Fraught with mountains, nature trails, lakes and bed and breakfast Inns, Vermont isn't a state that screams computer technology.
Stowe Mountain, Killington, The Long Trail, Maple syrup, cheddar cheese, Teddy Bears and Ben and Jerry's ice cream are actually the local treasures the state of Vermont is famous for -- or at least high on the list of things most people mention first if Vermont comes up in a conversation.
Yet for more than half a century, the state's largest private employer has been International Business Machines Corp., one of America's first technology stalwarts, and also the company that made the PC a household device, revolutionized business computing and then later enterprise IT consulting.
It's this legacy that has inspired and nurtured Dave Rose, founder and owner of Rose Computer Technology, who makes his home in Chittenden County, Vermont, along with that other company that has a presence in the same county: IBM.
With the IT service industry moving more and more in the direction of subscription-based computing, on-demand software and SaaS distribution and managed IT services, Rose his looking ahead from his IT-studded past to the future.
This is the essence of managed services, in Vermont and all other 49 states and various countries around the world. Managed service agreements can be tailored to fit the need of an SMB client, with revenues from that client tailored to fit the need of an IT service shop looking for recurring revenue or reoccurring revenue, depending on how you choose to use the phrase or the concept.
"Moving away from the traditional break-fix mentality and way of doing business, we now engage in business agreements to provide core IT services for fixed monthly prices," he said.
Posted by Jabulani Leffall on August 10, 20100 comments
Technology advancement aside, business has always been about numbers.
After the abacus came the ledger and after that the spreadsheet, which gave way to the calculator and then the ascendance of good business literally began to add up with the computer. Now with the information revolution, enterprise success regardless of statistics can sometimes be a zero-sum game.
A few companies large and small recognized larger evolution and changed with the times to help clients with not only improving their bottom lines but with giving them ways to, well, multiply sales and profits.
Olsen Thielen Technologies Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota is a good example of a company that made the logical progression from accounting firm to information technology and enterprise services as a vital complement to many a business. The company also exemplifies the resonating importance of both -- when it comes to enterprise operations -- risk and efficiency.
"We're a little unique from the perspective that the company was around generations before the PC," said Theresa Putzier, IT practice manager for Olsen Thielen. "Our parent company is an 88-year-old CPA firm and 23 years ago we very logically got into supporting software accounting solutions."
As managed services became a focus for the IT practice, Olsen Thielen looked for managed service partners to sell to clients.
Even though Olsen Thielen has a storied history, Putzier operates from the perspective that enterprise infrastructure consulting is a dime a dozen. One-stop-shop offerings through managed services will be key.
"Managed Services will be mainstream as a whole and is definitely a profit center for us now," said Putzier. "Our goal is to help clients leverage technology. You'll see it with smaller clients outsourcing the whole function and larger businesses that actually have IT staffs will start to leverage managed services so the in-house staff can focus on in-house projects and not operational concerns that take away from core business goals."
Posted by Jabulani Leffall on August 09, 20100 comments