He’s rare, magical, and elusive, found only in the furthest corners of the world. Yet, to those who are young, or young at heart, he’s ubiquitous. Whether in North America, Europe, or Australia, his natural environment is the forest, meadows, and of course, waterfalls. But perhaps the most important place he resides is in the human imagination, where he inspires us to dream bigger and create the impossible.
Yes, we’re talking about the enchanted unicorn, and we’re here to tell you that they aren’t a myth. We know because we have one. We call him Pablo.
It’s also not a myth that a company can be created around the mission of making people happy, as the unicorn does. We prove it every day by making our clients’ lives easier and their businesses more productive. Some would argue that it’s unrealistic to expect this from an IT company. They’ve never encountered a unicorn.
A little background on Pablo. His purple color is a unique distinction of the most majestic of all unicorn species. He can understand any human language and actually possess healing powers. Not a bad creature to have on your side. Don’t be deceived by his gentle character and enchanting handsomeness — Pablo is a complex beast. While he represents magic and possibility, he can also be fierce and powerful, using his horn to protect against danger (something we also know quite a bit about).
Pablo loves to travel. While rare, he has been sighted in the Harz Mountains in northern Germany and the Alpine meadows of the Himalayas. Legend has it that he is so keen on exploring the beautiful Scottish Highlands that Scotland declared him as their national animal. And while elusive to many, our one-horned friend will let down his guard while we’re around, even posing for an occasional photo for the non-believers.
While unicorns have been adored for thousands of years, never has the magical and elusive creature been more widely embraced than over the past 20 years since they’ve made their way into popular culture. And for good reason. They teach us to not take ourselves so seriously. They captivate our imaginations and remind us that we can achieve the unattainable.
At Calyx, Pablo is a state of mind, no less authentic than the values that drive us every day. He reminds us that there’s always a better way forward and encourages us to create it. The world needs more Pablo’s in it. He teaches us to step out of our familiar spaces and into the unfamiliar, where we often find inspiration and answers.
If you don’t have a unicorn on staff, I highly suggest getting one if you’re so fortunate to have the rare opportunity. Our Pablo has transformed how we think and respond to challenges. His curiosity and creative nature define the spirit of Calyx. Pablo is our guiding light. – Ed Grauel, Chief Operating Officer
Pablo has helped shape the Calyx culture. He challenges our preconceptions and makes us more aware of our own magical powers — to make people’s lives easier and their businesses more productive and profitable. It’s not an easy feat these days, but it’s why we’re here.
“Always be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn…then always be a unicorn!”
Hello. I’m Jason Fordu, the founder and CEO of Calyx, and welcome to our twenty-twenty State of The Unicorn Address. The purpose of our announcement is to tell you about our accomplishments over the past year, and our plans for the year ahead, both of which are tied to our mission — to create a better way for you and your organization.
Before I begin, I’d like to address the extraordinary times we’ve been living through recently. We hope that you and your loved ones and your work colleagues have remained safe and healthy during the lockdown and the past few months. We wish to extend our condolences to the families of the 200,000 lives that have been lost here in the U.S., and to the 1,000,000 worldwide. We’re grateful for our ability to weather this storm with you, look forward to the day when a vaccine is available, and normal life can return for us all. But until this day arrives we will continue to do our part to keep you and our employees safe.
A Calyx Milestone: 15 years
This year marks a milestone for Calyx as we celebrated our fifteenth year in business. Many years ago when Calyx was a little upstart out of a garage, I could not have imagined all the wonderful people I would have the privilege to work with and know. People like you, and the incredible team here at Calyx who have dedicated themselves through their hard work and efforts to create our shared vision; which is to ensure happy customers and become the leader of advanced IT solutions to businesses. I have received fulfillment and happiness throughout our shared time together, and I want to thank you for your continued business and support of Calyx as we continue to grow and evolve.
Year in Review
I will start with a review of the past year’s highlights. In response to increasingly more sophisticated cyber threats, we incorporated a next generation security platform. This includes cloud-based software that incorporates advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning, combined with a dedicated security team that proactively monitors the Framework environment. This is a powerful solution to combat both existing and future threats to you and your business. To further protect you, we incorporated multi-factor authentication, also known as 2-factor or MFA, into the login process for all machines here, and for any customers who wish to have this technology as part of your organization’s login process.
