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The hardware and software SMBs need to succeed
Posted on 15 Jul 2009 at 16:25
Jon Honeyball fires the opening salvo as we begin our long-term guide to setting up the hardware, software and services a small business needs.
The term small and medium-sized business (SMB) means different things to different people, covering everything from the one-man-band to a growing business with up to 1,000 seats. If you look at the figures, this covers a disproportionately large amount of the businesses in the UK in terms of people employed. The large PLCs dominate the news, but it's the bedrock of SMBs that keep the country going.
The sheer range of SMBs means IT in this space is a curious thing. For some, it consists of little more than a spreadsheet for doing accounts, sending a few emails and, occasionally, updating a website. For others, it's an inextricable part of the way they do business.
This month, we take a wide-ranging look at the hardware and software infrastructure your business needs to succeed, and in the coming months we'll go into far more detail. We'll cover everything from how to set up a network infrastructure that can grow with your company, to the security steps you need to put in place to keep your business safe from internal and external threats.
First steps
There are a number of hurdles you'll need to overcome if you want to create an IT infrastructure worthy of the name in the 21st century. First, there's a huge amount of "if you want to get there, don't start here" - old hardware, old software, and quite often (and most importantly) old thinking in place.
Second, IT is almost always seen as a service provision within the company, and so budgets are tight even in the good times. In today's dreadful trading conditions, with a future bleaker than many can remember, the concept of "investing in IT" comes a very poor second to paying the wage bill and retaining key staff. And rightly so.
You've never had so much capability for so little money
Against this we should balance the reality that the software and systems of the past few years have never been so good. You've never had so much capability for so little money, and this is important to remember because there's real scope for improving day-to-day operations for minimal financial spend.
A few thousand can transform a broken network, for example, by ripping out old wiring and overloaded switches, and replacing them with modern items and new cabling. This doesn't all need to be done in one go, but a structured and considered approach can bring huge benefits for hundreds of pounds.
Recognising these weak spots is the key to ekeing value out of existing infrastructure. And that includes limitations in the people who look after the system - if you run Exchange Server 2003, for example, and your IT person has no training in the product, then don't despair the high cost of an off-site training course. A few books from Amazon, and the time to read them, are a better investment of limited resources.
Get off of their cloud
Let's look at the essential items that should be on your worry list. To make things simple, at this point we're going to stand firm and say that anything that involves an internet-hosted service or solution isn't up for consideration. Google Docs might seem a good idea, but the product is in eternal beta and, as the PC Pro review revealed, it suffers from a number of frustrating limitations.
Microsoft's new hosted solutions offerings might look tempting, but the SLA and other issues will make you weep. Big business can afford to look to internet-hosted services, because they can build them as pieces into a bigger plan. SMBs don't have that luxury. Keeping everything on-site, with the appropriate skills to match, is by far the best way to progress. After all, a small failure in a huge organisation is an annoyance, but it won't kill the mother ship. A week of downtime in the entire IT infrastructure of an SMB could put you out of business.
From around the web
Hi there,
I've been struggling with this comment for a while since the above article was written. Let me start off by saying that I think Jon Honeyball is normally right on the mark especially in this article with his assessment of the current offering of cloud services and let's face it, he has probably forgotten more than most of us will ever know about computers. To be honest in my case he has probably forgotten 10 x more than what I know about computers at a conservative guess. But to paraphrase what he said "If Microsoft is the answer to your question then you are asking the wrong question."
Obviously Microsoft are big in the business arena and depending on who you believe they have 50% - 80% of business e-mail systems. However to mention the Kerio Mailserver as an alternative to Outlook but not mentioning Lotus Domino / Notes as an option is a bit of an oversight. The SMB may not have Windows 2003 Server installed - perhaps they have decided to go to Linux or they have Unix. Not a problem Domino works on those but Exchange doesn't. It doesn't matter what computers your workers have either there are clients for all the widely used OS's including Windows, Linux and Mac. I have used Notes for a while now and I would be the first to admit that it could be a bit clunky and the User Interface wasn't all it could be. The latest versions however are pretty slick UI wise.
Jon also mentions the Collaboration side of things that can be done by using Mail Groups - absolutely true and Domino does that as well. He then goes on to say that to increase your collaboration (or was it productivity?) software then you get into serious money. Not with Domino. No extra server or software needed - it's all there straight out of the box - along with sample templates that can be used. No extra Client Licenses required either. If the template is not there you can alter it using a Designer Client although this may only be available on Windows - I'm not sure.
One of the big advantages that I've experienced is that all the older Notes databases will work with the newer versions of the Server so you can have mixed environments in terms of Domino and Notes Versions. I tweaked one of the "Teamroom" templates 6 years ago and it still works fine at least 4 versions later (although I must admit it is starting to look it's age). I have even used more modern versions of the Notes Client than the Domino Server and it STILL worked fine. Upgrades work great - you put in the CD / DVD and hit "Setup", away it goes and 15 - 30 minutes later you are on the latest version of the software on the Server or the Client. I understand that is not the case with Exchange / Outlook where you can end up having to rebuild your Mail Servers when you upgrade.
Also included is your productivity software, Lotus Symphony, again available for the popular Operating Systems - Windows, Mac and Linux and as far as I know they all look the same regardless of what OS you use. I've heard but don't know for a fact that this is not the case for MS Office - apart from the fact that MS Office does not have a Linux option. Lotus Symphony has some tie-in with the OpenOffice code and like OpenOffice it has the same price - it's free to download from the IBM site.
I understand that Lotus have also introduced a "one-stop shop" box called I think the Foundations Server which covers all the stuff that Jon mentions in the article including Anti-Virus and Automatic Back-Up. It's supposed to even be able to fix it's own faults. I don't know how this works in practice but it might be worth having a look at it as a subject as a future review.
With all the recent coverage that Outlook has had in PC Pro how about addressing the balance and looking at the sort of stuff that can be developed using Lotus Domino and Notes? There is a 90 day trial on the Server Software, the Designer and the Notes Client - it would definitely be worth a look.
I'm sorry this has turned out a bit long but trying to cover all the points that I could from Jon's article means this is a necessarily long comment.
By jtlindsay1 on 27 Aug 2009 
Lotus Foundations Server
Hi Jon,
jtlindsay1 is spot on with his recollections about LFS being: simple to install, simple to use, robust, secure and - most important for small business - VERY cost efficient. I would be happy to meet up to discuss/demo LFS to you, but in the meantime you might like to check out: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/foun
dations/start/ for base information. Best regards jeffpclark@uk.ibm.com
By JeffPClark on 28 Aug 2009
For more details about purchasing this feature and/or images for editorial usage, please contact Jasmine Samra on pictures@dennis.co.uk
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