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DEMAND™ driven IT solutions that allow our clients to capitalize on technology for business benefits which increase productivity thus decreasing costs.

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Topics

What is IT? Core vs. Context Planning & Design/TCO IT Policies Communication/Collaboration Software Hardware Data/Technology Questions Regulations Internet Access Websites Support Who is Trivalent

IT (Information Technology) can either provide your business with a competitive edge or can be a large expense.

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What is IT (Information Technology)?

Wikipedia defines IT as: “Information technology (IT) or information and communication technology (ICT)

is the technology required for information processing. In particular, the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store,

protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information from anywhere, anytime.”

Is your business IT (core), or does it help run your business (context)?

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Core Crit icalWhat is unique to the business

What does the business DO, or MAKE

i.e. The Differentiator

Context Crit icalWhat must be done to create or perform the core

Ex. Materials Handling

Core SupportMust be done, but adds no value to the Core. If done wrong can hurt the business.

Ex. Logistics

Context SupportEverything else that businesses do, and have to do, but these things do not add value.

Ex. Facilities Maintenance

Core

Context

Outsource

Support

Critical

Partner

Co-sourceProduce

“What truly differentiates you from your competitors is the core of your business”

Core vs. Context

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Growing and evolving as a business requires change. Most, if not all, businesses today are supported by technology which must also change and evolve to keep up with the needs of the business. As these changes in technology occur, technology departments find it hard to maintain the disparity that is created – not to mention the data that is piling up.

In fact, industry analyst Gartner estimates that 60-80% of your technology department’s time, budget and people are spent on this disparity.

Planning and Design

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TCO, ROI and other TLAs (3 letter acronyms)

• TCO -Total Cost of Ownership

• Refers to the cost of ownership including the purchase price, maintenance, renewals, support costs, updates, etc.

• This is very important to understand as there may be hidden costs or “gotchas” in the form of warranties, maintenance plans, software renewals, updates etc.

• ROI – Return on Investment

• Refers to what returns or value will you receive from your investment.

• Often decisions to buy technology systems are not properly evaluated based on what value they will bring to the business

• Technology ROI is often difficult to determine because it is a “soft” value – i.e. how much more productive are the employees if they use this software

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Acceptable Use of Technology: Guidelines for the use of computers, fax machines, telephones, internet, email, and voicemail and the consequences for misuse.

Security: Guidelines for passwords, levels of access to the network, virus protection, confidentiality, and the usage of data.

Disaster Recovery: Guidelines for data recovery in the event of a disaster, and data backup methods.

IT Policies

Technology Standards: Guidelines to determine the type of software, hardware, and systems will be purchased and used at the company, including those that are prohibited (for example, instant messenger or mp3 music download software).

Network Set up and Documentation: Guidelines regarding how the network is configured, how to add new employees to the network, permission levels for employees, and licensing of software.

IT Services: Guidelines to determine how technology needs and problems will be addressed, who in the organization is responsible for employee technical support, maintenance, installation, and long-term technology planning.

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Communication/Collaboration

How will your employees communicate? Email, Messenger, Cell phones, Blackberry or Smartphone, VoIP, Standard phones?

Will you network your computers?

How will you store and protect the data that is created?

Who do you call when there is a problem?

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Software is one of the most critical components in any IT decision. Software decisions should always precede hardware decisions.

When looking at software, also check to see what support is available and at what cost. Is the application critical to your business operation? If so, then timely support is a necessity.

Software

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Hardware is a loose term today to describe the physical device that software runs on.

Hardware can be: desktop pc’s, notebooks, Thin Clients, PDA’s, and Smartphones.

Hardware can also describe network electronics such as; switches, routers, storage devices (SAN, NAS, Tape), firewalls, etc.

Support is also important here as well. What is covered under the warranty? Is the warranty with a major manufacturer? Who will perform the work?

Hardware

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Data

Storage capacity grows at over 50-60% per year while performance improves at less than 10% per year.

Regulations/compliance force companies to keep more reference materials than ever.

