The Cost of Quality IT Services: A look at 2012 IT Salaries and the Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services

The cost of hiring a full time employee goes beyond the monthly paycheck. Outsourcing has becoming a growing trend for small to medium businesses looking to cut costs and save time.

While hiring a full-time IT Department is a popular choice for larger businesses, San Diego’s small to medium business owners are trending towards the cost-saving benefits of outsourcing IT services.

According to a Technology 2012 Salary Guide by Robert Half®, the average starting yearly salary of an in-house CIO is $139,000– $225,000 while an IT Manager earns $97,000 – $130,000 per year.

But beyond the high costs of hiring IT employees, there is also the time it takes to find, hire and train internal staff. According to the same report, 59% of CIOs surveyed said it was “challenging” to find skilled IT professionals today. They also said it takes on average 5-7 weeks to hire an IT professional.
 “A typical in-house IT department for small to midsize businesses consists of an IT Director or manager, and two assistants,” explains Siyamak Khorrami of Skyriver IT, a San Diego IT Consulting Company. “The average cost per year of having an internal IT team ends up costing upwards of $200, 000. As a result, more San Diego companies are realizing that they can get round the clock IT services for 30-40% less when they outsource their IT needs.”

Outsourcing IT services not only saves on additional payroll, taxes and healthcare expenses, it also affords small to medium businesses to gain expertize from a larger pool of IT  professionals, who are available 24/7 to solve problems strategically, pro-actively and quickly.

About Skyriver IT
Our mission at Skyriver IT is to professionalize the IT services business. We provide small and mid-size companies with the information they need to make better IT decisions. If you would like to discuss how your company can benefit from outsourcing IT services, please feel free to call (858) 812-9322 or visit www.SkyriverIT.com

Accord Engineering Chooses San Diego IT Consulting

Accord Engineering (www.accordeng.com), with San Diego and Orange County locations, recently chose Skyriver IT for an IT consulting project:

Problems with VOIP
For several months, Accord Engineering had been dealing with problems on their Voice over IP (VOIP) phone system. They were suffering from dropped calls due in part from their network being flooded by unnecessary traffic. In addition, their internet connection was very slow despite having sufficient bandwidth for their business.

San Diego IT Consulting Solution
At the recommendation of their VOIP provider, Accord Engineering chose Skyriver IT, a San Diego IT Consulting company, to help them sort out their network problems related to the VOIP system. Skyriver IT modified the network setup to improve the flow of network traffic without any hardware upgrades. This resulted in less dropped calls (virtually none), faster internet access, and overall improvement in internet accessibility.

In many cases, simply having a network professional review network configurations and suggest improvements can save time and problems in the long run.

How to Reduce Downtime with Virtualization

Virtualization makes your operating system, applications and data independent of a single physical machine.

Reducing downtime is always a great outcome, but what exactly is virtualization? It is a great way to make sure your “server” is not reliant on a single physical server. Let me explain…

Virtualization makes your operating system, applications and data independent of a single physical machine. So, you can put more than one virtual server on a single machine, or you can spread a virtual server across more than one machine. So, there are two primary ways you can use virtualization to minimize downtime.

The first way to minimize downtime is to spread your virtual server across several physical machines. While your server acts as a single server, it actually uses the computing power of several physical machines. So, if any single machine fails, your virtual server continues to run with a little less computing power until the physical machine can be replaced.

If you do not need the computing power of several physical machines, you can still take advantage of virtualization. Your IT team can take regular “pictures” of your virtual server. So, if there is ever a problem with the physical machine your server is running on, your IT team can use the “picture” of your server to get up and running on a new machine in minutes rather than the hours it can take to restore a typical backup of a server.

Whichever way you choose to use virtualization, it is a great tool to reduce your potential downtime.

About Skyriver IT
Our mission at Skyriver IT is to professionalize the IT services business. We provide small and mid-size companies with the information they need to make better IT decisions. If you would like to discuss how you could implement virtualization to reduce potential downtime, please feel free to call (858) 812-9322 or visit www.SkyriverIT.com

Do You Have a Privacy Policy? CIO Services Can Help.

With the release of Google’s new privacy policy and all of the issues being raised around it, it is a good time to think about our own privacy policies. This includes an external privacy policy, such as how we will and will not use visitor data gathered from a web site. It is also a good idea to address internal privacy policies (i.e. how employees handle company information).

External privacy policies are typically pretty straightforward. How are you going to use visitor data? How are you going to protect it? How will it not be used? You want to keep as much of your rights to use their data to your benefit without putting off visitors. Examples of privacy policies are available on most web sites you visit as well as sites that help you generate privacy policies.

Internal privacy policies are less straightforward, but very important to implement. Without one, employees can do random things online that put your company in jeopardy – from sharing proprietary information to bad mouthing customers.

Some of the questions you want to consider are:

1.    What kinds of sensitive information should employees never share?
2.    Are there other types of information they need to be careful about sharing?
3.    Who can represent the company online?
4.    How are employee records, such as personal information, medical history, etc. handled?
5.    Are there any restrictions around email and Internet usage?
6.    Who is responsible for internal systems and access, such permissions, and access to files?
7.    Are there any established laws and regulations we need to follow?
8.    What are the consequences for violating the policy?

