S O U T H B A Y T E C H N O L O G Y
The Benefits of
IT Investment
in
a Down Economy
BY R. BOYD ZACK
D
URING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN,
CUTBACKS ARE OFTEN UNAVOIDABLE.
However, IT is among the business cate-
gories in which cutbacks can actually cost a com-
pany more in the long run. As a business owner, it is
extremely likely that you are seeing price pressures
all around your office. Insurance costs seem to be on
a space race to the moon. Energy costs to power our
offices and factories are becoming very noticeable
line items on our financials and blowing our budgets
beyond belief. Not to be left out, even the post office
is getting into the practice of raising rates.
Another area where technology investment
can provide a high return
is through server virtualization.
The computing power of today’s computer servers
is so great that through the use of
special operating system software
we can deploy several logical (or virtual) servers
on a single physical server.
Virtualized servers not only provide
a higher level of reliability and availability,
but they also consume less energy.
18 S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R
G U I D E
While the price of the technology may not seem to go down,
the amount of usefulness of the technology will go up at a
higher rate than the actual cost, thereby reducing the effective
cost of the technology. In other words, a $500 computer might
cost $500 or even $550 in the future, but what that future com-
puter can do will exceed what the current $500 computer can
do by far more than the price increase. This fact will help offset
other rises in the cost of doing business.
History has shown that companies that make strategic invest-
ments during down times often emerge as leaders at the time of
the upswing. In recent years, declining revenue in the entertain-
ment industry has been very rough on some of the giants in the
field, allowing for the rise of underdogs such as Apple with its
iTunes technologies. While icons such as Warner Music Group
were slashing costs in every area of their business, Apple was
investing heavily in its unproven technologies in an area it had
not previously even had a presence.
Some areas of technology investment in tough economic
times can be easy to show a reasonable ROI in labor costs
alone. Take system integration: the process of connecting sys-
tems together in such a manner that they can share data and
become a common source of information. By integrating sys-
tems together, reductions in labor costs through a decrease in
redundant data entry or elimination of work or errors can be
realized. At the same time, increases in production or in features
can be achieved without increasing costs associated with pro-
viding the products through increases in efficiencies.
Another area where technology investment can provide a
high return is through server virtualization. The computing
power of today’s computer servers is so great that through the
use of special operating system software, we can deploy several
logical (or virtual) servers on a single physical server. Virtualized
servers not only provide a higher level of reliability and availabil-
ity, but they also consume less energy. This means they generate
less heat, which can further reduce energy costs associated with
server room cooling. Again, when calculating the ROI from such
an investment, we cannot assume that energy costs will remain
M A G A Z I N E T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E 2
constant or even increase as they have passing the increases to our customers or uating the issue in those areas.
historically. Instead, we must assume they cutting back in other areas. What we need to do is find ways to get
will increase at an ever climbing rate. One problem with taking either of more from what we have without the
Additionally, we should expect and even these two approaches is that they are sim- wholesale cutting and slashing that dimin-
plan on making greater use of our computer ply unsustainable. When we pass our ishes our value to our customers. Often,
and technology resources to enable us to do increased costs to our customers, it forces accomplishing this can be challenging at
more with less. With current versions of them to either do the same with their cus- best and downright painful or potentially
Outlook, users are finding they can retrieve tomers, cut costs in other areas or reduce fatal at worst. One example of a counterin-
voice message through e-mail and hold their spending with us. Similarly when tuitive approach to raising costs is to invest
meetings without leaving their desks. we cut costs in reaction to increases in
continued on Tech Guide page 4
Through the use of remote desktop applica- costs in other areas, we tend to be perpet-
tions, workers are finding increased produc-
tivity operating from home, while still
having the full computer resources found in
Small- to Medium-Sized Business?
the office. And with current cell phone (and
PDA) technology, we can access our e-mail
We’re Your Outsourced IT Department!
anytime and anywhere.
ɻ Network more efficiently for your business flow
Lately it seems we can’t pick up a ɻ Benefit from custom programming & support
paper, watch the news or visit any on-line ɻ Vacation fill-ins for your regular IT staff
news source without hearing about the ɻ Fast response & quick solutions
economic forecast. Are we headed ɻ Experience with a wide range of industries
toward a recession? Are we in a reces-
sion? How bad will it get and how long
will it last?
DME (310) 991-1464
The answers to these questions Computer Consulting Services 18402 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite C, Torrance, CA 90504
become crystal clear only after change
has taken place. And we know we are
through the worst of it when we see a
sustained improvement. One challenge
we must face and try to understand is that
what we do and how we respond while
we are in it has a dramatic effect on the
downturn itself. Sometimes a seemingly
logical response to a bad situation does
nothing more than make that bad situa-
tion even worse.
For example: A logical response to a
downward trend in sales may be to cut
costs across the board. The problem with
this type of response is that it can very
easily make the trend worse. If sales have
declined due to additional features of a
competitor’s product, an increase in prod-
uct development funding could have a
much more positive effect on the overall
health of the organization. If the decline
is the result of perceived value, an
increase in marketing or even an increase
in price might better align the company
with its targets.
Unfortunately, business is not always
as simple as analyzing the situation and
brilliantly coming up with the solution
that is counterintuitive. When faced with
higher costs, we tend to look at either

