With the downturn of the economy, reducing overheads and tightening budgets is more important than it has been for a decade. Ensuring businesses are not ripped off is a large part of why Aqius Consulting was started!
There are many ways we can help you substantially reduce your costs. For smaller businesses this can easily result in saving over $200 per month. Larger businesses can often achieve even better savings - sometimes thousands.
There are four primary ways we achieve this (remember, our rates start at some of the lowest in the industry to ensure you only pay for what you need):
- Operational Costs
- IT Maintenance Costs
- Staff Productivity (See Workflow Automation)
- Organisational Productivity (See Business Process Streamlining)
IT Maintenance Costs
We can massively reduce your support costs and improve reliability through our specially developed network, desktop & server software. We also use Imaging, Automated Updating (including 3rd party applications for desktops, servers, firewalls & routers) & Preventative Maintenance (see our Plans for further details).
Operational Costs
PHONE & FAX operating and infrastructure costs can be dramatically reduced and easier to use to boot! See our Phones/VOIP Section for further details.
INKJET PRINTING costs can be halved (cheaper than full color laser printing) whilst still maintaining top quality and reliability.
GREEN IT (and being green in general) is a great way to reduce your operating costs and eco-footprint. We can also reduce IT INFRASTRUCTURE costs through Virtual Servers, Thin Clients, Telecommuting and Hosted Groupware or Server Solutions.
We excel at office (including new headoffice/branch/multibranch) setups! We can take care of the cabling fitout (or wireless), PC's, Internet, IT Security, Phones, Switches, Routers, Firewalls, Redundancy, Printers & More.
We've worked very hard to develop comprehensive solutions for PC & Server setups based on best practices, and finely tuned each one through extensive compatiblity testing so we can deliver the highest quality setups at the lowest costs possible!
Choose from either complete customisation, cleverly designed defaults or a combination of the two. We can work with existing setups or new ones (even if you want to purchase all the hardware yourself).
We can also setup your new office to be 'EnergyWise' ready meaning that from a tech perspective, you'll have everything ready to manage power consumption of not just your PC's & servers, but also network equipment, phones, office lighting and other devices (See GreenIT).
Give us a call. We'd be happy to provide indicative pricing over the phone.
*Note: All our enterprise setups are IPv6 ready.
We can help you easily access your email (and faxes) almost anywhere on almost anything (Mac, PC, Linux, Blackberry, Mobile Phones)!
We offer hosted or onsite Microsoft, Open Source & alternative email solutions.
Our hosted options mean that you pay a modest monthly fee instead of paying one or two thousand dollars for your own server.
Of course, all our options include effective anti-spam and antivirus solutions that can be tailored from ultra secure to easy going.
Secure Email (using digital signatures) is a great way to bill customers electronically, send passwords or confidential/sensitive emails. Free solutions are around (Eg: GnuPG), but they're tough to get started on. Our easiest solutions can be used by anyone and start at only $6 per month. We can also do inhouse server setups (no monthly fees).
If you don't already have it, we can setup email at your own domain (eg: yourname@yourco.com.au) very cheaply (e also do websites!).
Note: Groupware refers to the sharing of Email, Calendar, Task/Project and/or Faxes etc between one or more people.
Need redundancy on your Internet, Phones, Servers or Data?
Whether you need a simple, low cost system to ensure your critical data is backed up or a high availability/security service for an enterprise share trading office - We have the expertise and experience to ensure your business runs like clockwork even when things go wrong!
We offer specialised protection for:
- Networks (WAN, VPN, Wireless & LAN)
- Servers (Email, Data, Web etc)
- Desktops
- Laptops
- Phones
- Medical Practices
These solutions can be used by SOHO's, SMB's & Enterprises. We also offer solutions to ensure confidential data on laptops is kept safe even if the laptop is stolen.
These days, Client Relationship Management (CRM) is a crucial business tool for everyone, not just big business. Which is why we offer both internationally supported Open Source packages as well as the traditional Commercial options. Both are standards based, real-world proven and include enterprise vendor support.
We also do a lot of specialist projects (sometimes global), so we know exactly how important it is to have things run smoothly. It's easier with the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Project Management tools behind you.
ERP solutions are generally more suited to medium and larger businesses, but some elements are finding their way into CRM & Project Management tools which can be great for SMB's too. We offer sales, implementation and training for Microsoft, Commercial & Open Source Solutions so we can fit a wide variety of budgets!
Send us an email or call to find out more.
There are many easy ways we can help improve your productivity. Whether that's through group training, business process improvement, task automation, secured desktops or Internet filtering - it's your call.
Workflow & Task Automation
Workflow & task automation can easily save employees doing repetitive tasks an hour or more every single day. If you have several staff in this situation, this can save thousands per year!
For companies sending a large quantity of letters, emails or other repetitive tasks or processes, you will almost certainly be able to take advantage of some excellent and very affordable packages that we've already developed (starting from $50).
We can also create custom automation tools tailored to your specific business needs. Most often, this goes hand in glove with:
Business Process Streamlining
By reviewing your business processes, we can help dovetail tasks and workloads into CRM (Client Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), Automation and/or Project Management solutions. This can seriously free up the time of your staff to work on the important things as well as power up your organisations capabilities and quality control.
Green Practices & Sustainability are rapidly evolving into core business concerns. In case you missed our sustainability page, Aqius Consulting is very passionate about caring for our planet. In line with our ethos, we also put our money where our mouth is!
