JOIN US IN THE FIGHT

September 5th, 2010

JOIN US IN THE FIGHT AGAINST

JUVENILE (TYPE 1) DIABETES

Juvenile (Type 1) Diabetes is an insidious condition that attacks predominantly the most vulnerable members of society, our kids.

People afflicted with diabetes see their bodies unable to properly regulate blood glucose (blood sugar) levels.  The hormone responsible for distributing glucose, evolved from the foods we eat, to the cells throughout the body is insulin. The organ in the human body responsible for producing insulin is the pancreas. For those of you, along with your loved ones,  with a healthy pancreas and auto-regulated blood sugar levels, consider yourself blessed.

For without a healthy, functioning pancreas, life is never easy and always very fragile.

Without insulin, the body is unable to distribute glucose and this sugar stays in the bloodstream. The impact of glucose staying in the bloodstream on various organs in the body is debilitating and often life-threatening.

As there is no known cure for Type 1 Diabetes and restoring the body to where it can regulate its blood sugar through the production of insulin, those diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes historically and currently are committed to a daily regimen of monitoring blood sugar levels and injecting insulin to help regulate.

Blood sugar levels for those without the ability to have their bodies auto-regulate, are impossible to predict as they are impacted by numerous factors all interrelating. Even with food intake and exercise being carefully balanced and rigorously controlled, it is very difficult to maintain a  consistent and appropriate blood sugar level. A job that a healthy body with a healthy pancreas handles with ease.

For young children diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, their lives and the lives of their parents are forever transformed.  Daily life for parents become entangled with finger pricks, blood sugar monitoring devices, insulin pumps, shots and the constant vigil of  monitoring. Monitoring not only the blood sugar levels of our loved ones by drawing blood and reading meters, but also monitoring their behavior for signs for hypo or hyperglycemia and being prepared to act quickly.  It is a  regimen that never takes a break. It is a 7 x 24 task that constantly tugs at a parent’s heart and causes them to question,  unnecessarily,  what they have done wrong to commit their child to the daily routine that is dealing with Type 1.

No one yet knows why the body’s immune system decides to attack and destroy cells in the pancreas involved in insulin production, in as many as 15,000 new children per year in the U.S. But there is progress being made in finding a cure, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Starnet is proud to be associated with the JDRF as an official sponsor and advocate. The JDRF is the leading charitable organization dedicated to finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes through the funding of research.

Please join us in our quest to help find a cure.

For more information on what Starnet is doing to support the cause please visit:

REBATE FOR CHARITY

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What’s The Best Phone System for Our Customer?

July 18th, 2010

As most Telephony system resellers know, when we engage with a new customer prospect they have likely already come to the table with a preconceived idea as to which manufacturer or particular system is the best for them. This preconception is usually the result of a features analysis. Our presence is often just for validation.

We telephony resellers, as long time purveyors of telephony technology, can arrogantly state a case that our customers are misinformed. And that may likely be the case, but not necessarily for the reasons we might conclude.

What ultimately defines what the best telephony system is for our customers?

I would argue that the best system for our customers cannot be answered in the present tense. To my thinking the best telephony system for our customer is the one, that after 6-12 months of operation is consistently meeting the customer’s expectations in areas of performance, reliability and user adoption.

If this premise is correct, then the key analysis to determining what the best telephony system for our customers is lies in understanding what factors contribute most to long term performance, reliability and user adoption. I would argue these factors have nothing to do with features or phone design or any other typical criteria that customers will likely base their decision on.

If you have been experiencing the same situations as Starnet, then you are likely gaining at least a few new service customers each month who had purchased the “right” system but from an incapable dealer. And now are looking for help. My belief is, had that customer purchased any system from a dealer who was able to maintain the system and the relationship to a reasonable degree, that the customer’s overall satisfaction would be higher despite any features deficiency.

The best telephony system for our customer is ultimately the one that can be designed, delivered, installed and maintained by the entity that can best insure that the system will perform at an optimum level over the long haul.

I don’t mean to discount the importance of features, but I’m basing my point on a number of factors that would seem to lessen the importance of a protracted features comparison

1)      Seasoned telephony resellers likely represent brands that have, at a minimum, 95%-98% of the features the system that the prospective customer is leaning towards

2)      The difference in features between leading brands is very small and I would venture to say in the vast majority of instances, inconsequential, and lasts only as long as until the next release offered by the competition (the leap frog factor)

3)      Any advanced or significant feature differentiation comes into play in only a very small number of scenarios

Seasoned telephony resellers all face the challenge of competing with our new customer prospect’s existing mindset coming into the engagement. In accepting my premise as accurate, the issue of what system is the best system for our prospective customer really lies in what the seasoned reseller’s individual capabilities are in designing, delivering installing and maintaining for the long haul.

Our biggest challenges are no doubt –

1)      Convincing our customer prospects that the best telephony system for them is not really about the system, but about who is putting it in

2)      Articulating that the determination of what is the best system cannot be made in the present tense and should not be a features discussion and

3)      Making sure that we, as purveyors of telephony technology, have the right stuff to, for whatever system we install for our customer, maintain the system’s value and viability over the long term

Assuming that we seasoned telephony resellers are all expert in maintaining the value and viability of the systems we represent over the long term, then the answer to the question is very straightforward.

What’s the best telephony system for our prospective customers? If were committed to the customer, it’s the one we ‘re offering.

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Technology Decay

February 22nd, 2010

TECHNOLOGY DECAY

Can It Be Effectively Addressed By

Mid-Market Solutions Providers?

All customers of high-technology solutions experience, to some degree, a phenomenon Starnet refers to as “Technology Decay”.