3 T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R M A G A Z I N E 19
S O U T H B A Y T E C H N O L O G Y
BENEFITS OF IT INVESTMENT
continued from Tech Guide page 3
in people. While we often look at training
in times of plenty, we must not set it aside
in lean times. Take management training,
for example. The goal of management is to
accomplish objectives through others. With
effective management training, we can
often learn to accomplish more through
others, thereby either reducing our costs or
increasing our offering. With effective time
management training, we can learn to
spend more time in our high payoff activi-
ties and less in our lower return tasks.
Another means of getting more from
what we have in the area of IT is to
expand or refine our systems to do a bet-
ter job at saving us time and money. Take
a poll of the business system users within
your organization and ask them what
could make their job easier and what
areas of the systems are difficult to use.
Often you will find that with relatively
minor adjustments to the systems, major
productivity gains can be achieved. You
may also find that a complete replace-
20 S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S
G U I D E
ment of a system (or systems) can save
you a significant amount in labor costs
through increases in efficiencies.
When evaluating returns on such
investments, we cannot take prior con-
stants as constants. The world is changing
and will continue to change at an ever-
increasing rate. Prices for many things are
going up and will continue to go up,
while some are going down and will
effectively continue to go down. If you
were considering purchasing a Toyota
Prius about 18 months ago, you may
have looked at the mileage, number of
miles you tend to drive and the price of
the car and then compared that cost to
the truck you were driving at the time that
was paid off and getting 15 miles per gal-
lon. With the average price of gas at
$2.14/gallon it could have come to a 15-
year payback, assuming the price of gas
was going to increase at the slow rate it
had been over the prior several years.
Taking the current $4.00-plus/gallon
price, you could be looking at an eight-
year payback. More realistically, the price
I N S I D E R M A G A Z I N E
of gas is not going to do much else other
than continue to increase at higher rates,
resulting in an even quicker payback.
We can bank on the fact that com-
modities produced from natural resources
will continue to go up while technology
products will effectively continue to fall in
actual cost. Putting it into context, the
actual cost of a loaf of bread will continue
to rise due to the costs associated with
producing a loaf of bread and the amount
of natural resources that go into the bread,
while the effective cost of a piece of tech-
nology will continue to go down.
While seeking the magic bullet that will
enable our businesses to survive these
rough economic times, we need to look at
payoff over longer periods of time than we
may be used to considering. Technology is
going to continue to progress at a very
rapid pace, even keeping up with the rais-
ing price of gas. Our challenge is to make
effective use of the technology available to
us and to not waste it away as we have
done with gas. You have more computer
power on your desktop than was on board
the first space shuttle, and more in your
cell phone than our astronauts brought to
the moon. Are you using it to the potential
under your fingertips?
R. Boyd Zack is the president and CEO of
R.B. Zack & Associates, Inc, a Torrance,
California-based company with 27 years of
experience in developing, integrating,
implementing, maintaining and support-
ing custom business software and IT ser-
vices. “Building Business Applications that
Work Since 1981.” Boyd can be con-
tacted at Boyd.Zack@rbza.com or via the
Web at www.rbza.com or by phone at
310.303.3320.
The 2008 South Bay Technology Guide
is a special supplement of:
Main Website: www.BusinessInsider.us
Classified Advertising Site:
www.TheBizBoard.net
BIM Publications —
Business Insider Magazine
P.O. Box 1032
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274
(310) 872-9732
info@BusinessInsider.us
©2008 BIM Publications
All Rights Reserved
T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E 4
Technology Providers
Alpha Computer Support, Inc.
Alpha Computer Support is a small office-home
office/small business consulting company. We are cus-
tomer oriented and as a small business ourself, we
understand the value of keeping an eye on the bottom
line. We have experience in all of the Microsoft Win-
dows operating systems. Our server and desktop sup-
port includes: migration, new systems and servers,
training, back-ups, fault tolerance. disaster recovery,
anti-virus, hardware, workstations, laptops and
upgrades. Network services include: VPN, LAN/WAN,
firewalls, routers, wireless networking, network cabling
and troubleshooting and DSL/cable modems.
310-374-0666
611 Green Lane, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
www.alphacomputersupport.com

