Updating Our A/R Policies

After a recent review of our internal policies and procedures I found a glaring area of inconsistency that affects both us and our clients – our accounts receivable and collections process. 

Although we already have a very basic, established policy – invoices are due within 20 days, late fees apply to past due balances, etc – I found that we haven’t been consistent in applying these policies in our receivables process.  Sometimes we asses finance charges, sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we’ll e-mail a reminder of an upcoming balance due, sometimes we won’t.  This creates an environment where our clients cannot depend on us for consistency which is unacceptable to me – our clients deserve better.

To help bring about the consistency we need, I took the time to bring together the ad-hoc policies we’ve been inconsistently implementing already and created an official, dependable policy our clients can count on.  To allow time for you to review this memo, as some of these items might represent a change from our current policies, the items outlined below won’t take effect until January 1, 2012:

General Invoicing Policies

·         Invoicing is done weekly - generally on Mondays.

·         Charges for monthly services (such as offsite backup and mail protection) will be included on the first invoice of the month for the following month's service.

NET Terms Credit Policies

·         Products including Hardware, Software and Monthly services (such as offsite backup and mail protection) must be paid up front.

·         Hardware and Software are ordered from suppliers after we receive payment in full.

·         Hourly labor is invoiced each week as worked.  Net 30 Days.

·         Flat-Fee projects are invoiced as specified in the project scope.

o    Project Scope will still adhere to the above Credit Policies regarding hardware and software.

IT Concierge Payment Policies

·         All payments on IT Concierge service agreement are deducted from your chosen payment method automatically on the 5th of the month for the current month's service.

o    Failed payments will be reattempted.  Payments failing a second time will result in suspension of services until payment can be made by other methods.

·         All manual payments on IT Concierge service agreements must be pre-paid 3-months in advance, due on the 1st of the month that the three months of service begins.

Late Payment Policies

·         On Day 28+ after the invoice date, a reminder that an invoice is due soon will be sent to the client's billing contact by e-mail.

·         On or after day 31 after the invoice date, a Late Fee of $15 or 2% of the past due balance (whichever is greater) is assessed and added to your account balance. 

·         On or after day 61 after the invoice date, a Continuing Late Fee of $15 or 2% of the past due balance (whichever is greater) is assessed and added to your account balance.

·         On or after day 75 after the invoice date,  the account is placed in collections.
 

Important Note:  If a balance is owed on any invoice that is 49 or more days past its invoiced date, all work for the client is stopped until the client's account balance is brought current.  This includes work on other projects or agreements with the same client, even if those projects or agreements have been paid in full.

Monthly Services:  As Monthly Services are required to be paid up front, services will be suspended if not paid in full before the monthly service is scheduled to begin even if the invoice they appear on is not yet 49 or more days past its invoiced date.

As always, I’d like to personally thank you for your continued business.  If you have any questions regarding these policies please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at (310) 782-6112 x11.

Best Regards,

Justin Swall

President
Swall’s Business Consultants

Adobe Acrobat 8 Ends Support November 3, 2011

As virus writers continue to find new and inventive ways of infecting our systems their attention has turned to two largely used, and largely insecure products over the last year:  Java and Adobe Acrobat.  Even with up-to-date antivirus software installed, the security vulnerabilities in these two products in particular have time and time again been the vector by which infections have snuck their way onto systems this past year.  As such, as these products have come under attack it has been critical to update both of these products on a regular basis to ensure your system stays secure.

On Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 Adobe will be ending support for Adobe Acrobat 8.


Due to the high incident of attacks against the Acrobat platform in recent months it is critical that this product stays up to date.  Unfortunately, after November 3rd, 2011 Adobe will no longer be updating Adobe Acrobat 8.  Future viruses written to take advantage of flaws in Adobe Acrobat 8 after this date will go unchecked and the incidence of infection will skyrocket.  Because of this fact it is imperative that all users of Adobe Acrobat upgrade to version 9 or 10 before this date.

Two Options Available


The Free Method:  If all you need to do is view and print PDFs (or fill out forms) then upgrading to the free Adobe Reader X is recommended.  Newer versions of Microsoft Office (2007 & 2010) support creating PDFs from Word and Excel documents so although there is no "PDF printer" you can still save these documents to PDF.  Additionally, Google Chrome allows any website to be saved as a PDF.  Lastly, if you need to be able to print to a PDF using a different program that what's listed above you can install the free PDF Creator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/) to allow any program capable of printing to create a PDF.

