By Lanny (William) Short
We’ve all have an idea of where things are heading in technology. We see terms thrown around like “cloud,” “SaaS” and “social media,” etc. But what if your business is not in the world of IT? You know that you need to have some sort of web presence, and you need it to be secure, but you don’t have the IT expertise to administer it yourself. If your business is something like home repair, you don’t have the time, money or likely the desire to create and maintain your own web site.
Well, this is where IBM can help with our IBM Cloud solutions. Now, you’re probably wondering how IBM, a corporation with a history of working with large enterprises, can help a small to mid-sized business set up and maintain a working Internet presence. You’re not a large banking conglomerate or a hulking medical firm. Why on earth would you even consider an IBM Cloud solution? Well, take a look at what we can do for small businesses at this link.
The primary reason is because IBM realizes this is an ongoing challenge for small and mid-size businesses, and we have created IBM Cloud solutions with lines of businesses like yours in mind. We provide business processes as a service (BPaaS), which handles things like marketing, sales and commerce for your business. We also provide consulting services to advise and help you to develop a strategy that not only saves your business money, but helps drive revenue and growth.
But don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself here. Then, if you want to see if any solutions might work for you, you can perform a trial without spending any money. If you have questions, you can select links on our site that will connect you directly with someone who can answer any questions you may have.
So, how can this benefit your average mom-and-pop shop like “Bill’s A-1 Home Repair”? Well, Bill can open the site (or “Google” for it) and read the overview while taking a lunch break. Then he can talk to his wife, Irene, who keeps the business books, and see if this might be something worth exploring further. Bill and Irene might be skeptical about this and want to ask some detailed questions on what exactly Bill thinks he has found. So she can go to that site and put her concerns and questions to IBM.
Then, after more discussion, they can decide to go ahead with a trial. Now that Bill’s business has an Internet presence, someone like Nigel can search for it and get Bill to come out and restore the old house that he just bought. And because Bill is so good at what he does, Nigel can tweet about how good they are. Phil, who owns a downtown business/residence tower, would see that tweet and sign up Bill’s A-1 Home Repair to a long-term contract. Bill would then be able to hire Alice, a newly discharged Army veteran, to run the crew working on that long-term contract.
One question you might have is if this is just another Internet service provider (ISP) that will turn on an internet connection and leave the rest of the work up to the customer. That is precisely what this is not. Our solution as a service differs from an ISP in that we listen to what you think you need, advise you on the solution that will work for you, then deploy and maintain that solution that will help your business grow.
There might be one or two readers out there who are thinking that this is yet another greedy corporation trying to find a way to fill their pockets off the backs of working folks. But take a moment to look at IBM’s history. It is not perfect, nor does it ever claim to be. But one of the things IBM has done in its 100-plus years of experience has been helping businesses like the mom-and-pop shops. IBM was founded on the governing principle of “respect for the individual.” That means that our first priority is helping guys like Bill and others who are trying to move their businesses forward. The idea is if businesses like Bill’s do well, then that success rolls upward and everyone does well. The idea is “a rising tide floats all boats,” and IBM is doing its part to help that tide rise upward.
If you would like to discuss some more, please feel free to hit me up on Twitter @LanMan9876 or Facebook!
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