How Many Economic Downturns Have You Survived?

s the day of reckoning just around the corner for many technology firms? Is your business going survive 2009? Experts are predicting 2009 is going to be a very rough year in the technology marketplace. The federal government has stepped up to bail out a number of industries throughout the country and many banks are simply running out of cash to help out struggling businesses.
What are your plans to survive through 2009? Many business owners and our clients are currently planning their strategy to ensure their business simply survives the next twelve months. There are still many great opportunities available to IT companies who have the vision to see the future, who can take advantage of and position themselves to make some profit even in a down economy.

In a recent survey of a number of information technology firms from across North America many have stated that they will have to change the way they do things and simply stop performing services that are not profitable moreover get back to simple methods of delivering their service offerings. IT firms are also turning to new technologies, products and solutions to separate themselves from the noise that is out there and can provide their clients with a competitive advantage, increase productivity and save money.

Over the next twelve months the following solutions, services and product offerings will assist your clients and help you survive throughout 2009.

The first major item is may smaller firms will be turning to hosted service offerings ranging from free online offerings such as Google Apps, Microsoft Office Live Small Business and other hosted solutions that many technology firms will offer to their clients. With an economic downturn in full swing, smaller companies will adapt to a lower monthly fee for service over a large capital investment in their own server technologies. Many leading companies have now began or have strategies in place to deliver their offerings in the cloud. Small Business, IT firms must understand how the cloud will affect the offerings that they bring to their clients and embrace cloud computing.

For those companies that have existing IT infrastructure in place today will Small Business turn to managing their assets and an IT business partner who can assist with Asset Management will bring small business additional value. Why is asset management important for the SMB space? The answer is quite simple, when the economy is strong, many firms simply invest in technology without accounting for what they have, according to Delisa Reavis from Washington's Express Metrix "small businesses are going to have to run a tight operation in 2009, leaving no room for error and excess spending." IT Asset Management (ITAM) will becoming a unique value offering that many leading IT firms can offer to their clients. Many businesses can save thousands of dollars leveraging asset management solutions.

In past economic downturns traditionally what has occurred is many firms begin to cut solutions that the management team deems to be "not required". These cuts include internal human capital as business turns to outsourcing providers over having salaried positions and the expenses that accompany these internal positions. IT firms must be ready to aggressively go after these opportunities, having the right managed services strategy and people on your team will provide your computer consulting firm with a competitive advantage. Other solutions that have a tendency to be cut include expenditures that management may appear to have no value, these may include backup and disaster recovery solutions, emergency preparedness and other technologies that do not have a daily affect on operations. Technology partners must be ready to offer these important and critical solution offerings as part of their overall solutions. When the need comes to implement safety type solutions, their clients continue to operate without any major interruptions. Many small business don't know these items are important until they need to call on them, it is important to be prepared.

For the first time in our survey many SMB IT firms will also have discussions on general business and the health of their business overall. Consulting firms that understand how their clients go to market, how the Internet affects their business combined with how their customers find them will provide your business with a huge advantage in the marketplace. IT firms are now asking their clients if they are satisfied with their positioning in the search engine rankings and marketing, sales, operations, administration and finance are functioning and how technology can assist in making everything better? Other challenges related to how email is used and how secure company information in motion between employees, partners and vendors are now entering into the general business discussions.

On the topic of marketing and gain new business during this economic downturn, how are today's small business leveraging web strategies in the Web 2.0 world? How does having a web strategy help business in a downturn economy? Many small businesses are not leveraging web strategies effectively to take their business to market and many savvy technology professionals are now sitting down with their clients and having conversations around blogging, mash-ups, social media, podcasting, Internet delivered video and other web solutions to promote their businesses and win in their marketplace. "Unfortunately, many of the IT organizations in small businesses, whether they are in-house or contracted, are woefully out-of-date with Web 2.0 and its technologies. Instead of leading companies to premier positions in their industries, the dated capabilities of IT organizations hold companies back eventually forcing those companies to play catch up to competitors' states Dave Burckhard from National Podcasting System.

One of the final areas that will be a major concern for small business owners will be information security. With a higher number of layoffs both at our clients and perhaps in our own firms, ensuring that clients information is secure will be a major concern. As IT Professionals we must guarantee to our clients that their information is secure when our staff leaves or when they have a round of layoffs. Having a system that offers secure remote access and allows technology firms to easily add and delete users when needed is very important. Combine this will locking down remote access to those that require it and monitoring who and when people access corporate resource will prove to a valuable security offering.

The underlying skill that will be needed is to be the Trusted Business Advisor understanding how technology affects business. Small Business today is leveraging technology more today than in past economic downturns. Traditionally in the past, businesses have leaned on technology more during economic turmoil and this trend will continue throughout 2009. Can your firm speak the business talk with your clients? This will be a skill that will be in high demand, firms that can understand the business impact technology plays will weather this storm and be here when the economy starts to stabilize./EzineArticles.com