We fully integrated a cloud-based file sharing system into your Outlook email and file sharing systems, called ShareFile, so you can share data from within and outside your organization easier and safer. We added new monitoring and reporting technologies that automatically test the Framework environment every 5 minutes on uptime availability, the average login times for every Framework desktop, and our overall platform performance. We will begin sharing this new information with you shortly on a monthly basis.
We’ve added several great new team members this past year, starting with Anthony Ruff, who adds a wealth of knowledge and experience to our engineering team. Steven Tyler is part of our tier 3 support team, and handles our most complicated support issues. Mike Micalakis and Mike Kalep are part of our Tier 2 support team and responsible for escalation when required. And Eric Winter is the newest member of our tier 1 support team. On behalf of Calyx I’d like to say how grateful and excited we are for these new team members to join the Calyx family, and we hope you enjoy getting to know all of them as we have.
The Year Ahead
There are five areas to talk about for the year ahead: technology, support, customer experience, marketing, and finance.
Finance
Due to the economic uncertainty as a result of Covid, all price increases for 2020 have been eliminated. All recent and new investments planned are tied to one of our two promises to you. The first is our product promise, which is to provide you with technology that is easy to use, always available, highly secure, and well-performing. The other is our support promise, which is to provide you with the best people, using the best tools, who serve you with care, friendliness, clarity, and speed, in helping you with your needs.
Technology
I’m excited to announce that the fourth major build of Framework since 2015 was recently completed by our engineering team. This is a completely new build of every aspect of Framework, done with the latest versions of software, on the newest infrastructure and technologies that are presently available. So what does this mean for you? First, we’re maintaining our vision to deliver tomorrow’s technologies today. Second, to increase speed and performance by using some of the best processors and memory available. Third, we’ll have more control over this environment, which enhances our supportability. Fourth, Framework 5.0 will include the newest variants of software such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, 2019 Server and 2019 SQL. Fifth, we can realize hybrid cloud. We view “Hybrid” as a mix of premise solutions, private cloud, and public clouds. This ability will enable Calyx more flexibility and breadth of the solutions we can deliver to you, while still keeping it safe and easy to use. Lastly, there will be new capabilities when using graphical intensive applications such as web browser videos and remote meetings services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams — all within your Framework Desktop.
Support
Over the past year, Jenn Layport was elevated to our support manager. Her job is to guide the team on a daily basis, coach and reinforce our service promise, core values, and our mission and goals. She provides individualized training to our support team members, and acts as an escalation point on more complicated issues and requests between the support personnel, engineering team and our new customer experience team.
Customer Experience
To increase our communication, planning, and reporting to clients on a consistent basis, we have created a new Customer Experience Team, led by Walt Ely and Tom Clause. Every client will receive a monthly report informing them of our work, including items such as ticket trend data, our platform performance, average login times, and any recommendation from our engineering team. In addition to the monthly reporting, the Customer Experience Team will work with you to establish a meeting schedule — one that’s based on your needs and preferences. During these scheduled meetings, they will review our reporting data with you, discuss any current or past service events, and ask for your feedback on what’s working or what’s not working. Your feedback will be provided to our entire company for continual service improvement, and any future planning initiatives as a result of your discussions will be provided to our director of Engineering, Antonio Sweeney. Tom Clause is creating a new community for any clients who wish to join. This community is a forum to meet and collaborate with our other clients more easily, and to gain value from one another through experience sharing and learning.
Marketing
We will expand the content of our monthly newsletters to include more tech tips and tricks to help educate and train you and your organization. Information about our industry, more news regarding Calyx and our team members, and things we’ve learned or found to be a value that we want to share.
In closing, there are several areas we are focused on, based on our product and service promises, our mission to create a better way for you, and our goal to ensure happy clients. We’re very excited for the year ahead and we hope you enjoy the value we’re creating for you. If you have any questions about any of the topics I’ve addressed here, please reach out to me or any of our team members to learn more. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve you, and on behalf of everyone here at Calyx, we are grateful for your business and continued support.
Happiness means something different to each of us. To some, it’s simply a state of mind, where we feel loved, or wanted, or valued. It’s the joy of holding a baby or being greeted at the door by your dog. Or perhaps it’s just being comfortable in our own skin and content with who we are — a coming of age.
To others, it’s more measurable, like an outcome or goal achieved. It may be running a successful business or being recognized for our accomplishments at work.
