Happy New Year from everyone at ActiveCo Computer Solutions! In 2009, ActiveCo celebrated our 10th anniversary as a managed IT services provider. We look forward to another 10 strong years helping our clients with their IT needs.

As we head into 2010, we continue to focus on enhancing our services and providing the highest quality client experience. In a short period of time our ActivePRO Managed Service clients will be receiving a client service satisfaction survey. The results of this survey will be used in determining our strengths and areas in which we need to focus, and will ultimately contribute to the improvements we will make in our service delivery moving forward. We encourage everyone who receives our survey to take some time out of their busy schedule to provide us with this important feedback.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on our plans for the months ahead. Like most of you, we are creating our business plan for the year and we thought it was timely to remind you not to overlook your IT needs. Sales projections, costs and other initiatives are standards in most business plans, but in many cases IT is handled on a more reactive basis. IT requires a plan and strategy as much as any other goal you are working towards.

Quote for the Month:

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."
    -- Alan Lakein

It is a well known fact that in most businesses it is very difficult to not only build a plan, but also to follow that plan. However, just the process of developing a plan can be very effective and key to creating and running a successful business.

Unfortunately, many small businesses do not include IT in their planning. Business owners and stakeholders are very good at having a vision as to where they want to take their company. There are key objectives and goals they strive to achieve on a daily basis. Because technology changes so rapidly, adapting to the many changes that take place will play a critical role in achieving success.

The challenge with building an IT plan is that it requires unique knowledge and experience unlike other areas of your business. This is the main reason a technology component is often overlooked in a business plan. Having this type of expertise internally is typically cost prohibitive to many businesses. It is very important to note that building an IT strategy requires both technology knowledge as well as intimate knowledge of your business. This is why your IT plan should be a collaborative process to ensure IT is aligned with your business goals and objectives.

A good IT plan should include an IT roadmap that plans your technology requirements over a 3 year period. These requirements may be related to business changes as well as technology based requirements to keep your infrastructure current and supported. This plan will keep productivity high and mitigate risk to your organization. These plans can also include major application changes that impact your business. It is critical that these types of changes are also planned and integrated properly.

Is this occurring in your business?

• Your internal resources are non experts in the IT field;
• You have a fragmented system to resolve IT issues;
• IT issues take up too much time;
• You can't find the right IT person to hire;
• Your IT issues are too complex and you can no longer solve them;
• Your systems are unstable;
• You lack the infrastructure to grow but you need a higher level of technology for your business;
• Building your own IT department is too costly.

Outsourcing is a concept that many small and medium sized businesses are familiar with as they search for ways to reduce costs and/or to hire expertise they don't employ in their business. Benefits of IT outsourcing include:

• Gaining peace of mind knowing your network is stable and secure. Anticipating and resolving IT problems before they occur;
• Achieving a competitive advantage by using modern technology;
• Empowering your business with an IT strategy that combines knowledge in managed network services with the tools you need to guide your business towards success;
• Making efficient use of resources by letting experts take care of your IT needs;
• Saving money by hiring only the IT resources you need and avoid spiking IT costs with a fixed fee solution.

ActiveCo is a leading North American outsourced IT managed service provider (MSP) dedicated to helping small and medium sized businesses fulfill their technology needs while helping them reduce the high cost of supporting internal IT functions. We empower businesses with the same level of IT service and support that large enterprises enjoy, at a fraction of the cost.

As an MSP, ActiveCo will manage your IT services via the Internet, providing you with:

• A virtually unlimited knowledge base for all your IT challenges;
• Access to skilled and trained professionals;
• Insight into current technologies;
• Multi-level service ensuring no single point of failure;
• Timely response to critical system issues.

"Prior to ActiveCo, our technology was in desperate shape. Our IT infrastructure was problematic, unreliable and not supported effectively. Our previous vendor was not able to provide a disciplined holistic support process to our environment and we were hampered by technology in our ability to fulfill our corporate objectives."

Mario Volpe
Controller, Harken Towing

Empower your business with an IT strategy from ActiveCo. Contact us today and let ActiveCo build your network so you can build your business.

ActiveCo Computer Solutions Inc. provides professionally managed network services to companies with computer networks. Combining high quality, time sensitive and reliable managed network services, ActiveCo gives your business confidence in technology supporting an increasingly complex business environment.

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All Rights Reserved.
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