The Cyber Boardroom

The Cyber Boardroom offers three amazingly
equipped conference rooms of various sizes and
unique character that are ideal for any occasion. Every
room (The Royal, The Lennox and the Manchester)
comes equipped with a 40-inch monitor that can be
used for everything from television viewing to pro-
jected presentations, a telephone capable of confer-
encing up to four outside parties, and our exclusive
“Gigabyte” high-speed Internet access either through
a wired or wireless connection. Each room is an inde-
pendent sound zone with an adjustable volume con-
trol for presentation audio or ambient music. The
Cyber Boardroom also has a Wi-Fi lounge and a full
range of powerhouse computers for office or graphic
work, scanners, faxes and printers. 310-393-7904
4451 Redondo Beach Blvd., Lawndale, CA 90269
www.TheCyberBoardroom.com

DME Computer Consulting Services

If you run a small- to medium-sized business in the
South Bay, save time and money by outsourcing your
IT department to DME Computer Consulting Services.
Keep your network running efficiently, improve your
workflow and benefit from custom programming and
support. We also handle vacation fill-ins for your IT
staff. Get a fast response and quick solutions from an
A+ Authorized service center with experience in a
wide range of industries. 310-991-1464
3418 W. 224th St., Torrance, CA 90505

Holden-Andrew Corporation
Since 1991, Holden-Andrew Corporation has deliv-
ered systems integration and support services to its
clients. With principal staff coming from security,
finance, and aerospace related sectors, the firm has
always maintained systems security as its foundation.
With Holden-Andrew Corporation, you’re not only
bringing on a company with industry partnerships, but
a leader in the Information Technology field. Through
its suite of Evolution Connect Services, Holden-
Andrew is leading the way for companies looking to
utilize managed and cost effective technology solu-
tions. Using products like VoIP Systems that deliver
powerful reporting tools, hosted application servers,
electronic and print marketing, interactive website
design and data storage services, Holden-Andrew gives
companies the opportunity to consolidate their busi-
ness operations costs. Going beyond the desktop,
Holden-Andrew Corporation is your total IT and busi-
ness solutions provider. Ask for account executive
Melissa Stewart or e-mail her at MStewart@HoldenAn-
drew.com for more information. 310-792-4999
3528 Torrance Blvd, Suite 320, Torrance, CA 90503
www.holdenandrew.com

IMiN Instant Messaging

IMiN is the first true secure instant messaging solution
designed specifically for business users. IMiN is a fully
continued on Tech Guide page 7

5 T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R M A G A Z I N E 21
S O U T H B A Y T E C H N O L O G Y
Want Website Visibility?
Get Prepared For Spiders
BY CAYLEY VOS
N
O, NOT THE CREEPY CRAWLERS THAT INVADE YOUR
HOUSE… THERE’S NOTHING CREEPY ABOUT THE SPIDERS WE’RE
TALKING ABOUT — these crawlers (that’s the other
name for them) move through the Internet at nearly the speed
of light. Dispatched by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and
MSN Live, these spiders zip over every attribute of your website to
see how it measures up. They judge your site by algorithms that will
determine if a search will return your site listed on results page one,
page seven, or page 62.
Because search engine algorithms are kept secret and are
frequently changed, preparing a site for high ranking and
keeping it there is a demanding task; one that is never fin-
ished. There is no right and final answer, but there are much
discussed guidelines that follow search engine best practices
and can virtually guarantee you a slot on page one. Search
Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the generic term for the pro-
cess of tuning a website so that it achieves the best possible
search results — as close as possible to a page one listing.
Your website must be designed for effective communica-
tion with a human being, and part of that design must be sat-
isfying the search engines that bring it to the visitor. A site
must have strong elements that visitors can connect and
engage with, as well as copious copy, well labeled images
and keyword-rich title tags for search engines. This is not a
slam dunk task.
Search engine spiders like an interesting buffet of copy,
keywords, text and links. You want to have 200–500 words of
copy per page, well labeled images, plentiful navigation links
and a keyword-rich title tag. Common problems are sites that
are heavy in graphics, interactive media/flash/video and
audio. An easy test to see if your website fails the text test is to
use the view source button on your browser or use this auto-
22 S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R M A G A Z I N E
G U I D E
mated tool: www.netpaths.net/tool/spider .
The web crawler has not dropped in to try an entrée or
two. It’s there as a sort of Digital Health Department with a
critical eye and a long checklist: — Are there incoming links
from other websites? — What is the quantity and quality of
content? — Is the content grammatically correct with no mis-
spellings? — Is the site unique or redundant? — How many
internal links are there and how many are broken? — How
many unique visitors, page views, revisits and conversions
can be measured? — Is the source code technically precise?
It may seem like an intimidating checklist, but a fundamen-
tally sound website will have a good chance at ranking well
in the search engines.
We may not be afraid of spiders, but if we want good
search results, we must prepare for them.
The spiders are coming. But don’t call an exterminator.
Update the text on your website and prepare for more busi-
ness.
Cayley Vos is the owner of www.Netpaths.net, a forward think-
ing Web design company that focuses on providing high value
services to the online market. You can improve the value of
your business with a well-designed and promoted website.
Cayley can be reached at 310-372-3086.
T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E 6
TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS
continued from Tech Guide page 5
scalable and secure instant messaging and communi-
cations software solution adopted by some of the top
financial, legal, gaming and entertainment businesses.
The IMiN instant messaging server lets you capitalize
on the powerful new advantages of real-time enter-
prise-accelerating revenue growth, productivity, oper-
ational efficiency and profitability. Make faster, better
decisions. Empower managers and associates to do
more in real time. Available through our network of
channel partners and alliances, IMiN secure instant
messaging software is the securest, simplest and most
scalable instant messaging solution available in the
market. 310-303-3320
23844 Hawthorne Blvd. #101, Torrance CA 90505
www.ebs-imin.com
range computer environments. RBZ&A brings more
than 26 years in computer services to the table with
an excellent management team promoting a conta-
gious “can do” mindset. It also has an uncanny ability
to understand complex business problems and to
accommodate the needs of even the most sophisti-
cated customer. RBZ&A’s extensive experience with
both mainframe and client server technology coupled
with an in-depth understanding of business processes
makes it uniquely qualified to migrate older systems
onto new platforms. 310-303-3320
23844 Hawthorne Blvd. #101, Torrance CA 90505
www.rbza.com
WeFixPrinters.com
WeFixPrinters.com has been repairing laser/ink jet
printers and fax machines in the Greater Los Angeles
area for almost 20 years. We also sell toner, ink and
other office supplies via our Redondo Beach retail store
and e-commerce site, which features over 6,500 office
products. WeFixPrinters.com provides on-site service to
small and large companies, and services most major
makes and models. We are the South Bay’s only autho-
rized service facility for Canon inkjets, photo printers
and scanners. WeFixPrinters.com offers full service
printer repair and supplies. Our goal is to make servic-
ing your equipment hassle-free so that we can reduce
downtime, while extending the lifetime of your equip-
ment. Call today to set up your corporate account!
310-937-4588
2895 190th St., Redondo Beach, CA 90278
www.WeFixPrinters.com

