Differentiators – Why IVDesk Wins for Clients Every Time!

Sometimes I forget that when we compete with a prospect’s current situation, whether that’s with a Manager Service provider or their internal staff, we actually provide a dramatic amount of other things they never could…

Disaster Recovery, Redundancy, Expertise, Scalability, Variable Cost IT, the list goes on and on!

eWorkplace Initiative Started in MN – Give your employee’s a raise!

Give Your Employees, and Yourself, a Raise with Telecommuting and Remote Access

Minnesota has started an eWorkplace Initiative focusing on increasing company’s bottom lines by encouraging remote workers and technologies that support remote offices, just like IVDesk! (www.eworkplace-mn.com)

Telecommuting is an employee benefit that your company should examine – especially with the rising cost of fuel.  Employers giving their employees the ability to telecommute can end up putting the employee’s gross wages back in to their employee’s pockets.  In addition, telecommuting and remote access can increase productivity across an entire organization – sometimes in very dramatic ways.

Consider this example:  with gas at $4/gallon, an employee with a commute longer than 15 miles each way to work could save $750/year.  The employee spends 1/2 hour in the car each way, and driving an inefficient vehicle they would see a savings of $8/day for the days they work from home, plus they gain the extra hour that they would normally spend commuting. If an employee were to do this twice a week, the annual savings are pretty staggering:

• More than $750 saved annually in fuel costs (not including automobile maintenance, parking, etc).
• More than 96 hours NOT spent in the car commuting to/from work.

Whether you double the efficiency of the vehicle or half the price of fuel, the math still works out to some dramatic time and cost savings for the employee.

From the employer’s perspective, allowing people to telecommute can contribute to employee retention and overall productivity.  If you examine a small company with 50 employees and assume that the average number of sick days that each employee takes each year is 3, this means that annually the company is losing 1200 hours of employee productivity to sick days.  If we were to assume that in 25% of these cases the employee was taking care of a sick child/family member or they wanted to work a 1/2 day, telecommuting would give more than 150 hours back to the company in time that they otherwise would have lost.

Implementing full remote access within you company could lead to some other huge benefits.  Allowing sales staff to work from home after meetings or after hours may decrease conversion times and increase sales – putting more money in everyone’s pockets.  Accounting and Law Firms that rely on revenue from billable hours will be surprised by the boost that full remote access can have to the bottom line – often times it is more than 50+ additional billable hours that these firms see from some employees.

Randy Olson provides companies with IVDesk, a completely hosted computer network solution that allows employees to work from everywhere, all without having to purchase any expensive hardware or software.

Contact information:  612.605.9677

Email:  rolson@ivdesk.com Website:  www.ivdesk.com.

Moving to the Cloud – How a Conversion Works with IVDesk – continued

Continued from previous Post

The Pilot runs for as long as needed.  With small clients it can be a day, with larger ones a week or more.  The goal is to get the applications tested and fix/adjust anything identified.  It’s a trial “Live” day and we treat it as such.  Support’s available for the users, the Pilot group has gone through IVDesk training, and everyone’s ready to go.  We check off applications as they’ve been tested and work through the details.

Once the Pilot is complete, we affirm the live cut-over date and schedule the cut-over items: Training for users, final setup of a secondary Internet connection, Email cut-over requirements, data migration/cut-over scheduling, etc.  Most of this occurs during the last week or so of the turn-up and is scheduled fairly tightly.  We do special things for Internet connection failover, large data migration, application data/database migration, and other items as needed.  Our focus is on a smooth cut-over timed best for the client.

Last couple of items to give you an idea about are the cut-over day and the first Live day.  We’ve gotten everyone though the straight-forward training and prep week, and have scheduled MX record cut-over time and are capturing live data copies.  Friday (usually) afternoon comes and we show up on site to touch each PC, do some basic clean up, finalize capture of user settings locally, data, favorites, etc., and get what we need.  For some server applications this can be very detailed.  We’re on site until we’ve got everything and then route the data and details to the data center.  This can be remote or via physical data moves as needed.

Over the weekend we import all the data, email, databases, etc. and have key Pilot users testing on Saturday.  Everything is there by now, all users a live, email’s flowing, and we’re just finalizing every desktop for each user.  We login as each user and go through an exhaustive setup of sets to insure that the first Live day will be good and solid for all users.  No one wants surprises.

Monday comes and we’re there with donuts/bagels when employees arrive.  We want to make sure that first experience is solid and answer questions as they arive.  We’ve tested everything by now but they’ll be a few small things that we address on site.  Depending on the size of the customer and complexity we may be there a few hours to a few days.  What ever is needed.  We want it smooth and will do what we need to to make sure it is.  Users can call the Helpdesk at any time or grab local staff while we’re there.