The Paid Method:  If in addition to the above you need to create Adobe Acrobat Forms, alter PDF files, or scan to PDF (with scanners that require you open the Adobe Acrobat software to perform a scan) you will require the paid version of Adobe Acrobat.

Whichever method you choose (or require) we're here to help guide you.  For assistance in checking your network for this product and developing a plan to eliminate this vulnerability just give us a call at (310) 782-6112 or e-mail support@swallservices.com.

For more information please visit: http://blogs.adobe.com/adobereader/2011/09/adobe-reader-and-acrobat-version-8-end-of-support.html

Changes Effective July 1, 2011

Swall’s Associated Services would like to thank you for the opportunity to service your technology needs for the past years.  I have been truly honored to have you as a client and as a friend.

In the ten years that have passed since Swall’s Associated Services’ inception we have gone through many phases.  We started out just like most other IT Service providers of the day utilizing the break/fix service model.  During our many years of providing services to our clients in this fashion I have often felt that there must be a better way.  Having our clients – people I often consider as personal friends, experience downtime, outages and other business pains that could have been prevented (as opposed to fixed after the fact) always really bothered me.  I didn’t want to see our clients go through these horrible events in the first place.  Business stoppages, backups lost with important business data or family photos never to be recovered again – as much as I enjoyed getting to be the IT hero of the day, I would get equally depressed when I had to be the bearer of bad news when I knew that in the aftermath that there was important data lost, never to be recovered again.

I never got to truly be a partner to our clients that I wanted to be.  The depressing fact is that in the break/fix service model the more pain our clients felt the more money we made as it was in times of crisis that our services were needed the most.  Our economic stability was tied to our clients having more problems, not less.  This bothered me so much that at one point I even considered closing up shop and stepping away from the business to find something more personally fulfilling.  This was never a viable answer to me however as this would do nothing to address this problem for my clients – in my absence another IT service provider would simply take our place using the same, flawed business model.  I needed to find a solution that would benefit not only me personally, but our clients too. 

What I needed was to find a business model that allowed me to truly partner with our clients.  A new business model where my business only succeeded when our clients succeeded and equally caused my business pain when theirs was in pain.  I needed a revolution – a way of doing business so utterly unique and different than our previous model that a name change was in order…

Introducing Swall’s Business Consultants

I have spent the last year on a personal and professional journey to find a better way to partner with our clients.  I have met with various business owners, attended many workshops, read several books and all have led me to the same conclusion:  The break/fix service model should be a thing of the past – there is a better way. 

Here is what I learned about my business and how our business model needed to change to become a true partner to our clients and give each and every one of them the most value:

1. Stop charging by the hour – no one likes that.  Over the past fifteen years we have moved from paying 25 cents a minute for long distance on your home telephone to having unlimited mobile to mobile calling from anywhere to anywhere on our mobile phone.  Why shouldn’t IT be the same way?   An easy-to-budget flat rate each and every month for unlimited support.
   
2. Stop waiting until a problem happens to fix it – prevent the problem from occurring in the first place.  Now can every problem be prevented?  No, of course not – but many problems can be if they are caught early enough.  In the ten years we have been in business many advances in remote monitoring and reporting technologies allow us to know a problem exists before you even do.  Wouldn’t it be much nicer to get a call in the morning saying “We noticed your e-mail went out in the middle of the night last night so we got it fixed for you before you got into the office” instead of showing up first thing in the morning and realizing you have no communication with the outside world?
   
3. No one has time to manage their technology – managing their business itself is already demanding enough.  I agree.  All anyone ever really wants is everything to work when they need it to and one throat to choke when it doesn’t, right?  That’s why we don’t just manage your computers; we also manage your copiers, your phone system, even your wireless carrier so that when anything goes wrong with the technology in your office you only have to remember one phone number – ours.  Let us know what’s going on and then it becomes our problem to follow-up on and is off your plate so you can get back to managing your business.
   
4. Everyone hates buying computers, especially when everyone knows they are just going to need to be replaced again in a few years.  I totally agree – so don’t buy them.  Computers are a horrible investment.  You have to spend all this money on the hardware, then the software, then you can’t even take the purchase off this year’s taxes – you have to depreciate it over several years.  By the time you finally get to deduct the purchase price of your computer you already have to buy another one to replace it!  That’s why we include whatever computers or servers you need as part of our flat monthly fee – which turns your bad capital investment into a much more manageable operational expense that’s fully tax deductible each and every month.

