small business

Small Business Computer Support is a tough service to find that's both reasonable in cost and effective. Other factors like the number of users, type of business, and location can also add to the challenge. Even the term small business is hard to define unless you are using specific criteria. The government defines small business by number of employees, financial companies like banks use revenue figures, and others might use their own definition based on a combination of factors.

Computer support requirements can be just as diverse. Many small businesses may just use one shared accounting program, email, and Internet services. Others might use specialized software to run every facet of their day-to-day operations. So there are no hard and fast ways of determining exact requirements without doing a quick survey of needs.

Each small business normally has some common support issues like networking and Internet access. But it can quickly go into specialized areas on specific software and hardware support. Finding a firm that has the technical skills on a broad level, specialized skills in the right software, and can respond in a timely fashion can be difficult. And those requirements don't include the cost of this computer support.

Many specialized firms start out at $135 per hour rates and they can go up in costs depending on travel and expenses. Now if your entire business is dependent on the functionality of your computers and software, you have little choice. Let's say it costs you a $1000 or better to get back up and running, you really have no other options.

Software support can be an adventure even when you have access to knowledgeable support people. What appears to be a software issue really may be a hardware issue. The following story is a good example of how things can go very wrong, very quickly.

It all started like most problems, the user couldn't get into the main application that is used for both customer service and accounting tasks. The application refused to accept her password. It worked fine yesterday, no other noticeable issues. So after trying about 10 times, the user called the support line for the software. Long story short, the software support person tried every possible trick in the book. Still no luck after 2-3 hours on the phone and rebooting every thing from her workstation to the server and router. Half a day was gone and no solution in sight.

They finally called their local networking support guy (who had installed the network) and he came out to see if he could find the problem. He found it in about 10 minutes; it was a server update from our friends at Microsoft that had replaced a shared file that controls the password file on the application. He rolled back the update, and everything started working again. Now the software support person had asked if anything had changed, new installations, etc. But the user had no way of knowing that the server had been updated.

But this example shows how computer support is a difficult task. And I'm sorry to say this is a common problem with updating software. And turning auto updates off is not always a good solution due to security threats. And the network guy may not have seen the solution so quick if he didn't already know that the software support had covered all the application issues although he probably would have checked for any changes and found the update issue anyway.

There's no real moral to this story. Other than to always check all sides of any computer issue and troubleshooting is a challenge. It's always a good idea to have someone to call that's familiar with your software and setup. And they would be the best go to source for any problem. If it needs to be escalated to the software publisher, let them make the decision after exhausting other issues.

It also shows that it would be worth the time and effort to find a computer support company that can take the time and become familiar with your particular configuration. If your small business depends on your computers and software, it would well be worth the investment.