After the initial Live on-site time, users contact the Helpdesk by phone or email and get immediate help.  We can quickly shadow their sessions and work with any issues as they arrive.  We can help set users up at home or on the road (very easy) and are available when ever they need it.  At their finger tips…

That’s it.  Kinda detailed here but very smooth to our customers.  You can see a few talk about it on YouTube by searching for IVDesk and hearing it from their own experiences.  Not a lot to worry about, we Pilot everything, and our goal is to make it smooth.  Once a customer is up, things are very straight-forward for them.

Let us talk with you about getting out of the IT business and saving you time, capital, money, and your sanity!  Give us a call to talk about how we can help.

Thanks
Bill Sorenson
www.IVDesk.com
612-605-5461

Moving to the Cloud – How a Conversion Works with IVDesk

I thought it would be good to go over how a typical LAN/WAN Network environment moves to a Cloud Computing solution like IVDesk and how this goes smoothly.  This will help take some “fear” out of a conversion and show what we see as best practices that have been developed over the last 8 years of moving customer to the Cloud.

We start our process with a typical “Kick-off” meeting to gather details across the board.  This includes information on all applications in use, existing server hardware, Internet connections, existing network infrastructure, all vendors utilized support across the company, and existing user information.  This process helps document the current environment and provides a “Requirements” document and test plan basis for our Pilot phase.  If we know about it and run it we can test it.  Pretty straight-forward but starts to build on our process of documentation for the customer.  What’s running on what and where, who’s running it, where’s the data, databases, files and folders, and how’s it being managed today.

Our next step is an internal analytical process where we look at server applications and figure out virtualization in relation to how we want to run things.  Normally, the client isn’t involved here but our staff comes up with how each application will run, which will be on virtual servers, what will be physical servers, what will run on the desktops.  Again, pretty straight-forward but detailed.

Once the plan is complete and all the installation CDs, etc. have been gathered, we begin the process of building the environment for them.  We contact the large application vendors and review their migration documentation and strategies, talk with staff, etc., and document the process for each app.  Most of the time this is pretty straight-forward as each vendor has helped their customers move from older servers to new ones, so we’re no different.

At the same time we’re adding all the user information into AD, setting up security groups as needed, verifying email information and groups, and basically setting up the company.  This again is smooth as we’ve done it so many times.  Some applications have AD interaction so that gets setup as well. 

Next, we build the “Pilot” environment.  Setup desktop servers for users, VMs with applications, Physical servers as needed, and literally build the company’s IT infrastructure.  We take a backup copy of their local data and use it as a snapshot for the Pilot.  We verify basic application usage internally and setup the formal Pilot testing and validation, using the “Requirements” and test plan developed early on to make sure everything’s covered.  There will always be some straggling information or settings but this is handled during this Pilot phase.

Continued on next Post

Thanks
Bill Sorenson
www.IVDesk.com
612-605-5461

Moving or Expanding? Cloud Computing Makes it Easy!

Another wonderful benefit of moving your environment to the cloud involves the flexibility and easy of expanding your business to new locations or moving.  Many times a physical move of the office can cause dramatic issues with technology and applications being used.  You have to plan to move the servers, applications, network, infrastructure, connections, PC, printers, everything, and without any downtime.  Most often, companies buy additional equipment to move their main applications first, mirror them, then cut over as the physical move happens.

Very expensive and prone to failure and long outages.  IVDesk customers, who have all their applications, data, and desktops hosted in the cloud, never have those issues.  Opening a new location or moving is simple.  The new location Internet connections come in (we setup the router), and they physically move their PCs.  Everything else is just the way it was.  No need to touch the applications, servers, security, etc.  Everything is there, always.  Talk about a relief!

Our customers continually have access to all their applications from everywhere.  A physical move or an expansion only needs to have Internet connectivity and everyone works, just as they do from anywhere.  All their desktops are there, applications, data, everything.  Nothing could be easier!

Join the group of companies that are taking advantage of IVDesk’s 8+ years of experience running hundreds of applications in the cloud.  Excellent customer service, low monthly fees per user, and not capital costs involved.  Get moved today and start taking advantage of ALL the benefits of a great IT solution.

Predictable Pain Free Computing.