All businesses have electronic information (data)

Lost data can result in thousands of dollars in lost revenue or lost productivity

Data protection is a very important consideration – not only do businesses need to back up their data, they also need to be prepared in the event that their software or hardware fails

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What is the average time to restore one server after a hardware failure?

Q.

hint: 3-5 days

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• Do you store all information the same?

• Would you treat a $100 bill the same as $1?

Technology Questions

Level 2 – Storage State Questions

• When is the last time you tried to restore?

• How are your tapes stored, secured, transported?

• How long would it take to recover?

• What is your disaster recovery plan?

• How many files on your computer are unused?

• Does your industry have archive requirements?

• Do you know what storage is costing you?

• What would happen if you lost X?

• Who else in your organization cares?

(you might be surprised)

Level 1 – Information Value

Level 3 – Recovery Questions

Level 4 – Commitment

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Regulations That Exist

The HIPAA law, also known as the Kennedy-Kausbaum Act or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, was designed to protect health insurance for workers and families when they change or lose their jobs. HIPAA also covers medical record security and privacy.

Applies to all sizes of business

Applies to any types of business that handles Patient Health Information (PHI)- insurance, medical, rehab, etc.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as SOX, was designed to cover issues such as establishing a public company accounting oversight board, auditor independence, corporate responsibility and enhanced financial disclosure. It was designed to review the dated legislative audit requirements, and is considered one of the most significant changes to United States securities laws since the New Deal in the 1930s.

Currently applies only to Publicly held companies

May apply to organizations who obtain funding from Governmental agencies.

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Internet Access can come in the form of: direct connection (T1), DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), Cable modem, Wireless, Telephone and Power Lines.

You should never connect to the internet without: a quality firewall in place, updated anti-virus software, and an updated anti-spyware application running.

If you are using email, anti-spam software is highly recommended as well.

Internet Access

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All businesses, regardless of size, should have a web presence.

This presence could be as simple as: who you are, where are you located, what are your hours of operation, and how can people contact you.

If you list an email address, people will expect a response within 24 hours during the business week and by Tuesday if sent over the weekend.

Websites consist of multiple components you must have the following: Domain Name (www.xyz.com), A hosting company or a server if you are hosting yourself, Security, Ecommerce package if you are selling online, website developer, key words for search engines, and many more…

Websites

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Support is the most important aspect of any IT deployment.

Products may seem to be getting easier to use from the end user’s perspective. However, behind the scenes the products have become more and more complex.

When you are searching for support, ask these questions; How long have you been in business? How many Certif ied Professionals do you have? In what Certifications? What are your rates? What is your general response time, call back/onsite?

Support

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Trivalent stands for the bonding of three integral components

“We believe that by bonding the relationships between our cl ients, the services we provide and best of breed business partners we provide the value you DEMAND”

Larry Andrus, CEO

Our ClientsOur Clients

Our PeopleOur People

Our PartnersOur Partners

Who is Trivalent Group

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Data ManagementServices

AssessmentServices

EngineeringServices

DEMAND™ Driven Services

Design

ManagedServices

NetworkServices

Growing and evolving as a business requires change. Most, if not all, businesses today are supported by technology which must also change and evolve to keep up with the needs of the business. As these changes in technology occur, technology departments find it hard to maintain the disparity that is created – not to mention the data that is piling up. In fact, Gartner estimates that 60-80% of your technology department’s time, budget and people are spent on this disparity.

FOCUS your technology department on their strengths, and offload the rest of the responsibilities and your business will grow more efficiently, you will spend less money and have greater control over your technology assets.

Trivalent Group’s DEMAND™ Driven Services are here to help. By leveraging our comprehensive services associated with each of our business groups, your company benefits from a single source for all the technology products and services your business needs to excel.

Design and architecture of networks, infrastructure, security, directory services and the like

Professional services including network engineering, project management, break fix, monitoring and more…

Technology outsourcing, ongoing management, ASP, Co-location, hosting, Disaster Recovery, Help Desk

Consulting and assessment services for security, network health, directory services, storage and data management

LAN, WAN, ISP, provisioning, management, monitoring, point to point, VPNs, Telephony

Design and architecture of storage networks, backups, ILM, HSM, archiving, data protection

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>>>beyond the network

Q & A