (it’s still in release candidate, you can’t actually buy the final product yet). However, I’m pleased to say it isn’t just Microsoft blowing their own trumpet – much of the excitement stemmed from the Microsoft partners. Most of these guys are the “geeks” that know their stuff, so if they are genuinely excited (and I remember them applauding a demo!) then maybe Windows 7 is the real deal.

So what does this mean for your average, non-geek, change-averse small business owner? Why would I want to move to Windows 7, I hear you ask? Well if you are a business that uses technology as a key driver for success, here are my top reasons you might want to adopt Windows 7 on its release:

>>Read the rest of this post on Small Business Daily

In my last post I discussed ways that small businesses can utilise technology solutions to enhance their customer experience. One of those enhancements was around storing and tracking your customer information. I see lots of small businesses using Excel spreadsheets or their basic accounting system, like MYOB or Quickbooks, as the main database for customer information. Sometimes this works, but often it doesn’t. Here are some signs that indicate you might need a better solution for managing customer information.

• You communicate with customers via many different methods: Some businesses are simple and have only one touch with a client during a buying cycle. Others have much longer sales cycles and require many touches with the client via different mediums such as the phone, direct mail and email. If you are the latter, then a CRM system will really help in organising and tracking your communications to clients.
• You have more than a couple of sales people: Once you have a small team of sales people, it becomes hard for them all to know what the others are doing or have already done. There’s nothing more off-putting for a customer than having a sales rep call them one day, only to have another sales rep from the same company call them the next day! CRM helps manage customer accounts and sales tasks and allows the sales team to have visibility of activities in any particular customer account.
• The types of customers you have vary: If all your customers are in the same vertical market and around the same size, it’s easier to manage them. For businesses that deal with all sorts of different customers from mixed industries and different market segments, managing marketing and sales efforts is a whole different ball game. A CRM system can easily manage the demographics of your customers allowing you to customise different marketing and sales strategies at targeted groups or similar businesses.
• Your customers are repeat buyers: This point really depends on what you sell. If you sell widgets that last for 20 years and need no attention, then you probably don’t have too much trouble tracking what your customers buy. But if you sell widgets that have lots of different options, that require ongoing servicing, or that are quickly superseded by newer widgets then your customers probably have many more transactions with you which become complex to track. Using a CRM system can simplify this for you and, even more importantly, provide you with terrific sales data with regards to cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. This in itself is often how I prove to a small business that the investment in a CRM system will pay for itself in a very short amount of time due to all the additional sales opportunities it can create.

So there’s some points to think about if you’re wondering whether a CRM system is right for you. And a final word of advice: Don’t rush in to purchasing a CRM system. Trial several to see which fits your needs best and, I think most importantly, which integrates with your existing software tools. You can buy the biggest and best CRM system out there, but if it doesn’t integrate well with your existing tools then your staff aren’t going to use it. Most small businesses tend to use the Microsoft Office suite as one of their main productivity tools (Outlook, Word, Excel etc) so looking for a CRM that integrates with these, such as Microsoft CRM, would be a wise choice.

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia. We fix business problems, not computer problems - Develop, Solve, Evolve.

Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm