Your business relies on technology and computing systems that are becoming more complex by the second. Trusting mission-critical systems to simple backups and upgrades is no longer enough. Many small to medium-sized businesses are finding themselves in need of a solid IT firm to manage their technology needs. Here are some tips to greatly increase the odds you choose the right IT consulting firm for your business.

Your business relies on technology and computing systems that are becoming more complex by the second. Trusting mission-critical systems to simple backups and upgrades is no longer enough. Many small to medium-sized businesses are finding themselves in need of a solid IT firm to manage their technology needs rather than relying on their "friend of a friend", or part-time computer technician. Here are some tips to greatly increase the odds you choose the right IT consulting firm for your business.

Determine your company’s high-level technology needs. Do you have any specific wants or needs, such as email, a website, or a server? Are you concerned about data security or disaster recovery plan? What is it about your significant business processes that can be improved on by technology? What kind of growth do you expect in the next 1-3 years and how will your current technology solution handle it? Is someone even helping you plan for this growth? These are the types of overarching questions you should consider before you consult with an IT firm. Having a list created is key to relating your desires to the IT firm and also provides good basis for a conversation that can be elaborated on. You may not be familiar with your technical options that exist so let your IT firm help you. The IT firm with which you contract should provide a technical assessment that identifies the current state of your technology and learns how it interacts with your day-to-day business functions. How can an IT firm support you in a cost effective manner if they are not familiar with your specific setup?

Make sure the IT firm you select has adequate resources. Your business probably needs 24/7, 365 day support. What does the IT firm have in place to accommodate this level of service? Do they proactively monitor? Do they have offer expedited service? Computers crash at the most inopportune times and your computing needs often do not take holidays. If you contract with a sole proprietor you will be putting your business operations and data at risk by relying on a single individual that can become ill, be out of town, etc. Making sure they are an established firm with a good track record of service to numerous clients is an invaluable, mandatory step in choosing your IT service provider.

Ask IT firms about their processes. Like any business, an IT firm should have established business processes and procedures on how they operate on a daily basis. If these core processes are non-existent then how will the IT firm bring any type of order to your chaos? During the initial meeting, a IT firm should be able to quickly describe their maintenance, repair, service, and support processes and show examples of documentation. Ask about their company’s philosophy, mission statement, and examples on how they practice that mission statement every day.

Check references and certifications. Ask potential IT companies for at least 3 corporate references and speak to them. Trust is a difficult asset to hand out to a new IT firm, so speak with someone who has already made the leap. You can also ask for a list of certifications such as Microsoft’s Gold-Certified program which assure the company has been through intensive training and quality control programs.

Evaluate the personalities. Ask to meet the folks in the company with whom you will have the most interaction. Are they condescending tech geeks or friendly and approachable professionals in whom you can trust. Remember these folks will have access to all your company data – choose carefully. You are looking to create a trusting relationship so make sure you like them!

Free Initial IT Meeting for Michigan Businesses

If you are a Michigan business, call Vision Computer Solutions at 248-349-6115 or visit our Michigan computer services website to setup a free initial meeting.

By Christine Slocumb Published: 1/31/2008 BusinessWeek names BCG Best Consulting Firm for Internships … BusinessWeek names BCG Best Consulting Firm for Internships Consultant News, UK 4 hour…   Read more… Microsoft Veterans Launch Unified Communications Consulting Firm … Microsoft veterans have launched a unified communications consulting firm to help customers m…   Read more…

Cashing On The Southeast Asian Freelance Market Trend

Freelancing your skills and talents is one of the most lucrative ventures today. You own your time, run at your own pace, and earn a huge amount of money. There are millions of online freelancers from all over the globe; and there are thousands of sites and providers who are willing to keep you for good. Today, the Southeast Asia freelance market trend is one of the most promising business arenas you could ever join.

Let us find out why.

Why Southeast Asia

Most of the online providers hire freelancers from various countries in Southeast Asia. Because the providers pay in dollars, euros or even Canadian money, many Asians are willing to work for foreign providers. The freelancers earn much money and the providers pay for a salary they can afford. For people in this career, the best relationship ever established was between the Western buyers and the Southeast Asians.

Staffing Up Versus Outsourcing

For most large companies, staffing up is both a waste of time and money. Employing hundreds of workers will only mean providing benefits and incurring additional costs. You have to pay for the office, the building construction, the services of the employee and even their health and insurance benefits. If the job is something that can be done or transacted over the Internet, a company can always hire home based workers to do the job. It will mean lesser expenses and fewer bonuses, especially during special holidays.

Outsourcing jobs is the best proven way to face the economical crisis in the world today. The freelancers work at home and save more time, effort and money. The foreign bosses hire people from Southeast Asian countries and expect the same quality work. Overall, the providers get topnotch results from the most credible people and at an affordable price.

Southeast Asian Freelancers At Singapore FreelanceZone – Review

If you wish to have both quality and affordable work, choose to outsource jobs at FreelanceZone.com.sg. You will find a heap of incredible people to work with at this site, and expect quality work at an affordable cost.

FreelanceZone.com.sg is originated from Singapore and currently one of the trusted Southeast Asian freelance markets. It is home to many skilled and talented workers who can provide the kind of output you need. And given the financial crisis troubling the rest of the world, there’s no better way to keep your business alive than to cut cost, without sacrificing quality.

By: Vanessa Arellano Doctor

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Vanessa Arellano Doctor from Phillipines Posted on behalf of Dovalize Pte Ltd.

There are many, many questions you need to ask, to find a good recruiter. Ask them the hard questions. After all, these are the people who are going to find the individuals who will drive your organisation forward. Would you give that task to just anyone? Ask them:

1. Will you personally run the campaign? Or will you play SWITCH?

Often senior sales people are sent in to reel you in, and then the actual job is passed onto a junior member of staff.

You must meet the person who will be handling your assignment. The destiny of your organisation depends on this person. This person determines the fate of your search. The tone of their voice, choice of words, and level of commitment will all affect the quality of candidates you receive.

You don’t want to be wooed by the best front man, only to be left with a blue-eyed two-dimensional MBA to pick up the pieces of your search. Don’t allow a switch to take place (slick front man to wet behind the ears MBA).

2. How long have you been in the trenches (i.e. how long have they been consulting?)

Recruitment might seem easy, but it isn’t. It takes a long time to learn well. It is fundamentally simple to describe its processes, and seems easy because so much is ‘common sense’. But high level skills take time to develop: through practical experience of the hundreds of issues that can come up, and focused training. Turnover in the industry is very high, with many only staying in recruiting for less than a year. Make sure your recruiter is not one of these who have less than twelve months of experience, otherwise you may be paying for it dearly later.

3. What is your industry experience?

You need someone who regularly recruits in your field. The alternative is that they learn about it at your expense. Are they knowledgeable on market trends and remuneration advice? Up to speed on the technical aspects of your field? Ask which organisations and positions are the most likely sources for your particular need. Ask to see whom they have on file prior to beginning work on the Search, and the type of information they hold on them. Ask who their contacts are in your particular industry sector – good contacts provide two critical aspects – informal reference checks and opinions. Ask them to discuss the main strategic issues affecting your business and industry sector, and to give you an overview of the main competitors.

The best way by far to effectively assess expertise is to arrange to meet at short notice and address the questions above. It may seem tough – but you will be able to establish if they are starting with a broad base of understanding and information. Why would you want to waste your time training them, and add more risk into your recruitment?!

Ask them to be clear about what similar roles they have hired for, if they have experience in this area and who for. Also, when they most recently hired in this area? You need to be assured that they have current knowledge. Ask them if they can show you a list of similar roles – this one really sorts them out! Especially if you don’t give them much notice. However, you cannot expect to keep the list…!

4. What salary range is right for this position?

This is a very powerful indicator of whether they know what is going on ‘out there’, in your field. Knowing the salary range will also help you define the type of person you are seeking more clearly.