And yet to others, it’s a byproduct of what we put out into the world to inspire happiness in those we care about. It’s simply listening to someone who doesn’t feel heard. Or replacing judgment with empathy. It’s caring more.
To the team at Calyx, our happiness is derived from making our customers, well, happy. For example, we take every possible measure to make their’ lives easier, wherever they work. It’s using technology to create a better way forward so they can focus on what they do best. Of course, we care about profitability and business success, but we’ve found over the years that success is an outcome of living our values: doing the right thing, owning it, and challenging everything we know. When we do what we say we’ll do, we inspire happiness. Frankly, it really is that simple.
The world needs more happiness these days. We all need to feel loved and wanted and valued. We need positively in our lives and to encourage it in others. The world needs more caring and less judgment.
There are tons of managed service providers out there. They work hard to offer a dizzying array of commodities in hopes that something sticks. If they’re lucky, they’ll land on a mix of deliverables that might move the needle for your business. Chances are, they’ll come up with something that meets the status quo if they work at it long enough. But status quo doesn’t cut it — not today, when technology should literally be considered among your business’ most valuable assets. To get there requires an IT partner who is vested in your success in terms of growth, frictionless customer experiences, and better financial outcomes.
Look, all MSPs are not ill-intentioned, they just don’t go far enough. They can’t get past the limited piecemeal approach to IT. They just haven’t traveled the extra mile yet. We know because that’s where you’ll find us and it’s definitely not crowded.
Most customer journeys start out in the same place. You need a foundation of systems and solutions. But businesses don’t stay static. They grow, evolve, and pivot. And they need a partner who can see further down the road to not only report on roadblocks and detours, but to find alternate routes.
Businesses also need an IT partner with whom they align, both technically, philosophically and financially. It’s a critical measure that sets the foundation for a successful partnership.
Let’s take a holistic view
OK, enough with the road trip metaphors. This is serious stuff. Your business is serious stuff and you deserve insight and support from an IT solutions provider that operates less on line items and more on a holistic view of your business. The interrelatedness of partnering with a company that delivers real solutions, not just patches.
Sometimes business leaders fall into traps of maintaining the status quo because things seem to be working OK. Fair enough. But, we’d like to suggest another option. How about partnering with a business that can view the full scope of your internal operations without preconceived notions? Let’s face it. You have skin in the game and may be skittish about making any serious changes because your business could be disrupted. Risks might be revealed, or vulnerabilities exposed. Well, we’re here to tell you that if you don’t at least entertain new ideas or perspectives or be open to the possibility that there might be a better way, things will get worse. And we’re just not willing to let that happen.
What you should expect from an IT solutions provider
There may be huge disconnects between what you’re getting from your MSP and what you should expect from a true IT solutions provider, like Calyx. A sort of before and after if you will.
Holistic approach. You may be used to getting lots of solutions from an MSP. Lots of line items and add-ons to plug holes and weak spots may work temporarily but aren’t an ideal solution. You need a holistic helicopter view of what’s going on in your company and we can take you there. And when you work with us, we’ll be looking from that perspective frequently to predict and prevent issues before they become problems.
Cloud-first strategy. And while we’re taking that helicopter view, we’ll recommend a cloud-first strategy because it simply doesn’t do you any good to put on piecemeal, on-premise patches and hope for the best.
White glove service. You don’t need excuses, only solutions. We’ve elevated service and support to white glove status and wouldn’t even know how to pass the buck if we tried.
Simplified pricing. We will never nickel-and-dime you and won’t surprise you with new line items out of the blue. There’s no convoluted pricing. Tech solutions should be an investment in your company and every recommendation we offer will support that objective.
Built-In Backup and Recovery. Dealing with a system outage is stressful enough. You don’t need a bunch of different fixes that will cost you as the meter is running. Backup and recovery is included at no additional costs in every product we provide.
We also offer other holistic solutions such as unparalleled security, accessibility, enterprise-class technology, month-to-month contracts, and a 90-day full money-back guarantee.
Don’t accept the acceptable.
We encourage you to explore available technology and solutions with us. No strings attached. And if you’re skeptical about growth, give us the chance to change your mind. All you need is an open mind to learn more about what is possible, and not just acceptable.
We guarantee you a positive technology experience. That means really listening to your business concerns as well as your growth dreams. When you partner with us, you’ll get technological expertise as well as professionals with innovative business acumen.
