SMB: Acquiring a new midsized customer

We recently acquired a new mid-sized customer on the SMB-side of the business. At 130 users, 80 computers, and 7 servers, I would say they fit in the medium-camp. Apparently, they’ve really been without any type of dedicated IT staffing for the better part of a year, and it looks like they’ve gone without any notable hardware or software upgrades for considerably longer.

From an operational standpoint, we really have an opportunity to make a difference for this customer. Given that things have essentially run untouched for quite some time, virtually anything we do is going to improve their situation. Viruses, spam, Windows NT 4.0 servers, Exchange 5.5, and a mix of aging workstations… you name it, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit.

From a sales and revenue standpoint this is also a real opportunity. The current ownership/management is relatively new and frustrated with the current situation. Furthermore, it sounds we’re going to have a sizable budget for at least this first year, in which we can accomplish quite a bit.

Being involved pre-sales is always an interesting experience; and one that I think every technical person should make an effort to be part of.

That’s going to be it for this post. As this project progresses, I plan to provide more technical details, and address some of the day-to-day things I run up against. Also, I have it in mind to post something about technical-sales, which I just briefly touched-on in this post. It’s by no means the focus of what I do, but it really offers allot of insight and brings a new appreciation for the role of sales in an organization.