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So daily computer support tasks and ongoing
tech projects typically are handled part-time by an employee who has
another job with the company, call it his or her “real” job --
such as being an accountant, bookkeeper, controller, executive
assistant, office manager, sales rep or some other non-IT
career. I call this person the internal guru – the one
everybody instinctively yells for when the fax machine jams, the
Internet connection goes down or the database locks up.
In addition to the internal guru, many small
businesses have a “P&L” decision maker, responsible for the
firm’s Profit & Loss Statement, who
presides over the more strategic, financial decisions of which
technology projects merit investment. Sometimes the internal guru,
acting in a tactical or operations capacity, is authorized to sign
off on all related financial decisions. However, often an
owner or high-level manager such as a controller or CFO, is actively
involved with the major financial decisions on technology
spending and ultimately signs the related contracts and purchase
orders.
Although this book is built around the
needs of both the small business internal guru and the P&L
decision maker, at least two major constituencies of
professional service providers who work with small businesses also
can benefit tremendously from the subjects explored here.
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Trusted Advisors to Small Businesses –
such as Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and their equivalent
outside the USA, management consultants, attorneys and financial
planners
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Technology Consultants for Small Businesses –
such as Application Service Providers (ASPs), computer consultants,
integrators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Independent Software
Vendors (ISVs) and Value Added Resellers (VARs)
Although this book emphasizes
cost-reduction issues, it is not a substitute for the sound
advice of other trusted small business advisors. Before implementing
any major changes to your company based on suggestions in this book,
check with an appropriate small business resource such as your
accountant, attorney, financial planner or management consultant.
What Your Computer Consultant Doesn’t Want
You to Know is consciously a PC-centric book and assumes that
the reader is largely committed to Intel-based desktop PCs, notebook
PCs and servers, Microsoft Windows operating systems and the
Microsoft Office productivity suite. Because of their limited
following among small businesses relative to the above market-share
desktop dominators, only minimal discussion is made of alternative
products such as the Apple Mac OS and Linux.
Most of this book deals with the desktop
and notebook PC side of the network, with limited discussion of
server and networking issues. Because most small business internal
gurus are approaching their part-time IT responsibilities with only
a limited amount of time in a given week, their scarce resources are
best spent first concentrating on the simplest technologies and
surrounding issues.
Although monetary estimates in this book are
listed in U.S. dollars, the majority of this book is applicable to
both U.S.-based and international small businesses.
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