5. Where will they look for the highest quality candidates?

Ask the recruiter what sort of organisations they will look in for your prime candidates. This question will further demonstrate the consultant’s knowledge of your sector and is critical to the process.

6. Can they give you references?

Warning bells should ring loud and clear if you get fobbed off on this question. It is a real danger sign. You need to check all references carefully.

To get the rest of this free article and other free resources on this topic, visit http://www.abacusrecruit.com.au/library-of-articles/39-testimonial-article/94-hiring-a-recruiter.

By: TobyMarshall

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Toby Marshall is an active speaker on the international conference circuit. His mission: To give all companies, no matter how few employees they have, the information and expert help they need to do their own recruitment and selection and find great new staff. You can get more resources at www.abacusrecruit.com.au

The Top Outsourcing Companies in India

The article lists the top ten Indian outsourcing company and throws light on their credentials.

The Top Outsourcing companies in India

The concept of outsourcing having acquired the corporate look in the year 1980 orchestrates the borrowing of services from the supplier under a contractual agreement and this phenomenon usually includes the non-core operations for the outsourcing clients.The outsourcer benefits by utilizing the outsourced services at a much lower costs than incurred by the firm’s own conduct of operations or services and redirecting its energy towards firm’s other businesses to capture the product market. The Indian IT companies have emerged as the hot IT outsourcing destination especially for the countries like U.K. and U.S. India having a huge knowledge base coupled with low costs of labor enticed the offshore companies.

The Indian outsourcing companies who have surfaced in the list of top ten globally have been operating on well-defined business models and by clearly strategizing their services. The Indian companies who have figured in the top ten on the global level include Wipro, Infosys and Tech Mahindra.. Although, IBM was the first to be listed according to the data released by IOAP, (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) IBM has been recognized on the basis of its size and growth. Among the Indian companies, Wipro has occupied a Sixth position based on the attribute of company’s balanced strength, while Infosys could grab the seventh position by displaying customer testimonials. But listng only the top ten Indian companies will have Wipro on the first position, Satyam being second and Cognizant at the third place. Infosys, Patni, TCS, HCL, Genpact, Tech Mahindra and Mastek being the descendants after the three most Indian IT biggies. These IT companies who figure in the top ten have been estimated on the basis of employee performance, corporate leadership and customer satisfaction among other key attributes. It has been pretty difficult to rate these companies as no company came out clear with all the key features in entirety and every company has been rated on the basis of its unique attribute. For example, Mastek stood at number one when rated on the basis of newer technologies and invention otherwise it occupied position eleven. Wipro has been a pioneer in providing the outsourcing services and has become the hot shot among the US buyers. Wipro has delivered the BPO services to the banking and insurance to hospitality and telcom sectors. Other services like knowledge, HR services and manufacturing too were rendered. The services were merged together to call Wipro Consulting Services. Satyam has been the first E-sourcing company and has been favourite among the Indian as well as foreign clientage. Genpact is the other BPO giant who in conjuction with NIIT will set up training centers in major cities of India.

What made these Indian companies to be the hot IT outsourcing destinations:

• Software development solutions: These include custom and medical software development.

• Custom Application Solutions: These include Custom Software solutions along with Mobile Application. Web Application Solutions: Ecommerce, Internet, Web and Net application form part of these.

• Offshore Outsourcing solutions: These may include offshore product development and also software development.

• Other Miscellaneous solutions: These solutions may figure out software testing, software migration, porting of an application to database application development.

Worth mentioning, India is much ahead of the other countries as far as the outsourcing is concerned which is reflected from the emerging global competition where China and Russia are the first time honouraries in the outsourcing list of IOAP.

By Jaya Sinha Published: 8/7/2008

Big Four companies – Top ten U.S. Consulting firms. Vault suggests that Technology & Consulting are the prime markets for Big Four companies.

It should come as no surprise that the top ten consulting firms in the US contain significant Big Four representation. Of the top ten, four of the firms are Big Four companies (or have their roots in Big Four companies), and three of them are in the top five.

Enlarge Image

Deloitte Consulting clearly is realizing its goals to transform itself into a world-class consulting organization. Less recognized than its audit and tax counterpart, Deloitte & Touche, Deloitte Consulting makes up for its lack of brand recognition with powerful consulting services and significant industry expertise.

Also represented in the top ten are Accenture, BearingPoint, and CapGemini. Accenture and BearingPoint continue to be powerhouses in the technology consulting space, and Accenture has made significant strides in the outsourcing market.

Vault.com, an employment and recruiting website that analyzes hiring trends, announced the top consulting firms in the US.

The top firms include:

1. Booz Allen Hamilton – McLean, VA

2. Deloitte Consulting LLP – New York, NY

3. IBM Global Services – Armonk, NY

4. Accenture – New York, NY

5. BearingPoint – McLean, VA

6. Cap Gemini – New York, NY

7. HP Technology Solutions – Palo Alto, CA

8. DiamondCluster International, Inc. – Chicago, IL

9. Telcordia Technologies – Piscataway, NJ

10. Keane – Boston, MA

Big Four representation
Exclusive Big4 professionals website

By Thomas Johansmeyer Published: 10/7/2005

The right strategies

Marketing a service or product is a very complicated business in itself, especially since we’ve entered the information technology age. Now companies have to know about consulting internet marketing services be aware of online marketing consulting implement email marketing consulting, web marketing consulting and a whole raft of other marketing tactics. Which is the reason that has led to the emergence of what is known as marketing consulting companies in the worldwide marketplace of today? The days are gone when the product manufacturing company did their own marketing. These days the services of marketing consulting specialists are used more and more by companies. These marketing consulting firms not only allow the manufacturers to enter newer and more evolved markets, but can advise the company on the right strategy to present their products.

Traditional logic demands a company should keep close within its own confines, all of its marketing strategy consulting activities.

But some forward thinking manufacturers in the last century, started to realized that outsourcing the overhead of marketing, to specialists, would free them up to concentrate and manage their core competence – which of course was designing, developing and manufacturing the product. At the same time, equally shrewd marketing professionals realized that this was an opportunity to generate more business and commissions, if they re-invented themselves as marketing consulting companies. The two ideas came together and haven’t looked back since!

Sustainable revenue

The product sphere is now a highly specialized area and this was a trend that was bound to happen. Companies need to concentrate on research and development activities to continually make better and still better products if they want to stay in front of the pack. If research and development activities are using a large proportion of their funds, then for actual marketing activities that doesn’t leaves a lot of money, time or effort. But of course unless a company markets its products, business reality being what it is it will be unable to generate sustainable revenue for its continual existence. So this is where the professional marketing consulting companies enter the scene.

Everyone benefits

Marketing consulting services companies of today have had to expanded there range of marketing services to include internet marketing consulting services, search marketing consulting and becoming more and more important is affiliate marketing consulting. The scope and extent of marketing consulting firms services continue to expand all the time. What started out as being relatively simple outfits specializing in the marketing of services and goods, have today become companies that use the power of technology to turn marketing from an art to a science. But as everyone benefits, nobody is going to complain to loudly.

Manage work flows

The way business is conducted has changed fundamentally for companies and people, ever since information technology became so important. For most companies enlisting the advice of an IT Consulting Firm has become a necessity and just about all companies have employed some kind of computer consulting in the IT age. To manage their work flows, processes and so on, before the immense importance of IT, companies had to depend on the assistance provided by their electronic instruments and their own limited knowledge. The internet companies in order to do business since the arrival of the computer age have to depend on the services of an IT Consulting Company in order to survive, let alone to prosper.

Enabling business between companies

An IT consulting company in US over time had to change from being just an enabler of processes and IT Systems to becoming a technology and process enabler. The scope and nature of an IT Consulting Firm has undergone an immense change. A typical IT Consulting Company today is involved in enabling business between different companies. As an IT Consulting Firm of course it has its own services and products, but in its function as an IT Consulting Company, it advices other companies how to get the most out of their processes, systems and capabilities to maximise their profit for themselves and their investor. Of course there also exists IT staffing consulting company to advise and get you the best IT staff.

Today’s world

In the world of today, this is the function of most IT Consulting Companies. With the direction that Computer Consulting is moving, this will be the role for all IT Consulting Companies for a long time to come and don’t forget IT these days is integrated into an IT consulting company marketing plan. There are many IT consulting firms throughout the world today, with the majority based in the US which a simple web search will show, but interestingly there is a seemingly large concentration of IT consulting company los angeles. Doing a search such as 100 company consulting IT top should get you a good choice. Man advanced from the mechanical age to the industrial age to the IT age. If smokestacks were the architectural landmarks of the mechanical age, factories the landmarks of the industrial age, then the IT Consulting Company surely will be the defining landmark of the IT age. May be interesting to find out why there seems to be a large concentration of IT consulting company losangeles. Another article maybe.

EDI integration is being used by more and more companies

Most industries including warehouses, banking, engineering, transportation, medicine, and many more have had EDI standards for communications developed for them. There exist just two key sets of EDI standards. ANSI ASC X12 which is used throughout the world and North America and the United Nations recommended UN/EDIFACT which is the only international standard. The EDI translation software allows businesses to freely exchange electronic data. It says what size each piece of data can be, what data enters and in what order. It documents the type of data, whether the data is only numeric, only characters, or a combination of the two. The EDI solution also documents which data is and isn’t required. In other words it gives the rules for the documents structure thereby allowing an electronic data interchange transmission to be tested for completeness and accuracy.

What is an EDI translator?

Companies are often required to use an internet EDI solution when they do business with large corporations as many of these use internet EDI extensively. Using EDI standards is a growing element of business life for many smaller and medium size companies. In EDI consulting terminology organizations that send and receive data electronically via EDI van are known as trading partners. All trading partners will get together and agree which EDI mapping transactions to transmit and then each trading partner will map their businesses precise requirements, processes, databases etc to the EDI mapping data. To make sure they are implementing the EDI software requirements and standards correctly many large businesses have experienced and trained EDI software experts. These experts are usually responsible for maintaining their internal EDI translation software systems, handling the EDI translation software transmissions of current trading partners and interfacing new trading partners as the EDI standard continue to evolve and grow.

EDI outsourcing is a growing solution

The advantages of the EDI solution are numerous and include time saving, data tracking ability, a paperless system and of course ultimately this leads to a considerable cost saving. The only possible disadvantage to the EDI mapping standard is the initial setup cost as the time to train, implement and customise can add up but this can negated to a large part by using EDI outsourcing or an EDI consulting company . Also of course this is another situation which is ripe for our old friends the IT consulting company who can provide EDI outsourcing and EDI training and experts to companies who do not have the necessary experience or manpower to manage or setup EDI van communications. For smaller companies who have a need for electronic data interchange c communications with some of their business partners, there are user friendly interfaces available to the use of EDI translation software.

Who is the best business consulting expert to ask about your business? Who is the best business consulting expert to improving your website’s appeal, your sales copy and ultimately your marketing’s effectiveness? Well the answer may surprise you and no, it’s not a business consulting marketing services company either, or some so called guru and definitely not your gut feeling. No the only real expert on your business is your customers, your visitors to your website. These are the only experts you should listen to all of the time. What these experts do on your website shows you their opinions. All you need to do is listen to them.

Should I hire a business consulting service

What’s that? I hear you say, listen!! Ok let us say you want to know the best opening sentence for your sales copy. You could employ the services of a business consulting company or pay an internet marketing consulting service to write your copy for you or you could simply write 2 versions and try each one, then listen to your experts they will tell you the best one by what sells the most. What about the pricing of your latest downloadable creation I’m sure all business consulting firms can do an analysis of your competitor’s products and can explain to you all about pricing theory with 7 or 9’s in the price (Usually $67, $77 etc make more sales). So you could employ a business consulting company or you could just test a number of different price points and see which one gives you the best profitability. Or maybe you want to know what the best wording for your email newsletter is, again you could use a business consulting company or an email marketing consulting specialist but you could also write 2 versions just changing say the first line only and sending one to one half of your list and the other to the other half. Listen to your experts then the next week take the winning copy and change one small piece and repeat. The process is to test, test and test again your customers will answer all your questions.

