What If All Of Your Business Applications Were Down For 2 Weeks?
Recently I had a very sobering realization.
Sobering because what I’ve been seeing in the marketplace has led me to believe that many small and mid sized businesses in America are in serious danger.
I’m not kidding or exaggerating one bit. Let me explain.
Here at my company we provide IT infrastructure services and managed services such as cloud, server colocation, connectivity and managed services such as disaster recovery, backup and firewalls.
In other words, we provide services that help keep a businesses critical data and applications protected and up and running 100% of the time.
What I’ve realized is that many small and mid sized businesses in America are totally exposed if they were to have a disaster that wiped out their servers.
Examples of this type of disaster could be a fire, flood or natural disaster or if a server just simply crashes.
Many organizations think they’re covered because they back up their data to tape or disk which is not unusual.
What many organizations may not realize is that if there servers are destroyed or fail it could easily take two weeks or more to get the business back up and running.
Why?
Because even if you have the tape or disc stored offsite (many companies don’t) you still have to restore that data to something that resembles your original environment.
By original environment I mean your original computing and networking equipment like servers & switches. Again, you have to have something to restore that data to.
So in other words you have to order new servers and switches unless you have spare ones on hand. Most organizations don’t.
Then you have to set up and network those servers and switches and then you have to restore all the original data back to the new environment.
In some cases this can take more than 2 weeks. There are A LOT of moving parts here.
If your office had a fire, flood or natural disaster where are you going to set that new environment up? Are you going to quickly lease a new office? How long will that take?
What is your desired equipment is on back order from the manufacturer?
See what I mean. It’s a bit scary.
What if you are a healthcare provider like a nursing home or a large physician practice?
What would happen if you couldn’t get to your EMR systems to access critical patient data for two or more weeks?
For a nursing home how do you know what medications Mrs. Smith gets and when?
You don’t have to be in the healthcare field to experience major business issues.
Think of it this way. What if you couldn’t get to the programs you use everyday in your office like CRM, accounting, operations, inventory, ect. for two weeks or more.
I’m not exaggerating when I say many companies and professional practices would literally go out of business.
So what is the disaster recovery plan for your business?
If you don’t have one your at risk.
If you want help contact me by phone or email for an absolutely no pressure evaluation of your situation. 443-570-0414 ed@edworthington.com.
What is Server Colocation?
With so many IT related buzzwords being thrown around on the internet these days it can be hard to get a good understanding of what these terms mean to you and your organization.
One of these terms is “server colocation” or sometimes referred to as just “colocation”.
Server colocation is the practice of moving your organizations servers, storage and networking equipment to a commercial data center where you rent space.
The commercial data center (or colocation facility) provides space, power, cooling, connectivity and physical security for the equipment of multiple firms thereby reducing the cost for each firm.
The power and cooling aspects are provided in a safe and redundant manner using equipment like surge protectors, power distributions units, and generators.
Redundant connectivity is achieved by the data center hosting multiple telecommunication service providers.
From a security standpoint data centers are locked down from the public using features like key card access and bio-metric scanning. Once inside the data center each companies servers are housed inside of a locked “rack” which provides additional security.
So why would you use a colocate your equipment to a commercial data center?
The first reason is that in order to provide the same levels of redundant security, power, cooling and connectivity you would have to build a your own data center potentially costing your organization millions of dollars in up-front capital expenditure.
But the most important reason is PEACE OF MIND. When you colocate your equipment to a legitimate commercial data center you can rest assured that your equipment will be safe in an environmentally controlled environment with many safeguards in place.
This will free up your time and mental hard drive to focus on other important tasks.
By utilizing a commercial data center you get the best of both worlds. All the features we discussed above without spending large amounts of money upfront to build a data center.
I hope this helps.
If your considering server colocation or a move to the cloud please contact me or fill out the form below to get any of your questions answered and a NO OBLIGATION quote.
My company, Expedient Data Centers, owns and operates 9 data centers in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Boston and Indianapolis. We offer server colocation, cloud computing, connectivity, managed backups, disaster recovery as well as a host of other managed services.