We offer what is probably THE most comprehensive and in-depth Green IT solutions suite a business could hope for. From the easy things like how to responsibly use inkjet printers, or rollout an organisation wide PC power saving policy, to the bigger issues that need shifting for us to become truly environmentally neutral.
ALL our Green Solutions enjoy a 15% discount on associated labor. If a Green Solution is more expensive than comparable traditional options, we will reduce this up to 40 percent!!
Telecommuting (Working from Home)
Either part time or full time is becoming increasingly popular as it's a huge win win for many companies, their staff and the environment. Multinationals save millions per year, and small companies can save thousands in reduced expenses (such as office leases, power usage, office equipment, company cars & plane flights etc).
Of course, with technology, the old show-stoppers are no longer a problem; You can cheaply, safely and easily get access to your entire IT infrastructure (including corporate databases, file servers, centrally managed antivirus & patching etc).
You can have the same phone number ringing at several virtual or home offices at once, you can fax digitally (straight from your PC or with a scanner). You can talk very cheaply (often free!) and face to face with your employees or colleagues all over the globe. Checkout our VOIP & Telephony section for further details. This can all be integrated with CRM or 'Contact Center' solutions.
You can continue to monitor performance and deliverables with KPI, CRM, PM and/or project integration systems. If you want, you can also use virtual employee punch in/out systems, record all PC activity and phone calls.
Telecommuting also creates the opportunity to employ staff from a much greater pool of candidates and higher skill base. Of course it is also a more enjoyable lifestyle which typically results in happier as well as more loyal and productive staff and managers!
It is a great way to establish your presence in new areas!
Power Saving
We provide exceptionally effective PC power management solutions which goes way beyond simple Windows Power Configurations through Group Policy. Packages are available for everything from home PC's to clustered servers in data centers.
We can set you up to be 'EnergyWise' ready... EnergyWise is a new endeavor to bring together power management of ANY device. Eventually this will mean you will be able to manage not just PC's, but office lights, fax machines, televisions, air conditioning etc.
This can apply across a whole organisation (over multiple offices & countries), facilitating easy power management across every device between 10 different power states (from off to full power).
You can even preview how much power you would save by switching devices down one level for an office, building or group of sites! Not only can this save huge amounts of money, it will become increasingly important for organisations affected by power restrictions made by suppliers.
Hosted Servers
Hosted servers are servers (or space in a data center if you have your own servers) that we at Aqius Consulting own and 'rent' to you on a monthly basis. This can be very cost effective as you don't need to buy the server to start with, or pay for upgrades & maintenance etc. Plus you are practically guaranteed that your data is safe and available.
This can be perfect for:
- Smaller business that don't need or want to pay for a server themselves
- Businesses that operate via telecommuting
- Businesses with many offices
- Large businesses that need redundancy
Packages start from only $60 per month on a 'shared' server.
Note: We can also setup your own server(s) in your own office(s) to run similarly if you prefer (We strongly recommend redundant Internet for this scenario).
Thin Clients & Virtualisation (or Virtualization if you prefer!)
Most PC's and servers are actually under-utilized the majority of the time. Virtualisation allows you to run multiple 'servers' or desktops on one physical machine. Usually this is done by increasing the resources available (more RAM, additional hard drives etc) and setting up special software (VMware and Microsoft's Virtual Server/PC are two popular options).
This results in much greater load flexibility (ability to handle more/less users efficiently), easier disaster recovery, maintenance and management as well as significant power savings. Thin clients (PC's setup to primarily work with servers) can maximise on this by offering both low power usage AND extremely low setup costs for new offices.
We also offer Carbon Accounting, Management & Reduction Software. We also collaborate with Sustainable Development Consultancies to help you lower your non-IT related eco-footprint.
In addition, to these options, we highly recommend choosing a 100% green power supplier. Checkout some other options and ways to be green on our sustainability page.
As with other areas of business, if you have no roadmap you're unlikely to get somewhere, and even less likely to get there easily!
Every business that uses a PC or has a website should have at least a rudimentary Strategic IT Plan that factors business needs and growth against technology costs. We include basic planning and network diagrams with our Welcome Packs.
Lack of quality documentation can result in hours of additional troubleshooting time whilst users are left without functional PC's. Loss of appropriately classified and managed data and interruptions to business critical functions can easily cost thousands of dollars for a single event.
For in-depth planning we use an IT focused STEER analysis model (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological & Regulator) in conjunction with De Bono's 'Six Thinking Caps'.
Aqius Consulting are leaders in the IT Security field with extensive international and enterprise experience (want to hear us wax technical?). In today's environment, you can't afford to have lax security. The good news is with us, it doesn't cost the earth.
Did you know that even if you use Macs or have every Windows PC completely patched, the vast majority of networks are wide open to an attacker on your LAN (the inside network) getting admin access, and even your banking passwords? ... A lot of the time this is true for SMB's even when they are supported by IT Consultancies let alone inhouse staff. If you don't believe us call us for a demo! If we can't prove it we won't charge.
Clients are very unforgiving of their details being exposed, and the competency of cyber criminals is becoming much higher. It is FAR cheaper to spend a little bit of money making sure your network is secure than sorting out the mess after a system has been penetrated... This is why we've included very cost effective security options for several classes of business in our Welcome Packs.
Like it or not, Auditing & Compliance is a part of life... But it doesn't need to be a headache for you! We do full compliance and auditing tests for:
- Software Licensing
- Patching (including third party apps)
- PC Hardware- Networks
- Security (Including Unauthorised devices such as Rogue Access Points)
- Cable base lining
We also do HIPAA compliance for those that are 'out of town'!