Be more efficient secure and profitable!

In this blog I want to discuss some recent wins and some fails for our company but more importantly I want to outline what really drives our company which is helping your company be more efficient, secure and profitable.

In sales “The Whale” is usually a nickname given to an often elusive but  large and  profitable account. I have a similar term “The Ostrich” which refers to business owners whose heads are stuck….in the sand and afraid to look at new opportunities or ways of doing things. Afraid of change they often cling to outdated methodology and often they think they are saving revenue but usually they are overpaying for subpar service and support and actually losing revenue.

So I am asking each of you the following question.

Will you choose to be more efficient, secure and profitable or choose to be an Ostrich? The choice is yours.

I recently met with the owner of a chain of 10 retail stores that is in 3 different states. I had met the owner a month or two prior when I was purchasing something from them and casually mentioned that because of the good service they had shown me I really wanted to extend a professional courtesy and  help them if I could. I had mentioned doing a free network security assessment for his company to give him a 3rd party opinion and let him know the good the bad and the ugly that would be found during the assessment. 

 He was in agreement then but now a month of two had passed and on this day, he was not too thrilled that I was there to see him. In his mind I was there to sell him something and he wasn’t interested in buying anything from me. I was actually in the store to purchase something additionally and not on a sales call but the conversation went there anyway.

I wasn’t there to sell anything, I was there to help him if anything. One of the most valuable services we offer potential clients is a free network assessment which allows us the opportunity to check many factors of their technology environment and often we are able to find issues that are overlooked. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes looking at things is invaluable and we offer this as a service for free. Why wouldn’t someone want to take advantage of this offering. Afterall  It’s free?? But to each their own.

In all honesty he struck me as a nice guy and I really wanted to help him make sure his processes were efficient, secure and perhaps help make his company more profitable if I could.

However no matter what question I asked the owner; he had a fast answer to shoot me down. “I don’t have a need for your company’s services, I don’t have any infrastructure, everything is in the cloud, I’m not that big” he shot at me when I mentioned that we frequently have success finding ways to decrease cost and make companies more profitable.

But like the ostrich this business owner will keep his head in the sand and hope that nothing happens to his business because “everything is in the cloud”. Yes the cloud does simplify technology sometimes but there are considerations that need to be looked at when migrating core business functions to the cloud.

What he is not considering is what happens when you can’t access the cloud and you have paying customers lined up but your internet connection is down. How much revenue is he going to lose? What is the cost of an hour of downtime? What is the cost of a day of downtime. Of course we have a solution for these problems and we eliminate internet outages but he wasn’t interested in learning anything new on this day. 

Maybe when the internet is down for a day or two and his business grinds to a halt, he’ll realize that the cloud is not without issues.

“My needs are simple; I only have a few computers at each location” he responded when I asked him about his cloud infrastructure. Yes his needs are simple but he has 2-4 computers at 10 locations taking credit card transactions from customers all day long. When was the last time he ran a vulnerability scan to make sure his network is secure, what about PCI compliance for credit card transactions. If credit card information is not being stored properly or the computers are hacked and card information is stolen, what is his liability?

“I have an agreement with a local IT network company, they do everything I need” he told me when I asked about cybersecurity policies. Not to brag but the company he is contracted with does not have the cybersecurity team we do. And that is not opinion it’s a fact. Our team is a nationally recognized group of cybersecurity professionals and that is all they do for us 24x7x365 they protect our clients assets. But on this day the Ostrich didn’t want to learn more because he is convinced the IT company can do everything when in fact they can’t for many reasons.

Just then the employee who was running the point of sales system and was listening to our conversation stated that he was having difficulty printing a transaction. “This printer does this all the time.” he muttered under his breath as he shook his head in frustration. Maybe he was looking to thrown me a bone or  to add fuel to the fire or just trying to get his boss to realize that there are issues he needs to be concerned about but it made the situation take an interesting turn.

The owner  quickly took charge dropping to his hands and knees and began fiddling with the printer while the employee darted to a rear office to print the transaction for the customer. This went on for a few minutes as the owner, a tall hulking man, was down on one knee his head underneath the sales counter wrestling with cables and resetting the printer. For five minutes I watched the owner disappear under the counter and do battle with the rogue printer. He had the appearance of an ostrich with his body visible but his head not in the sand but underneath the sales counter.

After a few minutes, the owner stood up and triumphantly exclaimed “the printer was offline” he seemed proud that he fixed the issue and further proved his point that he didn’t need my services. He’s right he doesn’t need my services as long as he’s there every day to get on his hands and knees and wrestle with printers.

But to me a few things are obvious.

1. He needs our services but doesn’t realize it, yet.

2. He has no clue about the amount excessive spending in his business.

3. The IT company he is contracted with is not providing him with superior services and support as would be expected in 2023.

4. I found glaring issues in 1 of his stores let alone 10 what would I find if allowed to help him the cost savings could be staggering.

By not engaging  with me and my company however what he is missing out on is over 30 years of experience, wisdom and insight that I bring as a technology consultant. That’s my experience let alone everyone else on our team which at this time is hundreds of years of experience. He also missed the point that the employee commented this was a reoccurring problem and they just leave the sales counter unattended and go to the rear office when the printer doesn’t work. This process which is now the norm in his business is not normal–something is misconfigured!

This retail store will be resetting the printer tomorrow and the day after and the day after and so on and so forth. The crack IT company that he boasted about never raised an alert that the printer was offline at 2pm in the afternoon. Apparently, there is no active monitoring, reporting process or review taking place to discuss why the sales counter printer continuously goes offline. This might seem small a printer issue but this is a sales function and sales drive business.

 So what is the owner paying them for? To fix IT issues. This is 2023 and fixing IT issues is just the beginning, this is what we refer to as “permissions to play”. Obviously the IT company doesn’t engage with this company on a regular basis. Maybe it’s not a concern for the IT company because the business owner is now working for the IT company by proxy and he will  reset the printer each and every day. There is no need for the IT company to have to do the right thing and fix the issue when the business is taking on IT duties.

Apparently, this owner hasn’t figured out that his time is better spent leading and managing his business than resolving IT issues, but apparently not, he’d rather be playing IT technician. No concern for his time and what the cost is to his business. However what do the employees do when the owner is not there and the printer stops working? They print from the rear office which means the sales counter is unattended and it takes 3x as long to print a sales receipt. Not the most efficient way to run a business or the most secure.

I see this all the time, owners without the background or skill set taking on IT duties in their businesses.

Of course I haven’t given up on this prospect, they need our services they just haven’t figured out that they do. It’s my job to make sure they see the value in our services and understand that we do so much more than “fix or solve computer network issues”. What separates us from the rest of the pack is that we provide professional technology services way beyond “fixing network issues” and are really an extension of the business a team of subject matter experts on all relevant business technology. We engage with our clients regularly to make sure that their technology is meeting the expectations today and also offer technology roadmaps to make sure that they are poised for the future.

Hopefully on my next interaction  I can get the owner to pull his head out of …. err…..the sand!

Stay tuned for part two…… to be continued