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Several months ago one of my clients received an e-mail from Microsoft.  The e-mail was an invitation asking them if they would like to attend an in-person event not too terribly far away from their work address. The e-mail had indicated that in the current economic decline, small businesses are, in a whole, becoming more cost conscious about their IT investments. The e-mail went on to promise that attendees would be shown ways in which small business owners and IT decision makers could trade-in traditional IT processes in favor of a set of solutions that would promote productivity or efficiency, as well as lower overall IT costs and overhead. Interested, my client accepted and registered for the all afternoon in-person event.
My client came back with questions about what he had called, the optimized XP desktop, a technology he had said was known as Hyper-T, Forefront security, Exchange hosted services and was terribly confused. In fact, he was so confused from this event that I had to spend a considerable amount of time fixing the overall confusion that overcame him. I started explaining the basis for what Microsoft calls, the managed Optimized Desktop, and that it was not an edition nor version of Microsoft Windows that he could purchase. I told him that there is no such thing as Hyper-T and the technology is known as Hyper-V and is a virtualization solution offered by Microsoft. I continued down the line of his questions demystifying the marketing disaster that was thrown at him during his attendance at the in-person event. By the time I was done with all of his questions, he had exhausted almost an hour and a half of both his and my time.
“Why does this have to be so confusing?”
“Didn’t I just pay you to upgrade my desktops two years ago, why do I hear that they are coming out with something new already?”
“Why haven’t I ever heard of this?”
“Where do you go to even stay on top of something that moves so fast?!”
“I’m tired of feeling three steps behind when I thought we just moved four steps forward!”
These are just a sampling of statements I get from my SMB customer base quite frequently. I tell them all the time that there are some fantastic resources online, and that they can read posts from online bloggers about practically anything they want!
“I dont want to manage IT, but as a business owner, I do however want to know what these technologies do and what they mean to me and my business.”
Who would have guessed that that single comment made almost two weeks ago would stir me enough to start this blog. The premise of my blog is simple – the technologies that are changing every day; the technologies that enable you to do what you do now; and the technologies that will enable you and your business to do more with less in the future, can be complicated. I will do my best to demystify the solutions and products that are coming down the pipeline to help you prepare, plan and deploy these and other technologies efficiently while effectively providing an understanding of what these technologies will do for you and your business.
For those of you who dont know me, my name is James Zepp and I am the CTO of Acxsis, LLC. Acxsis, LLC is an IT solution provider that provides support, consulation, services as well as trainining to both the SMB as well as consumer base in both the New Jersey and New York markets. I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and hold various certifications on other IT technologies. Even before becoming a certified Small Business Specialist in mid 2006, I have been helping consumers and SMB decision makers make informed decisions on their IT investments for years. I live in the Central New Jersey region and love playing video games in what little spare time I get. Currently, I am playing Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on PSP. I also occasionally get the opportunity to sit down at my keyboard and play music from time to time. But mostly, you will find me  burried in a technology reference book, behind a computer screen, or programming either on my iPhone or Windows 7 computer system.
I look forward to your comments and doing what I can to demystify IT solutions while providing fun and random posts from time to time. Again, welcome to InfoSource.net!
James Zepp
October 11, 2009
Tags: blog, confusion, Consumer, infosource, intro, introduction, SMB, welcome Posted in: InfoSource, News
Name: James Zepp
Occupation: CTO
Company: Acxsis
Age: 26
One Response
The technologies that are being released daily it seems are so intertwined with the marketing machine its almost an impossible task of figuring them all out. What seems like a great product, technology, or service many times is but it appears not to be. This isn’t always the case though. I have seen the marketing machine promote the hell out of these items almost to a point of disbelief. When the items are finally released and what was promised by the advertisements and marketing spots usuallly isn’t what they do. I prefer to wait until new items have been released before I use them in my home. Work is different. Here though, I really need to get my hands on them prior so I may educate my clients and be able to demystify everything for them. IT does seem to constantly change, that is how it has been all along. For many people, they either didn’t notice or pay it any attention. Now though many of those same people are business owners. They here about the “new” thing and want to put all their chips in that basket. For many, they have IT so called gurus handling the IT affairs. Being over charged for services that really are not necessary or just not helping their customers move into the future.
Someone told me something when I first entered into an IT field. They said something along the lines of ‘You can’t be an expert in everything, though YOU will definitely try, you just can’t’ At the time, I thought they were full of it. I still do actually. I just am not the kind of person that allows someone else to tell me what I can or can not do. What I can accomplish or not accomplish. I am too darn stubborn for that. I am too good at what I do. That is why my customers value my opinion so much and why I am trusted the way I am. The other part is honesty. Something they are not used to. What he said is true but not for the reasons he thought. Its another full time job keeping up with everything or at least it seems that way to some people. For those of us that love to learn, figure things out, solve problems and accomplish the impossible its just another day in the life of IT. At least that is my point of view. I don’t strive to be an all-knowing expert in everything. I do strive to provide the best to my customers. I am customer and as such I expect the best from the people I also do business with.
We are all instructors. We teach people many different things every day. You might not think so, but it happens. IT for me isn’t doing what everyone else is. IT is more than that. I am IT as You are IT and together We are IT. We define what it means to be IT. Only together can we work together solve problems and make the Impossible Possible.
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