If only we could do things better, cheaper, faster! If only we could compete with the big outfits! Most small business managers have at least a vague IT wish list or aspirations. Day to day concerns, however, like chasing new business or old debts, tend to eat up working time and clog up the thinking and planning process. It is also only fair to say that many if not most SMEs invested in ‘computerisation’ some years ago, are perhaps even in their second generation of a PC network, and it isn’t broken why fix it? Yet there is the nagging feeling that we could have better, smarter systems and a more productive and competitive business – if we had the time to look into it, knew what was right for us and could afford it all.
Built from the bottom up
That is exactly the management mind set that Microsoft has been aiming at with it Small Business Server software suite for over six years and three progressive editions. It is common to SME managers in every country and culture who face the same problems and challenges. “That is why SBS was developed from the bottom up, based on research and examination of what smaller businesses actually need, rather than being the kind of squeezed down, light version of enterprise software that is common in so many business applications.” Paul Mason is senior group manager with Microsoft Ireland, looking after the SME market, and is happy to boast that SBS is showing the fastest growth of any Microsoft operating system in recent years. He is also happy to concede that, like Microsoft Office, a huge part of its market appeal is the sheer comprehensiveness of what comes in the box. “The whole basis of SBS is to give its users the ability to punch above their weight. There is no limited functionality. SBS users have the same tools as people in Boeing or Microsoft itself or hundreds of other major multinationals.”
User-friendliness and affordability
Ease of installation and use were top of the objectives list as Microsoft developed SBS because in all markets small business seldom has in-house technical staff or even tech-savvy users. Pricing was and is also a major part of the strategy to drive market adoption by making the investment come within the financial reach of even the smallest business. “The whole point of IT is to improve productivity for the individual, the team and the business,” says Paul Mason. “SBS aims to do that and make the experience easier and more satisfying for the user. People and their experience are the most valuable – and often scarce – commodity in the competitive environment of what one economist recently called our Tiger II economy. Good tools enable the business to do more with less resources – and add to the job satisfaction that holds on to good people.”
Reseller view
There are no reservations in the trade about SBS, with long established resellers and systems houses such as Datapac recommending it wholeheartedly to their clients. “But like so many IT products, it can only deliver what it has been set up properly to deliver,” says Larry Banville, general manager, Datapac, Wexford. “This is a stable and robust system, developed over three generations and great value. But getting the best out of it means matching it with appropriate hardware and broadband Internet access. For most of our clients that has meant a fresh start with new platforms and a clear-sighted thinking through of all of their systems investment. But then they are effectively future-proofed for at least three years or so – probably as far ahead as any smaller business can look.”
Installation issues
Any business with a green field site, say a start-up or a move to a new office, will find SBS a relatively straightforward step to take technically, according to Cillian Hogan, IT consultant, Totality Solutions. “It is considerably more demanding to install SBS over an existing network configuration, in essence because SBS wants to control everything on one server and there are technical issues in incorporating existing settings of various kinds and having a back-up server. In fact, there is a touch of ‘all your eggs in one basket’ so data security and back-up – for which SBS provides quite well – become even more important. Certainly the quality of your hardware has to be very high. ” On the other hand, he points out, it offers great value for money and there are features such as remote working which it would be technically difficult and expensive to do in other ways. Similarly, SBS provides a technical support company with strong remote access features to maintain the network, set up new users or applications, troubleshoot and fix problems quickly and cost-effectively.
Smarter IT is a necessity
The reality is that most SMEs have limited management resources. They need the best functionality in their IT systems that they can achieve but have neither the time nor the interest in the nuts and bolts of the technology to delve deeply. Larry Banville says his approach to them with SBS is simply: “Tell us what you want to do and we’ll tell you what the system can do and set it up for you. We’ll also tell you the things you could do – and you’ll want those too!”
What’s in the box?
The current Small Business Server 2003 features :
Windows Server 2003 : network operating system with security tools including firewall and virus protection, systems performance, back-up, fax service, etc.
Windows SharePoint Services : internal team website for sharing diaries, tasks, documents, etc.
Exchange Server 2003 : business-wide email system including remote access over the Web/
Office Outlook 2003 : unified management of e-mail, scheduling, messages, contacts, etc. for better team collaboration.
Shared Fax : send and receive faxes from any PC.
Office FrontPage 2003 : Website development, management and customised solution for SharePoint applications.
SQL Server : high spec professional database to underpin many line of business applications.
SBS provides for company-wide Internet access, centrally controlled and protected, and the client applications for each user to enjoy all the functionality whether on desktop or laptop PC. It should be emphasized that SBS is optimised to work with other Microsoft applications, notably Office. However, it also functions with all other software that runs on Windows, such as accounts and vertical industry sector applications.