Our goal is to give you dramatically different tech and business experiences. We want your business to succeed. From day one, we’ll be vested in your success in terms of growth, frictionless customer experiences, and better financial outcomes. So, are you ready to go the extra mile with us? We’re pretty sure you’ll like it out here.
A month ago we would have never predicted the situation we’re all in with the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly the streets and offices are empty. Classrooms hold only echoes of their usual inhabitants. And our favorite bars and restaurants are doing all they can to serve loyal patrons from a distance.
That’s what the powers that be are urging us to do. Distance yourself from other people. Social distancing. I suppose it’s a good enough term for drawing back from everything familiar, everything comforting, everything routine. How else do you put a spin on a new way of encountering the world when it’s the opposite of your instincts and usual way of navigating your days.
But it’s the way it has to be right now in order to preserve what we can for our families and customers. And we’ll comply because the stakes are so high. But, I’ll tell you right now that it doesn’t end there for us. The underlying code of our business is to “find a better way” and that’s what we intend to do now and long after this pandemic is behind us.
We’re patterning after what national and local officials have determined is the better way for Americans right now. Who would have ever thought that cities becoming ghost towns is a better way? But it is. And can it be a better way to ground airlines? Yes. And dare we say it, can it be a better way to limit toilet paper purchases? You bet.
But the American spirit remains strong. We see it in musicians playing soothing music at their front doors so their neighbors can be transported to other places in their minds if only for a little while. It’s in caravans of teachers driving through local neighborhoods so that they can see their students waving from their front yards and the students can see love, dedication and some sense of security in those familiar faces. And it’s in checking on neighbors to see what you can do for them because they may be hesitant to ask. Those are all better ways of living and probably things we should have been doing anyway.
Maybe the goodness will continue. Who knows what will happen from this point on. But one thing is for sure. For the first time ever in our history, we are all the same—people who share the same fears because of a universal risk. This disease has become the great equalizer of our population. We’re all at ground zero.
But that won’t last. There will be a way out of this. A better way to live and interact with the world. But for the time being, we have put some things in place to support our customers.
We are here to help. This is always number one with us. Let us know what you need and we’ll find a solution.
Our workforce is working remote. We’re in different places but we’re all connected. And our same phone and email support process is in place. Call or email at any time and we’ll respond.
We’re teleconferencing. We can still meet with you but for now we’re doing all meetings via Zoom. We can stay in touch without any health risks for customers or employees.
We have more payment options available. The world is topsy turvy right now so we wanted to provide some payment flexibility that may work better for our customers. We’re offering electronic payment options such as ACH or wire transfer. We can work with you on setting up an electronic process in place of checks as needed at your request.
If you need additional assistance or a better way of doing something, please reach out to us so we can work with you. Rest assured, we will continue our overreaching strategy to find a better way for our operations and customer solutions.
This disease will not stop us. It’s forcing us to look at things differently and somehow that part of this nightmare sits well with us. Because it takes people who can find different perspectives and vantage points to make viable changes. To find a better way.
How. How. How. Everywhere you turn, there’s more information on how to do this or that to improve your business, your hairstyle and even your morning latte. So, why, you’re asking, does this blog start with another blasted how? Well, it’s because the how’s are important and at Calyx we’re fueled by how to create a better way for our clients. But there’s something that comes before the how’s and it’s how (see what we did there) we arrived at our “create a better way” business driver. We’re talking about our why.
You can’t get to how unless you master your why. Why do we do what we do? A seemingly obvious question that is often overlooked is why do you do what you do? Out of all the things you could be doing today, why are you working where you are? Why do you keep trying to eclipse your last success? Why does your business matter? Why does your role matter?
Getting to Why
Getting to why isn’t as easy as you might think. Why you do something is not driven by money, celebrity or influencers. It comes from inside. It’s a pretty deep dive but that’s where the good stuff is. It’s what makes you want to see other people succeed. And even better, what can you do to facilitate that success. It’s coming from a place of abundance; there’s no limit on success. There’s plenty to go around, and if we can help you grab a healthy handful or more, that’s what we’ll do.
So our “why” is the need to see our clients succeed. And in order to make that happen, we work to create a better way. A better way of thinking about your business. A better way to integrate technology. A better way to think about the future.
Does a better way mean better efficiency, productivity and tighter security? You bet. We especially love it when we can identify and work hand in hand to resolve pain points for clients. Sometimes they’re unsure where a bottleneck is located because they’re just too close to their business.