Technology Decay can be summarized as the diminishing rate of return (ROR) on high technology investments as the result of the declining performance of those investments, relative to the initial rate of return directly following implementation.

The causes of Technology Decay are many and complex yet the measures to inhibit or prevent it are relatively simple. Despite the simplicity of these measures, most high-technology customers can point to specific and often significant cases of Technology Decay within their organizations.

These causes are predominantly maintenance related. These include the traditional ‘product’ maintenance measures (i.e., software versioning, hardware care, environmental factors). But perhaps more importantly, the factors that lead to the greatest amount of declining rate of return on technology investments are people- related. Most notably product use re-training, system training for new employees and re-synchronizing system design to meet the ever-changing market dynamics experienced by business and other users of high-technology solutions.

It should be clearly evident that most technology implementations deliver their highest ROR directly following implementation. The need for the solution is clearly in play, the products are versioned correctly, the hardware is new, the training is fresh and the usage of the technology is mandated by management and supported efficiently by staff.

Over time, these factors all diminish. In many cases the technology solution is not maintained to a level that enables it to yield an optimum or even acceptable ROR, as compared to what the investment delivered directly following implementation.

Why is this costly phenomenon allowed to occur?

In most cases, the technology solution was initially purchased and implemented to either increase revenue by providing competitive advantage, or to reduce expense by improving efficiency. In some cases, the factor or condition that inspired the technology purchase is no longer in play and the interest of the organization in ‘maintaining’ the technology wanes. As a result, Technology Decay© occurs without significant justification to address it.

In most cases again, the condition or factor that inspired the initial purchase is still in play when Technology Decay sets in, but it has been supplanted at the forefront of the organization’s mindset by more current issues. As a result, efforts to maintain the ROR on the technology investment lose mindshare. Technology Decay then sets in at a cost to the organization far greater than the cost to inhibit or eliminate it.

Can Technology Decay be addressed by today’s mid-market solution providers to aid their customers in realizing optimum rates of return on their investments over time?

Most certainly, with the correct focus and service deliverable offering.

At Starnet we have created a voice communications solution to assist our customers to combat Technology Decay. StarASSURE is designed to minimize the effects of Technology Decay by prescribing a predefined set of services that are delivered over time, specifically designed to minimize both the technology and people related causes. StarASSURE™ is intended to assure our customers that they will earn the maximum rate of return on their technology investments over time.

Our StarASSURE™ solution includes prescribed ‘strategic’ maintenance services such as quarterly onsite configuration review sessions, quarterly on-site training/re-training sessions, monthly onsite system health and data backup visits as well as ‘tactical’ technical support and problem resolution services.

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Technology Maintenance Agreements

August 31st, 2009

As network design and engineering professionals, it is peculiar to find ourselves in the role of insurance salespeople. But that’s where we seem to find ourselves now, every day.

A large part of our responsibility to our customers is to help them keep their keep their networks, and the applications that ride them, up and running optimally. This job can be relatively easy or horribly complex, depending on a lot of factors. One of the most critical is a customer’s decision to invest in, or not invest in, UPTIME INSURANCE in the form of Technology Maintenance. We refer to this purchase as an investment in that, if managed correctly, it will always yield a return.

Many small-to-midsize businesses have trouble justifying annual costs for technology maintenance. When an entity chooses to not renew their maintenance agreements for software updates and failed equipment replacement, they put themselves at risk and they make the job of keeping the network up and optimized extremely difficult.

A great analogy to use is that of your car. Most of us don’t think twice about taking our cars in for oil changes and regular maintenance. Why? Because if we don’t we know there will be a much larger price to pay if the engine in our car fails.

A similar case can be made for your voice and data networking equipment, it’s just that it’s harder to quantify. The cost for rebuilding the engine in your car is very real and easy to consider. The loss of your network or your phone system for a day or 2 is not.

For many customers, as time marches on and their equipment keeps functioning, they lose perspective of their risks. Many customers will buy maintenance for the first few years of ownership. And then after making the investment for a few years without any incident to re-enforce the justification, they stop. “My system has been running for 3 years without fail. Why am I buying maintenance again?”

This logic is completely upside down. Using a layered-thinking approach can help justify the investment in technology maintenance. The longer your voice and data networking equipment runs without failure, the greater the chance for failure in the coming year. Combine this fact with the increasing risks from environmental factors, most notably inconsistent power which can wreak havoc on sensitive computer equipment. Add these factors to the relatively low costs for annual maintenance on most equipment. And then consider the inefficiencies of not having the most current releases of operating firmware on your networking equipment.

How do we make the claim that a Technology Maintenance purchase is an investment?

To our way of thinking, your Technology Maintenance purchase should always be coupled with a periodic (quarterly) review of your equipment “state” and performance. At Starnet, we also like to include periodic user and administrator training to create a more comprehensive Technology Maintenance option.

Most technology suppliers come out with 2-3 software updates per year. These software updates typically include bug fixes, performance enhancements and new features. Usually a quick review of the “Release Notes” on a new release can identify what benefits can be gained by applying.

For a nominal sum for most technologies, customers can provide their network a periodic boost in performance while also having protection against hardware failing.

Starnet is aware that many customers today need to cut costs. But for most enterprises today, the network is the heart of the business. When the network, or a component within, is not running optimally, productivity suffers. When a component is down the impact is significant.

If it’s hard to make the business case in your mind to purchase NETWORK UPTIME INSURANCE, please contact us. We have some programs we can offer to minimize the cost and cash-flow impact of protecting the heart of your business, providing you access to all software updates and onsite replacements within 4-24 hours, while including periodic network tune-ups.

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