Taking these lessons into account I realized I wasn’t simply looking at needing to design a new service model, but a completely new way of doing business.  Something so drastically different than before that our company name itself no longer expressed who we were as a company.  In that revelation a new company was born – Swall’s Business Consultants.

The Flat-Rate Revolution Is Here!

Swall’s Business Consultants is excited to announce our new service model and offering, IT Concierge, which will allow a more pro-active response to your technology needs and additional benefits and services to help you run your business. 

Just a few of these benefits include:

How will this affect your current relationship with Swall’s Associated Services?

As of July 1, 2011 Swall’s Associated Services will begin slowly phasing out the break/fix service model your company is currently utilizing.  This includes the discontinuance of all discount pricing and pre-paid agreements.  In addition, our break/fix hourly rates will increase to $125 per hour due to the increases in material, labor and operating costs brought about by the inefficiencies of the break/fix model and will continue to increase on a quarterly basis.  We will however offer a 5% prompt payment discount for invoices paid within 10 days of issuance and a 10% discount for signing up for automatic billing using your credit card or checking account.

Please call me to discuss the opportunity to convert all your existing agreements over to our new service model, IT Concierge.  There are many new discounts and benefits you are eligible for by converting.  With IT Concierge, you will enjoy all of the benefits you are already accustom to plus the additional service listed above with the ease of proactive, well planned services at your fingertips.  You manage your business, and we’ll manage the technology behind it.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to services your technology needs.  We are excited to introduce and offer you the newest concept of IT Management.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 310-782-6112 x11.

Sincerely,

Justin Swall
President
Swall’s Business Consultants

Price Increase Effective June 1, 2010

During the first quarter of 2010 we have undergone several changes, both planned and unplanned. As you are probably already aware from my previous letters, Daniel has left us to accept an exciting new internship in his field of study and Lynnei has since joined us full time. In the midst of this turnover we have also continued to innovate and expand our service offerings through new strategic partnerships with various vendors and industry associations such as CompTIA, Microsoft, Ingram Micro, OwnWebNow, SMBTN, MSPU and Chartec to name a few. These partnerships are just the beginning.

With new technologies emerging and changing at an ever increasing pace, it has become increasingly important for us to devote more time and energy into several key aspects of our business to ensure we have access to, and are trained on, the widest breadth of technology solutions available today. In order to ensure we are best able to pair your business with the best technology solution for your future growth and both efficiency and profit we will be investing heavily in our own growth over the next year.

We will continue to expand upon the work we have already started this year by increasing the number of strategic partnerships we have with leading industry vendors and associations. We will increase our investment in training on the newest technologies as well as continuing our search for additional technical experts to join our team.

Unfortunately due to the cost of this investment, including the cost of staying current on the latest emerging technologies, the projected costs of adding on to our team, and the unforeseen costs associated with our turnover earlier in the year, we are unable to maintain our current prices. Effective June 1, 2010 our á la carte hourly rate will increase to $100.00 per hour up from $59.95 per hour. This price increase affects our á la carte hourly rate only; rates for our clients with contract discounts will not change at this time.

I regret that such a large increase is necessary, but after careful consideration and discussion it is unavoidable. For more information regarding this price increase please visit my blog at swallservices.com.

Price Increase Effective June 1, 2010 - More Information

Why are your prices going up so much, so quickly?

To be candid, Swall's Associated Services operates at a loss and always has. Not every year is a loss mind you, but if you look at the past 10 years as a whole it is a net loss. This is primarily due to the feast/famine nature of reactive IT support (client's only call when something is broken) and that I have been holding down our prices artificially up until now. I have needed to increase the prices drastically for some time now.

What do you mean "operates at a loss"? You wouldn't still be in business after 10 years if you didn't make any money - that doesn't make any sense...

Let me clarify a bit. Every year, except one or two years, the company does post a profit - but what's left over after taxes usually isn't enough for me to live on. By the end of the year I am more in debt than I was the year before. Not by much mind you, but it's still an increasing negative number.

That still doesn't make any sense... doing the math you should make...

In this industry there is a lot of time spent learning about new technologies, researching solutions to uncommon problems, etc. For every hour of billable time there is anywhere from 3 to 5 hours of non-billable work as well. That combined with my additional plans going forward - needing to make time to hire, etc. that ratio will probably get worse during this year. The end result - there's a lot less billable hours in a week than you think.

Then you're probably just spending too much money - you need to budget better.