Thanks!
Ed Worthington 443-570-0414 ed@edworthington.com
Why an Old (Paid Off) Copier Can Easily Be Costing You More Than a New One
I recently received a call from an organization in Northern Virginia. Someone in the organization had been reading this blog and contacted me because they were curious if there was any way they could get a new copier for anywhere near what they were paying for their existing copier.
The copier they had was an older Cannon Image Runner that printed/copied at 20 pages per minute in black only and had very few of the features that are available today. The copier was donated to them several years ago (already used) and had been serving them well but they wanted a little to see if they could upgrade to a newer, better copier(maybe even a color copier) for anywhere near what they were currently paying.
The service contract was about to renew for another 12 months and the existing copier company was asking this organization to pay$1,750.00 for 35,000 black copies/prints for the following 12 months. That’s 5 cents per black print/copy. OUCH!!!
5 cents per black copy/print is VERY expensive.
In the existing copier companies defense the Cannon is very old and probably very inefficient in it’s toner use. But 5 cents still seems high.
After asking a lot of questions and making sure I understood their needs I created a proposal for this organization complete with full cost analysis comparing what they have now to what I’m offering.
I have cut and pasted below that actual Cost Savings Analysis I included in the is customers proposal.
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Copier Cost Savings Analysis
Current Situation
XXXXXX currently has a Cannon ImageRunner 1021F which prints and copies at 20 pages per minute.
The cost for a new 12 month service agreement from your existing vendor, which includes 35,000 black copies/prints, would be $1,750.00.
Proposed Solution
ABS-Toshiba is proposing a brand new Toshiba e Studio 2050c color copier.
The lease payment will be $92.43 per month for 39 months for the new
Toshiba e-Studio 2050c.
The service plan for the Toshiba would be $784.00 per year ($65.33 per month) for 7,000 color and 28,000 black copies/prints.
The total cost for lease and service would be $157.76 per month or $1,893.12 per year if choosing a 39 month lease.
Conclusion
XXXXXXXXX can upgrade to a brand new Toshiba color copier with more capabilities for $143.12 per year or $11.93 per month more than you are now paying for the Cannon when choosing a 39 month lease.
If you were to choose a 48 month lease you would be paying $91.52 per year or $7.63 per month more than you are paying now for the Cannon.
** If you were to choose a 60 month lease you would SAVE $230.56 per year or $19.21 per month compared to the Cannon.**
Further savings will be realized by using less paper due to duplexing (2 sided printing) capabilities of the Toshiba.
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The bottom line is that this organization could get a brand new Toshiba color copier for LESS money per month provided they go with a 60 month lease.
Keep in mind we are comparing the total cost of ownership of an old Cannon copier that prints/copies only black to a brand new Toshiba color machine with far more time and money saving features.
They can cut their paper budget by at lease 30% because the old machine doesn’t do two sided printing so every time they print a 2 page document they are forced to use 2 pieces of paper. A 4 page document now requires 4 pieces of paper where their new Toshiba e-Studio 2050c would only require 2 pieces of paper.
You get the idea.
What’s even more impressive is that if they were to lease a Toshiba e-Studio 206L, which is the true equivalent model of to what they have now (20 pages per minute black copier), saving would be considerably more.
I’ve pasted the conclusion of the Cost Savings Analysis for our equivalent model below.
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XXXXXX can upgrade to a brand new Toshiba copier with more capabilities for less money (including lease & service) than you are now paying for the Cannon.
The total savings realized would $423.88 per year when choosing a 39 month lease.
The total savings realized would $471.61 per year when choosing a 48 month lease.
The total savings realized would $769.60 per year when choosing a 60 month lease.
Further savings will be realized by using less paper due to duplexing (2 sided printing) capabilities of the Toshiba.
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It’s an understandable misconception. Most organizations (businesses, churches. nonprofits, ect) assume that because their copier is paid off that they are saving money over leasing or buying a new one.
The reality of MANY cases like this is that I can provide them a brand new Toshiba copier for less money (including lease AND service) than they are paying now. Sometimes substantially less.