CIO Services can help you create an effective Privacy Policy
Because of the importance of such policies, and the many issues that surround them, it can be valuable to use an outside resource to help you structure and create your internal privacy policy. Skyriver IT’s CIO Services help you understand how the strategic and people issues are affected by a privacy policy.

Mac-Based Security Threats are Growing Concern for IT Service Providers

Mac-Based Security Threats are Growing Concern for IT Service Providers

One of the great benefits of having a Mac has been the reduced threat of malware and other security threats. However, with the increased popularity of Macs, IT service providers have seen the security threats grow as well. As reported by F-Secure.com the threats grew in the last six months of 2011, and we can expect similar increases in 2012.

What does that mean for businesses running Macs? While the security threats to Macs are still much lower than Window machines, they are growing to a point where business managers should be concerned.

Skyriver IT recommends making some immediate changes to your Mac out of the box. This includes setting up the firewall and encrypting the hard drive. Also, educating users on security threats can help to prevent inadvertent downloading of malware and viruses. With a few simple steps, you can greatly reduce the security threats to any Macs on your network.

For more ways IT Consulting Services can help your business this year, contact us directly at (858) 812-9322 or visit www.SkyriverIT.com

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About Skyriver IT
Our mission at Skyriver IT is to professionalize the IT services business. We provide small and mid-size companies with the information they need to make better IT decisions. If you would like to discuss whether CIO Services could better align your IT investments with your business goals, please visit www.SkyriverIT.com or call  (858) 812-9322.

Who Owns the Management of Your IT Infrastructure?

Responsibility for IT Infrastructure Management can be a tricky thing for small and mid-size businesses. You can hire someone (whether internally or externally) to keep the basics running – desktops, laptops, servers, routers, etc. Hiring a senior level IT person is typically too expensive. So, big IT decisions typically remain with business managers, even though business managers often feel ill-equipped to make these types of technology decisions.

Working with an IT infrastructure outsourcing company that takes ownership for managing your IT infrastructure allows you to focus on what you do best. Rather than being reactionary, your IT service provider should be proactive and help you plan for the future.

Here is what one of our clients said about using Skyriver IT:

“It is rare to have a partner that can not only address your needs today but clearly articulate a vision that maps to the future growth of your operations. As a small business, this kind of attention to detail is a difference maker in today’s marketplace.”
– Matt Costanzo, COO, Costanzo Financial Group

As you consider your organization’s IT needs for the rest of 2012, be cognizant of who owns the management of your IT infrastructure. You want to focus on what you do best and not get caught up in trying to make decisions that are outside your area of expertise.

About Skyriver IT
Our mission at Skyriver IT Consulting is to professionalize the IT services business. We take ownership of our clients’ IT infrastructure, so they can focus on what they do best. If you would like to discuss how Skyriver IT could ensure your IT infrastructure supports your business goals, contact us at (858) 812-9322 or visit our web site at www.SkyriverIT.com

How to Ensure Your IT Supports Your Business Goals in 2012

A qualified CIO helps to translate the business strategy into IT infrastructure needs. Since most small and mid-sized businesses cannot afford a full-time CIO, Skyriver IT provides part-time CIO Consulting Services.

Do you frequently feel that your relationship with your IT staff is too adversarial? Business managers see information technology as an expense to be minimized. IT staff think that there is not enough investment in “critical” infrastructure. In leaner years, the gap seems to only widen.

For example, have you ever had your IT staff tell you that your 3-year-old backup system is inadequate or outdated? That you need to invest several thousand dollars and many man-hours to get something that will meet your business needs. You wonder if the IT folks are just paranoid, or if this is really critical? And if it is critical, does the solution need to be so expensive? It can be very confusing and frustrating.

It doesn’t have to be this way! All that is needed, in most cases, is an interpreter — someone who can:

1.    Help the IT team translate the business goals into IT infrastructure needs and define what are the right IT investments to move the business forward
2.    Help business managers to understand the risk-reward implications of potential IT investments

CIO as Interpreter
At large companies, it is the Job of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to act as an interpreter between IT and senior management. The CIO helps to translate the business strategy into IT infrastructure needs. However, small and mid-sized businesses cannot afford a full-time CIO. That is why CIO services can be beneficial for many businesses who only need a CIO for several hours a month, at most.

With CIO Services, you can:
•    Feel confident about which IT investments support your business goals
•    Make better IT choices around which technologies will work for your business (e.g. Salesforce.com vs. SugarCRM)
•    Understand the total cost of a technology investment
•    Get your IT staff to support your business goals

In order to make 2012 the year your IT supports your business goals, consider investing in CIO Services. A small up-front investment can mean the difference between IT that supports your business goals and IT that thwarts your business goals.

About Skyriver IT
Our mission at Skyriver IT is to professionalize the IT services business. We provide small and mid-size companies with the information they need to make better IT decisions. If you would like to discuss whether CIO Services could better align your IT investments with your business goals, call us at (858) 812-9322 or visit http://www.skyriverit.com/