How Will the Economy Impact on Your IT Over the Next 12 Months?
At Ziptech we are seeing 3 major trends emerging that are having an increasing impact on IT.
- Commodity prices are driving the price of hardware upwards
- It’s a case of “Survival of the Fittest”
- And IT support is an important part of running a fit business
Commodity Prices are Driving the Price of Hardware Upwards
We’ve all got so used to falling hardware prices that it’s a bit of a surprise to find them increasing. We’ve noticed over the last month or so that the price of PC’s and servers has increased by a surprisingly large amount – as much as 18% in some cases.
I can take an educated guess at the reasons ...
Obviously the oil price has had an impact. A lot of energy is used in the manufacture and delivery of PC’s and servers. Plus the plastics are made in part from oil. Then there are the metals, exotic and otherwise – commodity prices have increased hugely because of China’s growth. I’ve also noticed that some of the manufacturers “special deals” are a bit less special. I guess that reflects their tighter margins.
So if you purchased a server or a PC a few months ago, well judged, you got a great price.
It’s a Case of “Survival of the Fittest”
Coming up to the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s book “The Origin Of Species” it seems appropriate to write about economic Darwinism. Yes some SME’s are suffering, contracting or even going out of business, but the fittest and most positive continue to thrive.
Yes we have had clients who have contracted and a few who have gone out of business. But this is more than offset by growing clients and new clients. I’d like to share just a few of the most encouraging client success stories with you:
- Groomers – In the world of pet care Paula Bryan and Graham Searle have built an excellent reputation for Groomers. They have systematically invested in their IT and are in the process of implementing a new and fully integrated bar coding system to improve the quality of their service and to drive down transaction costs. In order to make this happen they plan to invest in a new server. If you have a pet treat them at www.groomers-online.com My own dog Jess has definitely benefited!
- Absolute Product – Absolute are growing their business in an interesting niche – the supply of gallery equipment and museum supplies. The two directors, Richard Samarasinghe and Sam Sprague, have invested in CRM and ordering systems to enable them to smoothly expand the businesses. They continue to sign up new agents and distributors on a worldwide basis. Their ongoing investment in the IT infrastructure and it’s smooth operation is allowing them to work on a global basis. www.absoluteproduct.com
- Active Learning – are a relatively new client providing exceptionally high quality child care and nursery education for children from 3 months to 5 years. IT is a core part of their business and even forms part of the curriculum for children – how many nurseries provide that kind of service! If you are a parent have a look at www.activelearningchildcare.co.uk
- Artis – Rebecca Boyle and Nigel Mainard boldly bought Artis from a larger parent and once unleashed have continued to invest in its success. IT is an important part of that success. Artis provides performing arts specialists to schools. You can find out more at www.artiseducation.com
These Ziptech clients, and many others, are bucking the economic conditions that we all read about in the newspapers every day. I find their stories very encouraging – despite what the press says, it’s not all doom and gloom out there. The fit healthy businesses continue to grow. I’m really pleased that Ziptech is working with excellent companies such as these.
I could add Ziptech to the list as well. Our business continues to grow each month as the number of clients that we support increases. This is mirrored by increasing investment in our business. We are still hiring and have another new member of the team starting soon. We also continue to invest in our support infrastructure – we made one of our biggest investments just last month.
And IT Support is an Important Part of Running a Fit Business
Despite these difficult times our business continues to grow. I believe that this is because IT Support is even more important in these difficult times. It’s even more important now that business owners and managers don’t have their time wasted with trivial, but incredibly time consuming IT trivia, when it could be quickly and more inexpensively resolved by an IT outsourcing company. This gives managers the time to focus on the bigger business challenges where their time is needed.
If you are not yet a Ziptech client then you should try our service to find out how you can benefit. I’m willing to give you 2 free hours of support time completely free of charge so that you can experience the benefits of a high quality professional IT support service. You can use it to fix a problem that you are having right now or for us to conduct an audit of your systems and to report back to you with the findings.
Even if you feel that you don’t need this offer right now we all know that IT is prone to go wrong at the worst possible times. That’s exactly when you could use our 2 hours, so register now so that you can use this 2 hour trial when you really need it.
If you want to test us now, request a system audit, or think your IT might have a problem we could help with in the next 6 months give me, Jim Simpson, a call on 0845 1233 942 and I’ll make sure that we are ready to help you.
Best regards
Jim Simpson
Managing Director
Ziptech Services
08451 233942
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Jim Simpson
Managing Director
Ziptech Services
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