Take Advice from Microsoft® When Selecting an IT Partner

Take Advice from Microsoft® When Selecting an IT Partner

As a business owner, you’re faced daily with making the best decisions for your company. Selecting the right IT partner is one of the most critical business decisions in today’s digital world. Tech giant Microsoft® is known as a knowledgeable, trusted IT source for small- and medium-size business. When tasked with making their own selection of an SMB IT partner, they chose itSynergy.

Fifteen years ago, when Microsoft® built its prescriptive guidance on implementing their technology in SMB, they chose itSynergy president Michael Cocanower to serve as the subject matter expert on the project. As part of the Microsoft® trusted team, itSynergy helped define the best practices, the proper infrastructure and an ideal level of strategic planning to meet the specific needs of small- and medium-sized businesses.

The Microsoft® Enterprise Architecture Project
In the late ’90s Microsoft® was asked by large Fortune 100 organizations to create a business plan for running their enterprises on Microsoft® software. Microsoft® accepted the challenge and started the Microsoft® Enterprise Architecture Project (MEAP), building hundreds of servers on the Microsoft® campus and then creating the blueprints for how to successfully run an enterprise on their platform. The project was a resounding success.

Small and Medium Businesses Needed Help Too
It wasn’t long after MEAP was completed that one of the top Microsoft® technicians recognized a huge opportunity – to create the same blueprints for small- and medium-sized businesses.

More than enterprises – who could afford to maintain large internal technical teams – SMBs would need help translating and implementing Microsoft® software within their organizations. Given the greenlight, Microsoft® began to create best practices and procedures to help SMB business owners make quality IT decisions without the support of an IT department.

itSynergy was selected to be one of the subject matter experts on this project.

Work With the IT Partner Microsoft® Selected
As the Microsoft® team embarked on this new endeavor, itSynergy’s Cocanower came back with intelligent and impressive red lines all over Microsoft’s® initial draft. Microsoft’s® lead technician immediately hired itSynergy to create the Microsoft® blueprint for SMBs everywhere.

The Microsoft® IT Solution Series for SMBs was published in the mid-2000s, used by organizations nationwide and internationally, and was a massive success.

Around 2007, Microsoft® evolved the SMB blueprints into software tools and decided to stop maintaining the documentation. However, itSynergy understood the long-term value of helping SMBs make quality decisions around their IT infrastructure to align with larger business goals. This remains the foundation of itSynergy’s strategic technology planning, known as SynergySolutionTM.

Over the years, itSynergy has taken SMB technology systems to the next level and streamlined them into a translatable process:

1. Assess Current Environment – evaluate your current situation to identify areas needing improvement.

2. Create a plan to evolve current activities to SynergySolutionTM– Within areas of improvement, create a process for upgrading

3. Move over to the itSynergy standard – Implement the process agreed upon between the business owner and itSynergy, and over time migrate to itSynergy’s optimized platform with minimal disruption to the organization

You Can Choose the Same Subject Matter Expert as Microsoft®
Some business decisions are easy to make, and some can be very difficult. When it comes to selecting an IT partner who will provide value to your organization, bring noticeable ROI and improve your overall business performance, make the same choice that Microsoft® made years ago.

itSynergy’s understanding of the SMB market and years of experience have continuously set them apart. In itSynergy, you have a partner you can trust. Get in touch with us at 602-297-2400 or online.