Small-Medium-Business (SMB) Call to Action

According to CDW’s Small Business Driver’s Seat Report - April 2008:

• “Principals in very small businesses take on IT in addition to other responsibilities, but are more likely to employ an IT professional as they grow beyond 50 employees”.
• The top two priorities for the next three years are to: “have a formal business continuity plan and have a data warehouse and business intelligence tools”.

A copy of the report is available upon registration at: www.cdw.com/driversseat.

I am quoting those two statistics because I am going back into the workforce. Having been a Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing (BI/DW) professional for the past 20+ years, I have seen DW solutions come and go. During that time, I have also seen SMB business platforms emerge and disappear, usually eaten up / beaten up by Microsoft. Here’s what is luring me back into the workforce.

I have found a business platform that is Linux-based and does not require Microsoft anywhere in the platform, yet it can interact seamlessly with Windows PCs or dumb terminals. It is a unique collage of best-in-class software and hardware, melded in what is currently termed an “appliance”.

• At the lower end of the SMB spectrum, it can delay the first acquisition of an IT staff member for one to three years or more.
• At the middle level of the SMB spectrum, it can free IT staff for other tasks and/or delay the hiring of additional IT staff as you grow.
• At the upper level of the SMB spectrum, it can reduce IT staff and delay the hiring of additional staff.

I have also found the perfect Business Intelligence solution to complement this platform. It is also “appliance”-oriented, meaning that you don’t require a large team to implement and maintain the solution.

Please get a copy of the CDW report and review their survey results. Many of the needs expressed in the survey will be satisfied with the solution I am preparing. In fact, if I step outside the two primary components described above, I can facilitate your achieving all of the goals expressed in the CDW report, and do that with a business case that is far less than any other proposal you might get from the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, Teradata or IBM.

I would like to develop a list of SMBs that would be interested in hearing more about the solutions I am proposing. I will not share this list with other parties, period.

Please give me the opportunity to correspond with you via email by completing the form below.

Or send me an email by clicking here: boyd.carter@mybabyboomers.com

Thank you.

Boyd Carter