The costs
Small Business Server costs €1,400 for the ‘retail’ edition for five users, effectively a maximum since many companies will be buying pre-installed from a reseller. This is the Premium version with all of the applications, but in practice, few SMEs will be interested in the Standard edition which is essentially just the server and network operating system. Each additional user incurs a licence fee of €75, reducing in various special deals as the user base heads towards the 75 maximum.
However, although wizard-driven installation and set-up directly by technically competent users is perfectly feasible – in fact SBS is designed for it – in practice all experts recommend professional set-up initially.
This obviates later problems and also ensures that all or most of the features are actually available to and properly set up for the users. Firewalls and other security elements, for example, really require expertise to configure well and other applications, like email and remote access privileges, pose tricky decisions that need experience. That may cost as much again as the software, or even more, but it should be regarded as an essential part of the investment and there may well be economies of scale since the number of users is less significant.
“Assuming a complete technology refresh is part of moving to SBS, we would suggest a budget of €15,000 to €20,000,” says Larry Banville of Datapac. “That would include a smart network server, high spec PCs, complete set-up of SBS for the network and each user and the migration of existing applications to the new platform. In practice, you are talking about a four or five day project, which almost always involves overtime and weekend work for technicians because businesses need to minimise downtime.” Those rough figures are for the initial five-user set-up but he points out that the set-up element of those costs would be much the same for, say, 10 users except for the additional licence fees.
SBS and broadband Internet access
There is one issue with SBS that should be understood: it was designed to function with always-on broadband Internet connectivity and much of its most valuable functionality is bound up with that. So many Irish SMEs around the country, where broadband is just becoming available, may find themselves making the dual decision. However, if broadband is not yet available it has to be emphasised that although SBS will in fact work with dial-up Internet access (ISDN or even modem) the expert consensus is that the potential value of the investment is greatly reduced.
SBS User View
The Tallaght Echo
Matching the growth of the Dublin suburb it was set up to serve in 1981, the Tallaght Echo is now one of the largest weekly regional newspapers in Ireland with a circulation of over 70,000. Privately owned by founders David and Liz Kennedy, it is a high quality colour paper printed by the new Irish Times press in neighbouring Citywest. Staffing reached the current level of 30 last year and it was already obvious that the company’s IT systems were really out of date and not up to the full range of tasks required.
Journalists and photographers had to return to the office to file stories, for example, since there were no remote log-on capabilities. “Essentially we had been struggling on for the previous few years with assorted equipment and systems that had really just grown up over time,” says David Kennedy. “But there were mismatches in all sorts of areas, ongoing problems and the inability to provide new functionality – such as remote working – that we knew we needed. It had reached a stage where the systems were no longer contributing to the efficiency of the company – downtime was a frequent occurrence – and were becoming a barrier to development and growth.” Key problem areas included the performance of the outdated network server, recurring virus and security issues despite implementation of anti-virus software and the need for a much more effective back-up and archive system for the company’s critical files – notably the issue by issue archives.
Like most publishing houses in this electronic age, these large files add hundreds of megabytes to the data storage every issue. The company looked for competitive proposals from a number of potential suppliers, both for supply and implantation of new systems and for ongoing support and maintenance. “We took over two months on the selection process and then went with Ergo Services,” recalls David Kennedy. “Yet in fact the actual changeover to the new systems, after everything had been planned and agreed, took place seamlessly over a weekend!” After a thorough review – ‘dissection’ David Kennedy calls it – of the Tallaght Echo’s existing systems and current and future needs, Ergo implemented a completely new network infrastructure.
That involved a replacement high performance server, a new back-up and file retrieval system and 14 new top of the range PCs. Microsoft Small Business Server provides a stable and secure network platform that inherently manages critical elements of the business needs such as email, remote log-on, security including firewall and anti-virus and back-up. All users have been equipped with the latest Microsoft Office applications. Other existing applications, such as accounts, were successfully transferred to the new operating system as the project was completed in July 2004. “In one sense we have not really noticed the transition – it takes a while to realise the absence of problems!” says David Kennedy. “But we appreciated the new functionality straight away.” He points especially to Remote Web Workplace, a feature that enables staff to work remotely, viewing sections of the paper in production and filing copy, as if they were at their own desks. “We were over in New York just a couple of weeks ago and it was easy to log on and catch up on what was happening in any aspect of the business.”
That remote working feature also enables Ergo to provide a network management service in addition to the same-day hardware service in a three-year support contract. “We are now getting a bit more ambitious – a little more speed in some operations would be welcome, for example, because we put quite a load on the system on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as we finalise pages and send them to the printer. We are also looking at better management systems for the business itself and for customer relationships.” Return on investment? David Kennedy wonders how it could be measured in a relatively small business like the Tallaght Echo: “Most of the equipment and systems were probably overdue an upgrade anyway. We have certainly saved time and trouble, added new capabilities that have long since proven their worth and so on. The important thing is that we believe we have made a cost-effective investment in our future.”
29/03/09
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