Computers and information systems are essential parts of every business today. Like accounting and legal, every business needs to invest in technology to compete. Technology is both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to do more business. Most people I talk with recognize the necessity of having a computer, an email address, and a web site, but still look at the upfront cost more than other issues.

After spending some time working with dozens of businesses, I think it's time to take a step back and look at the big picture of technology in business. Let's take a reporter's view of the topic, and ask the basic questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how much?

For today, we'll keep this short, but each of these questions deserves a more complete article in the future.

Why?

What are the benefits of technology for a business? There are many, but most fall under a few categories:

• Reach more potential customers, develop a business relationship with potential customers

• Streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste, devote talent to core business instead of overhead

• Provide better service to customers

• Support better relationships with key partners

• Allow customers to better guide the business

The very first question businesses should ask before spending any money or time on technology is, “why am I doing this?” If there is not a core business benefit to be gained, why do it in the first place?

How Much?

Established businesses outside the technology industry typically spend between ½ percent and 10 percent of their annual revenue on technology spending, depending mostly on the industry. Manufacturing and retail are typically at the low end of this range, while finance and health care are typically at the high end.

If you're at the low end of technology spending for your industry, you may be missing out on some key benefits technology can provide. If you're at the high end, you may be spending more than you need to on proprietary solutions, or you may be leading your industry with some strategic investment.

What?

What costs do you need to consider as part of your technology budget? These break down into several categories:

• Initial cost—hardware and software, and training

• Ongoing cost—maintaining systems, including licenses for proprietary software, hosting, and support

• Upgrade cost—cost of upgrades, and expected lifespan of systems/frequency of upgrades

• Value proposition—how much employee time will the system save? How much new business could the system generate?

• Opportunity cost—how much potential revenue is lost by not implementing a system? What are your competitors doing in this area?

• Risk—what are the risks of a particular system? What does it cost to mitigate those risks?

Where?

Should you spend most of your technology budget on infrastructure, hosted applications, custom line-of-business applications, or what? The answer to this depends a lot on your industry, but even more on your specific business. Generally, most businesses spend around half of their technology budget on infrastructure—computers, networking equipment, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As the world moves more and more online, and open source software becomes more compelling, there are huge opportunities for savings in these areas, for businesses that can take advantage of them.

When?

There's a fine line between too much and not enough. Spend too much on technology, and it will consume your time and budget, leaving you ill prepared to do anything else on your business. Spend too little and your competition may improve their business to the point that you can't compete.

You need to implement enough technology to see a real benefit, prevent the worst disasters, and not miss out on any major opportunities, while not spending more than you can handle.

Technology has a cost not just in dollars, but also in the time you and your employees need to spend adapting to it. Bite off too big a chunk and technology becomes counter-productive. Nearly always, small, incremental, ongoing chunks are a better way to bring technology into your business than large all-or-nothing systems that promise to do everything right away.

Who?

Finally, you need to decide who to help you implement technology in your business. Will you do it yourself? Do you purchase an off-the shelf product? Do you use free software? Do you hire a programmer to create a custom system? Do you use a hosted system? Do you hire a consultant to help?

Obviously, as an open source consultant, I think the answer is usually hire a good consultant to help you use as much quality free software in your business as possible. Whether or not to use a hosted system depends on your specific business needs. Off-the-shelf proprietary products are quickly becoming the least favorable way to go, but there are still a few niches where there isn't a viable alternative.

Many businesses are stuck at a tactical level, trying to stay ahead on cash flow and payroll, and don't have time to think about technology in a strategic way. But a strong plan for technology should be a part of every business plan, and re-evaluated whenever taking a strategic look at a business.

If you need assistance answering these questions in your business, Freelock would be happy to help.

LinuxFest Northwest

Freelock is proud to be sponsoring a business computing lab at LinuxFest Northwest this year. Come to the event for an opportunity to try out a bunch of different open source business applications for managing your web site, your business finances, projects, customers, and knowledge. I am giving a presentation at the event as an introduction and demonstration of an entire set of systems to run a business, all using free software. Freelock will also have a booth at the event, and all of our employees will be there.

The event is held every year the last weekend of April. This year it is April 26 and 27 at the Bellingham Technical College, and admission is free. See http://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org for more details.

Client Spotlight

Congratulations to our client, HomeSavvi.com, who officially launched their web site on March 11. http://www.HomeSavvi.com is a community web site for people to learn, share, and help each other with home remodeling projects. Freelock has managed their servers since the company started, and provides system administration advice and support for this web startup company which recently received funding.

Ticket-Tee is planning a big motorcycle rally/independent music festival this summer in Missoula, Montana this June, called the Snake Pit Music and Motorcycle Connection. Go here to register for the event. Ticket-Tee is a unique business that creates t-shirts and other items that act as tickets to an event. Freelock provided custom programming services to hook up the Ticket-Tee site to their merchant account, as well as track referrals so that bands and clubs get a referral commission for their fans who purchase tickets for an event.

Freelock is growing

Erik Olson joined the Freelock team in February, bringing our in-house team to six. (And yes, I mean literally in-house—it's getting quite crowded here!) Erik previously helped his wife run an Italian wine import business, and brings some much-needed project management skills to the company. Please show him a warm welcome.

Suzanne Murdock, from our partner company Dodd and Associates, is now handling our invoicing—you'll see most of our bills coming from her. Carl Symons, Daniel Seirawan, and Chris Longmoon are helping us get the word out to businesses that could use our services.

With all this help running the company, I'm starting to do more work on client projects again, and will be taking a stronger lead particularly on the development team. Expect to see us growing more, and getting better office space, soon!

About Freelock Computing

We're the go-to company in Seattle for open source business solutions. We provide three core services: Technology consulting with an open source approach; Linux and open source administration; and custom software development of LAMP applications.

We love to help businesses discover great free software, and help them make computers work for them in their business. If you know any businesses that need help with technology, send them our way!