Konica Minolta Business Solutions

Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA Inc., a leader in
advanced imaging and networking technologies for the
desktop to the print shop, brings together unparalleled
advances in security, print quality and network integra-
tion via its award winning line of bizhub multifunction
products (MFPs); bizhub PRO production printing sys-
tems; magicolor desktop color laser printers and all-in-
ones; and Pagepro monochrome desktop laser printers
and all-in-ones. Konica Minolta also offers advanced
software solutions, wide-format printers, microform digi-
tal imaging systems and scanning systems for special-
ized applications.Headquartered in Ramsey, NJ, Konica
Minolta delivers expert professional services and client
support through an extensive network of direct sales
offices, authorized dealers, resellers and distribution
partners in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central
America and South America. 310-214-6696
879 190th St., Suite 200, Gardena, CA 90248
www.konicaminolta.us

Netpaths
You can get a website anywhere, but Netpaths can get
you to the top of the search engines. Find out more
about how your website can be at the top of Google.
We offer you a forward thinking Web design company
focused on providing high-value services to the online
market. You can improve the value of your business
with a well designed and promoted website. We
design search engine-friendly websites that can attain
top placement in the big four search engines. We offer
custom e-commerce solutions and organizational
website development. We also offer economy devel-
opment models for smaller start-ups and non-profits.
You can view our new automated website builder.
Create your own website with a Web-based automa-
tion tool for free. We have been in the online business
since 1998 and have successfully moved hundreds of
businesses online with an individually customized
Web presence. We have been doing search engine
optimization before Google existed and have a 100%
success rate for all online marketing campaigns. Net-
paths’ Web design is consistently ranked among the
top Web development and SEO firms with a long his-
tory of strong customer support. Get a fresh perspec-
tive on your online initiatives and see how your
website can work for you. We make you look good.
310-372-3086
23940 Madison St., Torrance, CA 90505
www.netpaths.net

R.B. Zack & Associates, Inc.

R.B. Zack & Associates, Inc. focuses on the develop-
ment, implementation, maintenance and support of
custom business software. The firm specializes in
browser-based and desktop applications for the busi-
ness world. RBZ&A can help you unleash the power
of the Web and realize its potential for your business
application. The company also has an extensive back-
ground in database design work garnered from many
years in client server and Web development as well
as an extensive past entrenched in the mini and mid-

7 T E C H N O L O G Y G U I D E S O U T H B AY B U S I N E S S I N S I D E R M A G A Z I N E 23