Why Progent Makes Sense for Small Businesses
Progent's staff size, breadth and depth of technical expertise, and familiarity with enterprise IT allow small businesses to avoid the pitfalls associated with excessive reliance on smaller service organizations or independent freelance consultants.

Working with Progent allows your small business to:

• Avoid Dependence on Individual Freelance Consultants
  For IT support small businesses often rely heavily on independent freelance consultants. Although freelance consultants carry less overhead than larger support organizations and can afford to charge marginally less, they are often stretched too thin to respond quickly to urgent situations. If an independent consultant is busy with another client, sick, on vacation or in training, the lack of backup personnel may force your business to wait for help during an emergency. As your small business grows, network downtime or problems with critical applications become more costly. The money you thought you were saving on a freelancer can be eaten up quickly by lost productivity.

• Have Access to Expertise in Complex IT Solutions
  Many small service organizations or freelance consultants focused on small business IT support may excel at providing "connect-the-dots" solutions but lack the experience to deal cost-effectively with complex IT infrastructures with features such as multi-office connectivity, VPNs, mobile workforces, telecommuter support, integrated financial and operational applications, eCommerce, and custom software. Progent's enterprise experience can be valuable to your small business because enterprise environments are inherently complex, integration issues require in-depth knowledge in many IT disciplines, and achieving a high level of stability, reliability and security requires enterprise-proven best practices.

• Build a Solid Foundation for Seamless Growth
  Small businesses often start with an IT system implemented on a shoestring budget. Lacking a proper foundation, a series of band-aid fixes often get piled on top of a weak foundation. As a business grows, stability and scalability issues can hinder the success of the organization. Such environments need proper assessment, intelligent strategic planning, and broad-based expertise to upgrade to an IT infrastructure that will provide the solid foundation to meet critical business needs and ease future growth.

• Work with Solution Providers, Not Product Resellers
  Small businesses require guidance and education to navigate through an increasingly complex maze of technology options available for accelerating business growth and improving efficiency. They do not need an IT consultant who is trying to sell them a product. Progent avoids conflicts of interest by not selling any products. This allows Progent to align technical expertise with the best interests of clients. IT consulting and product selling can lead to a situation where the proposed solution is built around a predetermined technology rather than the genuine needs of a small business.

The scope and depth of Progent's engineering staff bring a special array of advantages to businesses trying to increase the business value of their information network within an affordable budget. These advantages include:

• Best Practices
  Progent’s staff of Microsoft and Cisco certified experts average more than ten years of real-world industry background, at the forefront of network support, performing a wide range of technical projects for a large mix of customers. Each Progent consultant shares a proven set of personal best practices which are combined into shared best practices training that Progent instills in its support team. This guarantees that you get not only world-class IT help, but also a support engineer with proven approaches for applying technical knowledge to solve real-world network problems rapidly. Learn more about Progent's best practices for network consulting.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing model is to bill for remote support and in-person visits by the minute. Consequently, you are invoiced only for delivered services. Progent does not demand a higher rate for after-hours or emergency support, and within California or in regions where Progent offers on-site service, Progent does not bill for travel except for emergency calls where on-site time is less than four hours. In addition, Progent imposes no service activation charge and requires no monthly commitment. Many support firms demand large minimum payments or charge for every fifteen minutes or longer. Progent's one-minute granularity does away with large invoices for quick fixes so you will not be tempted to permit minor problems to fester. Learn more about Progent's value pricing for IT outsourcing.

• Full Documentation of IT Services
  Progent has created a comprehensive service reporting system that stores and organizes detailed documentation for all delivered services. Unlike some independent consultants or local service organizations who offer minimal documentation or specifics of tasks performed, each service delivered by Progent is accompanied by full documentation. Each Progent consultant has use of the support documentation sent by every staff member to each client. The discipline of documenting and archiving support records allows more efficient service and eliminates a variety of typical misfortunes such as when a support client is virtually held hostage to a consultant who refuses to release the keys to the kingdom. Learn more about Progent's documentation of IT outsourcing services.

• Knowledge Transfer
  Progent is committed to knowledge transfer from Progent's consultants to clients. By teaching clients to handle technical issues that are within their scope, Progent is able to focus on offering high-value skills where Progent faces few competitors. Small businesses who work with trusted independent service providers or who maintain in-house IT personnel benefit when Progent transfers information about critical technology and proven methodologies to make their networks more robust, protected, and efficient. Learn more about Progent's knowledge transfer services.

IT Outsourcing and Network Monitoring Packages
As a result of years of experience supporting small business information networks, Progent has developed a variety of IT Outsourcing and Network Monitoring Packages designed to provide an affordable way for small businesses to manage networks that feature high availability, performance, and security. Progent’s IT Outsourcing and Network Monitoring Packages are based on the proactive problem solving capabilities of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), a next-generation network management software platform that monitors the availability, performance, and security of your information system and identifies problems before they can disrupt your network. Progent's IT Outsourcing and Network Monitoring Packages also feature network assessment, security audits, Help Desk Call Center support, and the establishment of safe remote connections between your network and Progent’s support experts. Learn more about Progent's IT Outsourcing and Network Monitoring Packages for cost-effective IT support outsourcing.

For concise information concerning Progent's network service outsourcing, refer to Progent's IT Support Packages Fact Sheets, downloadable in Adobe Acrobat files for convenient printing.

To see how MOM helped a Northern California company achieve enterprise-class system management, refer to Microsoft Operations Manager Case Study.

If you are looking for technical help for your small business network, call 1-800-993-9400 or send email to network-support-help@progent.com.