A Better Way: Example 1
One of our clients was experiencing inconsistent user experiences among their three locations. Remote site users felt left out in the cold because they had an outdated method of accessing apps and data. The tension between remote offices and the headquarters was palpable. Nobody wins in cultural battles like that so we worked to design and implement both short- and long-term solutions. Now they’re working with faster connections and a unified, high-performance solution that works well regardless of location.
A Better Way: Example 2
M & A situations sometimes generate lots of confusion that doesn’t need to be there. We’ve been able to help deliver clarity when businesses are merging and quickly create logical and relative solutions. In these situations, we employ a number of strategies including the following:
Quickly onboard new users and sites onto a common platform
Flatten network and simplify connectivity
Converge email and file access
Deploy enterprise line of business apps
Remove on-premise single points of failure
Provide secure, easy-to-use remote access
Enable flexible work schedules
Facilitate greater employee satisfaction with work from home option
Remove leadership concern about remote work security
We love bringing order out of chaos. That can mean technology initiatives or simply helping clients look at their businesses in a different way. No matter the situation, if you keep viewing things in the same way, you’ll continue to get the same results. That’s not what we want for ourselves and it’s not what we want for our clients. We’re driven to create a better way.
A Better Way: Example 3
Sometimes that means inviting clients to take a helicopter view of their business. Just seeing things from a different perspective can launch new initiatives full of fresh energy and innovation. We really get excited when we can help with strategic planning to help identify major challenges like we did recently with a manufacturing client.
Each business unit at the company was operating independently and we helped them understand the benefits of working with a common goal. Naturally, there were blind spots that the BUs were unaware of when it came to understanding where they were not in sync. We were able to help them understand the concerns of the business leaders for the overall management of the business and the identification of common goals has them on a more unified, successful path today.
We’ve also helped companies shorten their ROI with some simple workflow improvements. One of our clients is realizing better ROI today due to the discovery of major time and labor savings. We helped them return the total investment in less than six months with the automation of labor-intensive, repetitious data entry. Employee satisfaction is a cherry on top because workers can be moved to more business-building work instead of monotonous data entry tasks.
You may be surprised to hear us say that what we do is not really about the technology. That’s not what drives us. We want to create a better way. We want to get at the core of why you do what you do. And we’re going to speculate just a bit that you want to create a better way too. For your customers and your employees. So, let’s do some helicopter thinking. Let’s see where you are and where you want to be. Let’s create a better way.
The most beloved brands exhibit attributes that make those brands exceptionally unique — something that’s highly valued by their audiences and not easily copied by competitors. Starbucks consistently delivers a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Apple provides its hardcore fanbase with luxury and style that’s more about emotion than the products themselves. FedEx delivers uncompromised reliability to businesses and consumers.
These brands each possess a potent formula — their “secret sauce” – delivered with obsessive detail to their operations, personnel, messaging, and packaging to ensure consistent, exceptional brand experiences. Each represents an idea and expectation from their audience that’s ultimately bigger than the brand itself.
What if I told you that the Coca-Cola brand is worth nearly $227 billion? (And that’s the value of the brand alone. It doesn’t account for the factories, bottling plants, fleet of trucks, or their inventory. That’s just the brand.)
To build an emotional connection (which brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson, and Amazon do so well) requires a deep understanding of your audience. It’s Marketing 101, yet often overlooked. It’s why so many industries get a bad rap for being out of touch and failing to address the real needs of their stakeholders. The IT solutions business is no exception.
Our Secret Sauce
From our own experience, building a beloved brand at Calyx has taught us to listen carefully and truly understand what customers need and expect. We know that many companies view IT as an expense. And every three or four years these companies gleefully acquire new hardware, revisit software, and maybe add a few new services, all through multiple IT vendors.
We asked, “What if IT was way bigger than that? More broad-shouldered. What if you could leverage technology to increase your company’s productivity? And efficiency? Even help your company achieve its business goals? What enabled Calyx to pull away from the “IT vendor pack” years ago and win respect was helping C-level executives understand where their IT expenses were coming from — and understand how they could better leverage technology to create a better way to do business. Doing this required some deep business insight.
We responded by creating our own secret sauce — aptly named Calyx “Rocket Sauce.” It’s a potent blend of people, processes and technology to create better outcomes for businesses. It’s how we make clients’ lives easier — and their businesses more productive and profitable. We’re doing something that no one else does: essentially creating a new service category independent of the managed services provider (MSP) group of commodity resellers.
