
My dad’s small contracting business pays $
4,
000 a year or more for
IT support, just to have an
MS Exchange Server. Every time he talks to his
IT company about going to the clouds, they give him outrageous quotes of all the things he’ll need to do to switch, with a hefty price tag. Really? It isn’t that difficult to switch. With Google services firmly leading the pack in cloud computing for businesses (and Microsoft’s
MS 360° coming soon), more and more businesses are moving to these services every day. It makes sense! If you are a small business, and you spend $
200 –
400 dollars a month on maintenance for a physical server or email hosting, you are simply paying too much.
Apple Isn’t Much Help Either My dad is just about ready to make the switch to toss his exchange server and physical server in the
recycling box (yes, that was a politically correct term). Yet before he switched, he decided to go and talk to Apple. Why not! They are innovative and big into cloud computing too. Apple isn’t stupid either. They want to sell more hardware and software, like Microsoft. They referred him to a third party
IT company who sets up Apple cloud servers. Though switching to the clouds is neither difficult nor expensive,
IT and computer companies are trying to capitalize on the small business owners who don’t know what to do. This Apple certified company gave my dad a quote of around $
10,
000 to switch from
PC computers to Macs and have a cloud server and office. $
10,
000 for
4 computers; I’m in the wrong business! I looked over the quote this morning and all I saw was the same thing I’ve seen for years: tech talk foreign language that makes no sense to business owners, topped off with a big price tag. Don’t get me wrong — they were not scamming him by overcharging for their services. The hourly rates and all that were in line with what
IT cost are these days. Yet I feel that their quote was not in my dad’s best interest. The quote included all kinds of irrelevant extras, as well as items that he can get for free (or very cheap) elsewhere. His business is already using Google Apps for his email hosting etc, but
IT companies don’t really want you to use Google because they know they can’t make money on it. There isn’t anything for them to troubleshoot anymore.
So What Should You Do

When I finished reading over the estimate for this new
IT company, I sent off an email advising my dad to put on the brakes. Whether he gets Macs or stays with PCs, I don’t care. The bottom line is he really only needs the following:
- Google Apps for Business: Email, Calendar, Two Way-Exchange-like Syncing to iPhones/Androids, Google Docs (getting better every month) and Contacts. A business can still use MS Outlook if they don’t want to use the Google User Interface.
- A Cloud Customer Relationship Management Software that works well with Google. There are dozens to chose from. For the painter or remodeler out there, Pipeline Deals works great and has excellent goal and reporting information. $15 a month per user with mobile access. No brainer. (For those who want less features, I use Highrise CRM. For those who want more… Salesforce, but that is very expensive)
- Egnyte, which will do a two way sync with your files on your computer. You can access those files from any computer. You can take a laptop with you in the field, pull up your email and Egnyte, and you’re good to go (a virtual office).
- Google Chrome or Firefox Web Browser: don’t use anything else. Each one has a sync option. This means you can have a laptop and desktop with the exact same look and feel (bookmarks, password keepers etc).
- External Hardrives: This doesn’t hurt. I sometimes backup my Mac computer on an external hard drive just for the extra security.
What Does This Cost? •Pipeline Deals $
15 a user per month •Google Apps for Business $
50 a user per year (free version is just as good too, just less storage) •Egynte: Best pricing is probably the
1 terabyte per month at $
45 a month •Microsoft Office ($
170+ each But if you want to save money, go to Google Docs or Try Open Office) •Setup: depends on who you hire. $
300‑
1000 to set up Google Apps for Business is probably a good faith estimate (depending on who you hire). Egynte isn’t that hard to setup and move files. Their free tech support can guide you how to do that.
What else is there? Training and every now and then some
IT support, which is normal. Things happen. So, before paying thousands of dollars to upgrade your office at the end of this year or go to the clouds, make sure you think carefully who you are hiring and why!