Most internet businesses waste 90% of their visitors

You know if you could take the time to test just 8 elements per month for the next 6 months and only 50% actually increased your sales. That’s 24 improvements if each only increased sales by 0.1% that’s a 2.4% increase. Tell me if you website has a 1000 visitors a day and I said I could increase your conversion rate by 2.4% in the next 6 months what would that mean to your profit. Remember I’m not talking about increasing your traffic just about getting more of your existing traffic into your pocket. Most website actually covert badly about 1% so just a 2.4% increase would nearly triple your sales. So many internet businesses spend a fortune on search optimization to get lots of traffic then chuck 90% of the fish back in the internet sea.

A business consulting service could save you time and money

Don’t get me wrong I am not telling you not to engage a business consulting service or an internet marketing consulting service because these guys got to be experts by spending many years studying the results of testing, testing and testing over and over again all of the different parts to the puzzle. Remember that all websites are different so all good consulting business companies will tell you to test, test and test again. But if your time is in short supply by hiring a business consulting service you could save yourself time and money in the long term. So as we said at the beginning the real expert on your business is your website visitors and customers all you have to do is LISTEN!!!

Web e-commerce is the silent revolution that’s happening on the Internet today. Yes I can hear you laughing! What? Web ecommerce you say pull the other one. Yes I know it’s not exactly a new idea. Fact is web e-commerce has been on the web for as long as the existence of the web itself. But web ecommerce has only started to achieve its full potential in the last couple of years. Hey! Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the tremendous potential of web ecommerce. It is now positioned to grow and increase its market share from what is already a multi billion dollar industry.

Dot com boom days

Remember the dot com boom days of the internet, well that was when Web ecommerce made its first appearance. Everybody! And I mean everybody who had a presence in the online and offline business scene began to set up web ecommerce sites unfortunately they and nobody else had any real idea of the internets actual potential. These first pioneers, if you can call them that, made wild predictions of the incredible success that their web ecommerce sites would have based purely on the booming rate at which the Internet was expanding. The problem was they didn’t have the wherewithal or just as importantly the expertise to make web e-commerce succeed. So web e-commerce just crumbled under the fanciful claims, in fact at that time almost every prediction of Internet success was hyper inflated. Web ecommerce sites were very hard hit, when the bubble burst, and this was the last we would see of them the so called experts predicted.

Out of the ashes

Dead! No! Web ecommerce was far from dead! As both technology and businesses matured in the next couple of years, the first concept to make a comeback on the internet was web e commerce and what a spectacular comeback it has been. Thirty percent of all services and goods traded in the United States of America are traded through web ecommerce. This is an estimate from the analysts of some of the largest consulting company groups. You don’t need to look under many rocks to see the growth of web e-commerce. Just have a look at your own activities online. The source of your music, the books you purchase, and increasingly the products you shop for, are powered by web e-commerce whether they are technology or otherwise related. The United States of America is not alone in this trend. This is a global trend and shows no signs of abating!

Ecommerce web site design

Of course web ecommerce has seen new businesses spring up to service this revolution like: ecommerce web site design, ecommerce web hosting and even free ecommerce web site hosting. But today’s web ecommerce isn’t just about the internet or just a substitute to traditional methods of business. It is the new commercial revolution that sees day by day more and more new participating users. Really, since the Internet was born, web ecommerce was always going to be a success. I mean what could be more convenient, comfortable and accessible doing all your business directly from the comfort of your own computer screen? Adding fuel to the viability of Web e commerce is the increasing advancements in Internet security giving everybody much more confidence.

Yahoo, Google, Amazon and even eBay

Yahoo, Google, Amazon and even eBay are purely internet based businesses and owe all their success to the concept of web e-commerce. They have become profitable sources of commercial activity and web e commerce is the reason these businesses have come into existence. With the demand for web e commerce by people like us and going by these companies track record, the future can only have healthy prospects in store!