What’s in IT?
We’ve built Calyx with the best people and processes, redefining what customers can expect from an IT partner. Rather than demystifying the many variables that go into a complete IT ecosystem, we set out to simplify everything. Here’s one complete package, with no loose ends and no self-administration. Everything’s covered, which means you won’t have to call us up in another year because you “need more IT.” We ensure accessibility, reliability, scalability, and security — all with one simple fee per user, and no hidden costs lurking in corners.
Our process of digging deep in the initial groundwork, or “discovery,” phase enables us to gain a holistic view of a business, so our recommendations are grounded in reality. We work to understand our client’s processes and nuances so we’re not adapting a business to technology, but the other way around, as it should be. We educate and prove value through objective analysis and comparison of information. We set out to establish fit by evaluating financial, philosophical and technological alignment between us and a client.
You hear much about core values these days, yet all too often they are little more than inspiration on corporate walls. We’ve made a very conscious decision to ensure that our values become the code by which we operate. They really are the most essential ingredients in our rocket sauce. No variations. No substitutions. Our core values are: Challenge everything. Do what’s right. Own it. It’s all about being better on behalf of the client. We’ve proven time and again that this is how meaningful relationships are built.
Then there’s the tech — or the “how” part — of the recipe, which varies as technology advances and better solutions are created. What doesn’t vary is the quality and support we provide. Our solutions are enterprise-grade, always with business continuity built in. Again, we remove the complexity of IT by ensuring that the user experience is effortless, backed by support that we believe is unrivaled by anyone in the industry.
So, that’s our recipe for success: “The best people + proven processes + technology = better outcomes for our clients.” But don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.
Your Secret Sauce
Which factors make your business unique and enable you to deliver something exceptional? They certainly don’t need to be as multi-layered as ours at Calyx. But what they must be is relevant. The harsh reality is that no one really cares what you do. It’s true. Just as there’s no shortage of IT solutions providers, there are plenty of companies who do what you do. The real questions are: Do they do it how you do it. And do they do it as well? It’s a critical question to ask of yourself and your business leaders because the “how” is what defines a valuable user experience and sets future expectations. It’s the “how” that enables you to differentiate.
Think Starbucks versus Dunkin’ Donuts (although we might argue that while the Starbucks experience is better, Dunkin Donut’s coffee is superior). Or Google versus Yahoo. Think about the user experience you deliver versus that of your competitors.
At Calyx, we’re big advocates of regularly taking inventory of everything that makes up who we are: our values, skills, strengths and weaknesses, passions and goals. Just as technology changes faster than ever, the needs of our clients also change. It’s important to do a self-check to make sure that what we offer is meaningful and of value. We always consider what we can do to enhance our clients’ experiences and serve them better. That’s how the very-great brands maintain relevance over time.
Your secret sauce may be in your people, your products or services, or your unique processes. Or it may be a combination of all of these. What matters most is that you and your organization are crystal clear on what distinguishes you from other competitive options, and how to consistently deliver that distinction. When you have that part figured out, you have the recipe for success.
The IT landscape in all sizes of businesses continues to evolve to make operations easier. And let’s don’t forget revenue. That’s why you’re in business after all. Brands are leaning into the fact that IT is an asset, not a necessary evil. Business growth strategies drive companies of all sizes today. IT is a critical component, if not the leading asset in guiding them to greater revenue streams.
IT budgets should be reviewed periodically to ensure proper attribution to components as the business transitions. Additionally, the increase in cloud services and the decline of on-site data centers is altering the scope of hardware and software needs. There will still be the need for servers, security, storage, network infrastructure, employee equipment, and other components. These fundamentals need to be part of a 2020 IT budget.
Supporting Strategic Efforts
At Calyx, we work with clients to ensure that they have the appropriate hard and soft IT elements that will support strategic efforts for sustainable growth. We help clients to customize the scope of their IT budget, costs, and necessary components to position their business to grow responsibly.
According to Calyx CEO, Jason Fordu, “Businesses need to adopt a top-down budgeting approach leading with strategic business objectives that can improve efficiency and revenue. Most people think in terms of apps when planning for a new year, but outdated server, security, storage and networking can bring a company down quickly and must be upgraded or replaced appropriately.”
The tech pros at Calyx also advise against keeping outdated software and hardware because of the potential for security risks. If they’re not upgraded, it will be nearly impossible to mitigate threats that come up.