Bill Sorenson
CEO
www.IVDesk.com

Predictable Pain Free IT

One huge issue with computer needs within a company is the seeming randomness of IT expenses.  It seems that no matter how companies try to budget and forecast IT expenses and capital, things continue to come up.  ”We need a new Exchange environment – $30,000″, “Backups need to be expanded – $15,000″,”We’re running out of disk – $10 – $30,000″.  It’s never ending…

There is a solution that gets you out of this mess.  IVDesk.  With IVDesk there’s a small start up fee per user and a monthly fee per user that covers everything related to running your applications, data, servers, and helpdesk.  One price per user.  You add users, it goes up, you remove users, it goes down.   Predictable IT that covers all your application and IT needs.  

So many companies continue to feel that running their own servers locally make the best sense.  They feel that it’s more secure, they can control costs, if there’s an issue, it’s right there on site, …  The truth is, in ours and others comparisons, it’s extremely expensive to create a viable IT solution locally.  Usually the equipment is in a closet somewhere, near the sprinkler heads…  Security and access to equipment is never as good as a data center…  Applications go up and down each week and hardware expense continues to be an issue.  Support, either internal or external, is high because the environment is fragile, not enough redundancy to withstand normal issues that occur.  Problems, problems, problems…

With IVDesk you get IT predictability!  We like to say Pain Free Computing.  All your applications are run centrally and a virtual complete Windows desktop is provided.  You have access to all your applications, data, and the same desktop from anywhere.  One number to call 24 x 7 for support.  Quick, easy, secure, and completely variable.  

You will never have another IT surprise expense, never!

Take a look at www.IVDesk.com and give us a call.  We can help get you out of the high cost of IT now and move it to a complete variable expense.  No more IT surprises!

Bill Sorenson
www.IVDesk.com
CEO

Private Clouds – Cloud Computing for Small to Mid-Sized Businesses

Is there a way to create “Private Clouds” for businesses to use without the dramatic costs of doing it yourself?  What would describe a Private Cloud?  Let’s see…

Private Cloud Computing is really an off-shoot of the Cloud Computing craze that allows companies to have and run their own complete environments.  Normally, this is done by creating their own hosting solution within a Tier 3+ data center and managing it themselves.  While this can provide an alternative solution for large companies, smaller and mid-sized organizations are left out in the cold.

At IVDesk we correct that situation.  Companies get a complete environment hosted within a fantastic SunGard facility that allows them to have all their applications, data, and infrastructure hosted.  It looks and feels like a large company corporate network with personal service attached.  24 x 7 helpdesk from “real” people based in the US who understand your issues and correct them immediately.  No matter what applications you run, by choosing IVDesk, you’ll get all the benefits that larger companies are getting from Cloud Computing without the technical staff or costs.  We run all your applications for you, provide a complete desktop that can be accessed everywhere, and remarkable service, all for a low monthly fee per user.

No capital costs, MS Office licensing included, technology refreshed constantly, and service that’s beyond compare.  Our focus is making sure that your experience is extremely smooth.  In fact, our helpdesk takes only 20% of the calls that a typical Managed Service provider takes!  Now that’s smooth!

Take a look and move away from spending your capital and time on technology when you could be spending it on growing your business.  

www.IVDesk.com
Bill Sorenson
CEO

Hosted Applications – Centralizing your Main Piece of Software

One of the more difficult issues for small to mid-sized businesses is the need to share their key applications from different locations.  Most cases this need stems from having multiple locations or remote workers, even temporarily having to get at your application from on the road.

Most companies deal with this via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection and attempt to run the application on the remote PC and connect to it via the Internet.  Sometimes, this works fine but most of the time this is dramatically slow.  Slow to start and connect and very slow to run.  If you think about it, all that information has to go back and forth across your connection to get the application to work.  Not a good solution!

With other solutions, including IVDesk, you can run that application on hosted servers and get access to it via a remote desktop or published application.  What this means is that the actual piece of software is running on servers in a data center and you get access to it securely over the Internet.  They way it runs is that the full applications runs at the data center and only keystrokes and screen updates are sent back and forth over the connection. This allows the application to run at high speeds and your experience to be the same as if you were right next to those servers.  Connect from anywhere, run the application as fast as possible, and not worry about complexities of VPNs and local software installation.

It’s a great way for any company to run key applications they need shared across offices, states, the nation, or the world.  Runs fast everytime.  With IVDesk, we offer this service as well as the ability to move all your computer needs to this type of an environment.  We’ll host all your applications, files and folders, and provide the MS Office Suite as well as Email, website hosting, and include our 24 x 7 Helpdesk for every employee.  

Why not get back to running your business and let us take care of all your IT needs in our Cloud Computing solution and provide you the remarkable service you deserve!

