Small Business IT Projects

[MrAdaam]

Being a bit new to all this I'm looking for a few ideas for insiration. I need it to look good as I think this will be looking at how I progress within the company.

Basic background is - Small company of around 30 users, 2 servers, 1 48-port switch, roughly 90 useable ports on switchboard, various model's of computer (some are looking 5 years old!). ! server on SBS2008 and the other on 2003, all machines running XP.

I need to have something that can be done over roughly 30-40 hours worth of work, split over a fortnight and would ideally be easy to sell as helping the business with profits. Oh, and I need to do it without outsourcing too much.

The main thing I'm thinking about is some kind of upgrade to OS' or internal networking. Have a few small ideas but do want to achieve as much as possible in that time frame.

Thanks!

[itsnotarace]

Implement remote access via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSL-Explorer:_Communi... which wont cost anything.

Guide: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/labels/SSL-Explorer

[marshalla]

What can you do that will improve business efficiency/profitability or save money ?

[paddyhasneeds]

Difficult to answer without more information really.

Do you have people visit your site often? Wireless internet access always goes down well.

[Fittster]

MrAdaam said:

I need to have something that can be done over roughly 30-40 hours worth of work, split over a fortnight and would ideally be easy to sell as helping the business with profits.

Block access to PH and a lot more work will get done.

[UpTheIron]

What problems does the business have that IT could solve or ease and what profit could be realised as a result? Extra sales?
What costs could you cut from IT?
What risks can you see - data loss / data security?


Slightly o/t but what happens if your single switch goes pop?!

[bishbash]

It's a bit dull, but a software licensing audit and a security audit, plus a review of computer use policies might be a good start. Auditing might also give you some ideas as to what can be improved.

[MrAdaam]

itsnotarace said:

Implement remote access via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSL-Explorer:_Communi... which wont cost anything.

Guide: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/labels/SSL-Explorer

Already set to LogMeIn for this, despite it not being perfect will have to make do until external internet speeds up drastically.

marshalla said:

What can you do that will improve business efficiency/profitability or save money ?

Exactly where I'm stuck on. Hard to sell something to the Director that depends on other people adopting it to make them any money.

UpTheIron said:

What problems does the business have that IT could solve or ease and what profit could be realised as a result? Extra sales?
What costs could you cut from IT?
What risks can you see - data loss / data security?


Slightly o/t but what happens if your single switch goes pop?!

I'm thinking along the lines of a redundancy plan - fairly simple to put in and maintain. Covers their data, servers and external access should the worst happen.

bishbash said:

It's a bit dull, but a software licensing audit and a security audit, plus a review of computer use policies might be a good start. Auditing might also give you some ideas as to what can be improved.

Done a hardware audit and pretty clear some machines need upgrading so also another place to look at.

Difficult thing is deciding which to try and crack on with. Have a few ideas but can't do any harm to get some other ideas from more experienced people.

[UpTheIron]

MrAdaam said:

Done a hardware audit and pretty clear some machines need upgrading so also another place to look at.

This perhaps illustrates the point I was trying to get you to see.

Why do the machines need upgrading? Does the performance of older PC's directly affect the companies profitability? If not, why would a business owner pay?

If you want to loosen the purse strings then look to solve business problems, not IT ones.

[lestag]

UpTheIron said:

If you want to loosen the purse strings then look to solve business problems, not IT ones.

Exactly, what is the dirty dozen. The 12 things that are bugging the company about their IT infrastructure (or even just the company!) in business speak.

i.e.
1)we get complaints from customers that we dont answer their calls, get dropped off.
2) every week or so email is not working when joe comes in at 6:30 in the moring and we cant process orders fast enough to clear the backlog for that day

withouthe correlation between busines and IT the moths will stay in the purse