If your organization is located in Maryland, Washington DC, or Northern Virginia or Deleware and you would like a competitive quote from a copier salesperson who will always tell you the truth, please fill out the quick easy form below and I would be glad to help.
If you are anywhere else in the United States and would like my recommendation for copier companies in your local area fill out the form below and I’ll get back to you asap.
My company carries Toshiba Copiers, HP & Lexmark Printers, Fujitsu Scanners and Dahle Professional Shredders.
In addition to the hardware listed above we provide software and services such as Managed Print Services, IT/Network Services and a full line of document management software.
If you have a general copier buying question or would like a free copy of my book, The Ultimate Copier Buying Guide, just fill out the form below. Thanks for stopping by. Come back often and most of all…… HAVE FUN!
Ed Worthington
Should You Include Maintenance Plan Costs In Your Copier Lease?
Recently I met with a prospective copier lease customer located here in Baltimore, Maryland.
The company is what I would consider a mid-sized manufacturing business with 200 employees.
They have 3 copiers and 3 large commercial color printers at their facility.
During our initial meeting I asked the CFO of the company how his billing was set up with his current copier vendor and he informed me that everything was included in his lease.
By everything he meant that the copiers, the printers and the maintenance agreement for all of them were all rolled into one lease.
Just to be clear, when I say maintenance agreement/plan I’m speaking of an agreement that covers toner, all service and repairs as well as preventative maintenance. Basically everything except paper and staples for the copiers and printers.
When I asked the CFO if he’d ever considered having the maintenance agreement billed separately from the lease he looked puzzled.
I explained to him that he was paying interest/leasing fees on the maintenance agreement and that he really didn’t have to do that.
I further explained that all copier companies will bill you separately for your maintenance agreement and that keeps you from paying leasing fees on your copier maintenance plan.
I told him that many copier companies don’t actually hold your lease in-house but instead send it to an outside company. In these cases the leasing company sends you the lease invoice each month for the lease and the copier company will send you the bill for the maintenance plan because they are the ones providing the maintenance.
Then what the CFO said next had me puzzled. He said he likes to keep the copiers, printers and maintenance together in the same lease so he doesn’t have to write 2 checks every month. Huh?
This business does a fairly significant amount of printing and copying so they are paying A LOT of money unnecessarily.
Unlike this CFO many businesses who have the cost of maintenance rolled into their copier lease don’t understand that they’re paying leasing fees on the copier maintenance agreement.
I’ve even had prospective customers tell me that the sales rep of their current vendor told them that there are no fees whatsoever associated with putting maintenance into the lease.
That sounds like a bunch of poo poo to me. There could be many reasons a copier salesperson is encouraging you to do this but my bet is that it benefits the salesperson to do so.
One possibility is that the copier company actually holds the lease in-house and by rolling maintenance plan costs into the lease they make increased profits on that maintenance. Therefore the copier company may be giving the sales rep an increased commission for putting the maintenance costs into the lease.
If the leasing company (whether in-house or not) is allowing you to have maintenance costs rolled into your copier lease they are charging you for the privilege one way or another.
They are leasing companies, not charities. They didn’t get to be the incredibly profitable entities they are by lending money to businesses for free.
It seemed to me that this CFO was costing his company a boatload of money for the convenience of writing one check per month instead of two. Heck, most copier companies will bill you quarterly or even annually for maintenance so you really don’t even have to write a maintenance check every month.
My advice is to have your maintenance agreement billed separately to avoid unnecessary costs to your business.
If your business is located in Maryland, Washington DC, or Northern Virginia and you would like a competitive quote from a copier salesperson who will tell you the truth (even when it hurts), please fill out the quick easy form below and I would be glad to help.
If you are anywhere else in the United States and would like my recommendation for copier companies in your local area fill out the form below and I’ll get back to you asap.
As always you can also ask me any copier buying question you like and I’ll do my best to give you a solid answer.
Thanks for stopping by. Have fun.
Ed Worthington. edworthington@outlook.com. 443-570-0414