Bill Sorenson
CEO
www.IVDesk.com

Virtual Freedom: Offices on the Move

We at IVDesk were going to put together one of those handy “Top 10″ lists of the best reasons to go virtual in your business. It seemed like a great idea, but after we talked with our virtual clients all around the country, we kept hearing the same thing over and over – Freedom. So, we digress. Let’s go straight to number one!

What does freedom mean to you? Making your kids soccer game? The ability to see more clients? Increasing your workforce without increasing your overhead? All of the above? If you are reading this, chances are you could use a little more time to do what you want, when you want. We might have the perfect solution for you.

If you are new to the ‘virtual’ world, or you can’t quite grasp how your company could operate without a physical location to call home, that’s okay. It isn’t for everyone, but we think you’ll be surprised at just how easy and cost-effective it can be. Today’s economy has business owners thinking of new ways to stay competitive and profitable.

How can IVDesk help your business?

REDUCE YOUR OVERHEAD

Fortune 500 companies and small businesses share one big headache – overhead. All businesses have it, and all businesses want nothing more than to get rid of it. Rather than focus on cutting labor, think about cutting expenses instead. All the major expenses of having a physical office can be reduced drastically with a virtual setup. Lease payments for extra space, office equipment and utilities can add up quickly. Your variable expenses now become one fixed monthly cost. Your accountant might just send you flowers.

Let’s do a quick comparison to see how we can boost those financial statements:

Instead of this…	You can have THIS!
One hour with your ‘computer guy’	One month of 24/7 support
Less than a week of office space	Completely mobile office
Electricity or water (you get only one)	No extra utility bills
One half of a Microsoft Office license	FREE Microsoft Office for all users
A couple tanks of gas to/from office	Just stay on the couch

We could go on, but we want to highlight just a few ways IVDesk can truly reduce expenses – and we didn’t even talk about increased productivity!

ATTRACT QUALITY EMPLOYEES

We know it’s hard to find good help. How do you compete with corporations offering expensive benefits to attract high-level employees? You can offer them something better – flexibility. Being able to work away from the office allows them to get more work done, in less time, and have a life. Time with family, squeezing in a golf game, working outside the confines of 9 to 5 – these are things that matter more than a few dollars.

A virtual office allows you to expand your search for quality employees across the globe. You aren’t limited to the local offering of help because we can setup a remote worker just like an employee down the hall. Share files and applications, collaborate in live online meetings, print to the same printers, even talk on the phone over the internet. With a convenient per-user/per-month pricing structure, you can now hire temporary contract help anywhere in the world.

LOOK BIG – EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT

Some consumers have a real sense of comfort working with a ‘bigger’ company. With a virtual office, you can appear to be a major player, even if it’s just you and your reflection running the company. Access to advanced technology gives you the ability to work with clients anywhere, anytime. This gives you an advantage over your competition, which is stuck in the office.

FREEDOM

There’s that magic word again. With our remote hosting services, you need a computer and an internet connection. That’s it. Home, office or coffee shop – it doesn’t matter where you choose to setup shop – you are ready to do business. Achieving balance between work and home has never been easier. With IVDesk, you can take care of business and get back to life.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Your software applications, your network and your employees are installed and hosted on our state-of-the-art secure servers. We take care of your data with daily backups, 24×7 support and unlimited storage. Your data is accessible anytime, anywhere.

No expensive servers.

No special connection software.

No long-term contracts.

We understand embracing a new way to operate your business can be difficult. Whether you need to take small steps and try us out, or are ready to sprint to the finish line, we can help. You are in complete control of your system.

With years of research and development, IVDesk has the tools to help you succeed. One call can truly give you more time, more money and less stress.

Please visit www.IVDesk.com, or call us at 800-711-1438, to find out how easy freedom can be.

The Small Business Solution You May Not Know About

If you own a small to mid-size business or are in the process of researching the endless tasks at hand to start your own business, chances are technology isn’t at the top of your list. When trying to keep your business afloat and your priority is meeting the payroll each month, last night’s failed backup probably doesn’t cross your mind. Capital is tight, the economy is struggling and here you are wondering why you should be reading about technology. Read on – it just might change the way you do business.

In order to consider a different way to handle your IT needs, you must think outside the proverbial box. Let’s face it, hardware and software companies do not cater to small businesses. The cost of servers, backup drives, software licenses and support is enough to make a business owner cut corners on technology just to keep the office running.

IVDesk offers a better solution for small business.