Company size also plays a big part in hardware and software spend. Enterprises have more data infrastructure to monitor and will invest in more power/climate and telephony hardware. Mid-size companies will spend on mobile devices and tablets. Smaller businesses will devote the lion’s share of their budget to employee laptops and desktops.
Top hardware considerations for 2020
The big data trend shows no signs of slowing down so companies need to accommodate the massive amount of data generated. Storage will be in high demand in 2020, especially object storage because of its ability to address large amounts of data from edge to cloud with query capability and custom metadata tagging.
Systems management. Efficient routing, network QoS and virtualization will be big in 2020 so the need for contracting the right systems management will be critical.
Load balancer. Another hardware component to consider is a load balancer to keep network traffic moving smoothly. It can move flow smoothly when there’s too much traffic for a server by moving it to other circuits.
Top software considerations for 2020
In 2020, enterprises will allocate a more significant percentage on database management, virtualization, and communications software. Mid-size companies will invest in business support apps and productivity software while the small business will spend their software budgets primarily on operating systems
Automation initiatives. Key software trends for 2020 include those initiatives dedicated to automation. This includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning designed to alleviate human chores in the workplace. The adoption of AI is expected to triple by 2021.
Replace outdated software. Outdated software such as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is scheduled to come off support early in 2020 so appropriate upgrades need to occur.
Special considerations
Hardware and software investments differ according to company size. For example, large enterprises adopt emerging technologies quicker and will need a higher level of assistance in integrating technology innovations into their company. Smaller and mid-size companies require more guidance in security best practices and disaster recovery policies.
At Calyx, we work with our clients to help them identify the best options when it comes to upgrading infrastructure, updating disaster recovery plans, identifying security vulnerabilities and working to transform tech environments with upgrades and innovations.
2020 is here so let’s wrap this up. The biggest IT investments will occur with technology end-of-life, upgrades, and new initiatives to support business growth. Enterprise-level businesses already understand how tech can drive revenue and they are more receptive to new tech solutions such as AI to gain competitive advantage. Smaller businesses are more interested in investing in desktops and laptops for employees. Whatever your business size as well as the state of your current tech situation, Calyx can help you position for growth in 2020 and beyond.
Calyx is proud to be recognized by ERC as one of 99 great Northeast Ohio workplaces for top talent. This is the second time in as many years that our organization has received the NorthCoast 99 Award.
NorthCoast 99 is an annual recognition program and event in its 21st year that honors 99 great Northeast Ohio workplaces for top talent. “More than a business award or event, NorthCoast 99 is a yearlong research project ERC established to help employers make a difference in the lives of people working and living in our 22-county region,” noted ERC senior vice president Carrie Morse, who has overseen the program for the last 17 years.
NorthCoast 99 winners participated in a rigorous application process that asked for detailed information on how their organization addresses top-performer attraction, development, and retention in five distinct areas: organizational strategy, policies, and communication; recruitment, selecting, and onboarding; employee well-being; employee engagement and development; and total rewards.
“We’re truly honored to be recognized by Northcoast 99 as one of the best places to work in Northeastern Ohio. We’ve been very intentional in developing a culture that promises both challenge and opportunity,” says Jason Fordu, CEO. “Our entire team deserves the acknowledgment, because they don’t settle for status quo. They’re always looking to create a better way. They make Calyx who we are.”
“We’re thrilled to recognize and celebrate this year’s NorthCoast 99 award winners! With unemployment at a 49-year-low, the benchmarks for attracting, engaging, and retaining employees are higher than ever. Year after year, winning organizations are raising the bar with increasingly progressive and groundbreaking HR practices and benefits that elevate the experience of their employees,” said Kelly Keefe, president of ERC.
The 2019 NorthCoast 99 Awards program is sponsored by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield; CareerCurve; Cleveland Magazine; ERChealth; Gino’s Awards; Maloney + Novotny; Mark Wayner Creative; Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis; Oswald Companies; Staffing Solutions Enterprises; and Ultimate Software.
About Calyx
Calyx deploys enterprise IT solutions to small and mid-market businesses, delivering proven processes and the best technology and people to create greater efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
About ERC
Founded in 1920, ERC helps organizations make their workplaces great by providing expert people solutions that include training, consulting, research, and HR support services. ERC also sponsors the ERChealth insurance program in Ohio. Additional information about ERC and its services can be found at www.yourERC.com.