I probably could budget better - but those of you that know me personally know that I don't live rich. I own one pair of shoes, four pairs of pants, and enough shirts to go with them to last me two weeks before I have to do laundry. I don't go out to concerts or to the movies, I don't drive a fancy car, I haven't had a vacation or any length in more than 10 years and yet I still haven't found the money in my personal budget for health insurance or savings of any kind.

Why have you taken so long to raise prices then?

Good question - I don't know. I have a very deep sense of loyalty to the clients that have helped build my business over the years and I didn't want to raise prices on them. I have consistently raised prices over the years, but unfortunately due to how my business started, many of our oldest clients came in at such low rates that it's been difficult to ratchet those rates up quick enough with only a couple percentage points a year. I ultimately realized I'd eventually be out of business if I didn't just bite the bullet and raise the prices significantly - which is what I'm doing now.

Why don't you just raise prices for new clients and keep your existing clients at the lower rate?

Simply put, there are no new clients and I'm not looking for any new clients right now either. At this point I'm fully booked - in order to take on a new client I'd either have to hire immediately or let go of an existing client. Hiring takes a lot of time and money - neither of which I currently have or can afford without raising prices on our current client base.

How did your company get started?

Swall's Associated Services was started out of high school thanks to my neighbor, Stefan Malczewski, who used to bring his son's friend from across the street (me) into his company to fix their computers. By the time I was out of high school he had referred me to several other businesses and I had a client base.

Being straight out of high school my rates were dirt cheap, as to be expected, and because of that I grew a rather large client base in a short amount of time. 90% of our current clients have been with us since near the beginning - only a small handful have been added the past few years.

In Conclusion

My only motive for writing this entry is that I wanted to be candid about the reasons behind why I have to make the change I am making. I hate raising prices - I really do. Unfortunately it's time for my rates to come better in line with the rest of the industry. Clearly they all knew something all this time that I refused to see - you can't be profitable in this industry charging such low rates.

If there is a question I didn't address in this post please add it to the comments below and I'll do my best to answer it for you.

Local Company Receives National Industry Honors and Certification

Leading Managed Services Provider Selected for Product Line

March 19, 2010 Bakersfield, CA—Today CharTec released the next wave of the select few Managed Service Providers authorized to provide their product line. CharTec, a Hardware as a Service (HaaS) solution available to hand selected channel members, includes custom hardware, licensing fulfillment, and content filtering all neatly packaged for resale to end user clients. The product received the prestigious “Innovation of the Year Award” for Managed Services by Business Solution Magazine and three Channel Insider “Bull’s-eye” Awards in 2009.

The CharTec Academy training included rigorous sales process education, meticulous understanding of MSP Best Practices and delivery, and a concentration on presentation performance for MSP’s across the US. CharTec stresses that not every company applying for the program will be accepted.

This group of attendees received training on the CharTec VMS (Voice Management System), the latest product designed by CharTec engineers for VoIP, as well as the value added products from Kutenda, ConnectWise, OwnWebNow, Doyenz, and gloStream.

“This is the third wave of 2010 CharTec Partners, and includes a few inaugural Partners, too. Again, we have hand selected them for their ability to properly deliver Managed Services in the channel,” said Alex Rogers, creator and CEO of CharTec. “They understand the CharTec vision of providing a ‘Beyond HaaS’ experience for their clients and strengthening the IT nation. We are continually impressed by partners who have passion and the ability to execute a totally unique Managed Service offering and we are proud to welcome this next wave into our elite club.”

Swall's Associated Services is a Managed Service Provider operating in Long Beach, California providing premiere technology services to professional businesses. As a select CharTec® partner, Swall's Associated Services received Academy training on the product line in Bakersfield, CA and is now fully authorized to deliver the solution.

Update - Feb 15, 2010

It is with both excitement and regret that I announce Daniel will be resigning effective, Friday, February 19, 2010 to pursue an exciting new internship in his field of study, electrical engineering. He has been an invaluable asset and he will be greatly missed.

Although it will be impossible to replace Daniel, I am actively hiring to not only fill the gap that will be left by his departure, but to also increase our existing service capacity to give you faster response times and a higher level of service. I will be temporarily assisting Daniel's clients, until his successor is found. I want to assure you that you will not be forgotten. For any clients who have specific projects that Daniel has been working on, he will continue to do so, at his availability. I do not envision having any problems responding to critical issues in a timely manner, however non-critical projects may be slightly delayed until new employees are hired.

Please join me in congratulating Daniel on his new endeavor and thanking him for his years of service - he will be missed.