•         Remote access to your data from anywhere, anytime.
•         Microsoft Office licenses are included.
•         Predictable IT costs with a per-month pricing structure.
•         No upfront capital for equipment, freeing up your money for other things.
•         High security computing protects your data better than in-house technology.
•         24-hour support is just a phone call away.
•         Lower IT costs by virtually eliminating the need for local support.
•         Disaster recovery for worry-free computing.
•         Spam filtering is customizable and protects you from that unwanted email.
•         Mobile phone compatibility syncs your data so you are never out of touch.
•         Unlimited storage with no hidden charges.
•         Website hosting is included to cover all your web needs.
•         Shadowing users allows your employees to work together on a file at the same time – no matter where they are.

THE NEW WAY TO SETUP YOUR OFFICE

IVDesk was founded to help small businesses affordably streamline office technology. Imagine having secure access to all of your applications, all of your data, 24×7 support, access from anywhere at any time and lower software, hardware and support costs. IVDesk offers all this for a per-user/per-month fee so your technology budget will finally be predictable. All you need is a PC and an internet connection.

NO SERVER NEEDED

Save the money you would spend on a server and all the expensive backup needs, appliances and support required to maintain it. IVDesk is your server…only better. We host your applications, email, and even your website. We check every file and email for viruses, load necessary updates, backup your data every day, and welcome your remote employees with a secure and stable connection. If you have a question, you can call us anytime.

SOFTWARE MADE SIMPLE

Trying to keep up with software versions and licenses is time consuming. The expense of Microsoft Office licenses alone can bust a budget. IVDesk includes the Microsoft Office suite in the monthly fee. All your other applications can be hosted, distributed to employees and maintained. We keep track of your software for you. Compliance will never be an issue again. Employees simply login and instantly have secure access to their programs, files and email. Serve clients anywhere, anytime.

PROTECT YOUR DATA

How secure is your data? Your data is just as vital to the operation of your company as the mega corporation down the street. The high cost of the technology and expertise required for security makes it an area most small businesses neglect. IVDesk has invested in the top technology so you don’t have to. We protect you from the outside world by securing your connection, encrypting your data, storing it with a redundant systems, then we back it up daily and weekly. Don’t worry if your physical location is down, we keep your data safe and accessible. Each employee is setup with individual permissions for applications and files for security within the office. IVDesk takes security very seriously and limits access to your data from within our office as well.

GET OUT OF THE OFFICE

Purchase parts in your pajamas or balance budgets over breakfast. Small businesses need flexibility. We know you can’t get it all done between 8 and 5. It’s not a good feeling when you are sitting in your hotel room scrambling to get your presentation finished for tomorrow’s meeting when – poof – your server decides to disconnect you. You don’t know what’s worse, losing the connection or knowing there is nobody to help you get it back. Telecommuting should be a viable and helpful option for small business employees. Instead it can be cumbersome and frustrating. IVDesk allows employees to logon any hour of the day and when your “computer guy” is fast asleep, we are ready for your call should you need a little help. No more glitchy connections with your server. You can work from home, hotels, coffee shops, client locations…anywhere with an internet connection.

SUPPORT WHEN YOU NEED IT

IVDesk never sleeps, gets sick or takes vacation. Your employees have support staff available 24×7 with one phone call. Working remotely, on your schedule, has never been easier.

FREE YOUR CAPITAL

The expense of setting up an office with a reliable network is overwhelming. Once you acquire the equipment and the software licenses, you must then manage and maintain it. Hardware becomes outdated seemingly overnight. Software is constantly being updated with new versions or releases. IVDesk can save you the hassle and handle it all for you.

Take a look at a small business with 20 employees and the costs incurred upfront to setup a very basic in-house network. These are conservative estimates.

Upfront Capital Needed for Technology:

IT Needs	In-House	IVDesk
Server (hardware/software)	$9,000	$0
Backup (hardware/software)	$2,500	$0
Microsoft Office	$7,000	$0
Anti-virus Software	$2,000	$0
IT Support	$40,000+ annual or $150/hr outsourced	$0
TOTAL:	$60,500	$0

 

And that’s just the basics. Because we structure our pricing on a per-user, per-month basis, there is no need for upfront capital to invest in equipment or support. Your IT budget is now stable and predictable. 

IVDesk has devoted years of research and experience to build a smarter solution for small to mid-size businesses. Call us anytime to see how we can help you.

IVDesk is the new way to do IT.

Get out of the IT business and back to YOUR business today.

Contact information:  Randy Olson  612.605.9677   Email:  rolson@ivdesk.com  Website:  www.ivdesk.com