lawro - Technology Consultants for the Smaller Business and Non-Profits

lawro

Technology Consultants for the Smaller Business

lawrence@lawro.com

Our Story

Project Manager

IT Advisor

Bespoke Developer

IT Advisor

Technology Neglect - There�s no doubt that technology is pervasive and that it�s become entrenched in how we live our lives. This is true for almost all of us across the world, no matter who or where we are. It has impacted how we shop, communicate, learn and even relax. Yet, when many people go to work it feels like they�re stepping into an alternate universe where the use of technology and new ways of working simply don�t exist, or at the very least feel years behind.

The simple fact is that the use of new technology has brought with it a fundamental change not only in our behaviour but also in our expectations. One of the most notable changes is in how increasingly, people are becoming used to being able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, simply at the touch of a button, whether that�s ordering their weekly food shopping, streaming a movie they want to watch, or looking up information.

Yet this is often in contrast to what many employees experience in their workplace. For example, access to information is often restricted, not freely available or easy to find; communicating is confined to emails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings, learning is restricted to pre-defined classroom based courses, and tools used regularly outside of work are often blocked or their use restricted.

Double Life - This marked difference in how technology is used inside vs. outside of work is resulting in employees living a double-life, where they are forced to operate and behave completely differently at work than they do the rest of the time. This results in two outcomes:

1. Employees become unengaged and demotivated at work because they find it frustrating and too difficult to do their job due to the restrictions imposed on them and the lack of access to the right tools
2. Employees using their own devices (BYOD) and apps to do their job in a way that is more intuitive to them, which then creates a big issue around data security as information is freely passed around with little accountability and a fragmentation of working practices.

The following is are the core ares that suffer the most neglect, these are ares we can help you address as your IT Advisor.

Email
Cloud
Internet

Intranet
Database
Backup

Hardware
Software
Data Storage

Networking
IT Security
IT Operations

lawro provides a technology advisory service specially geared to small businesses.

You may have a technology issue you can't resolve and need a copuple of hours advice on how to proceed. Your IT processes may not be performing and you need some discussion on how to get the best from them. The organization is based on old technology and you need a day to discuss the options to create a better technology vision.

Using lawro as your Trusted Technology Advisor, part time or contracted, is a smart investment.

Making IT Easier

ITIL is an integrated set of best-practice processes for delivering IT services to customers. The primary focus is to maximize value to customers (the business) by aligning IT resources with business needs. At it�s core is the basic idea that value is provided in the form of business-aligned IT Services.

ITIL contains detailed process descriptions, flows, success factors, metrics and implementation guidance that organizations can adapt to work in their environment.

The ITIL framework can help organizations establish and improve their overall IT Service Management capability, increase alignment with the business, maximize and demonstrate value to the business.

ITIL doesn�t tell how, or how much of the framework to adopt, allowing organization the flexibility to adopt the processes as and if needed to address their specific needs. Each individual process has documented value to the business, and can be adopted individually. (Though they are highly interrelated and some processes are difficult to adopt in isolation.)

ITIL is no longer an acronym � it�s a branded trademark. (It originally came from �Information Technology Infrastructure Library� � a rather large collection of books (hence �Library�), each focusing on specific process areas.) It is most commonly pronounced �eye-till� (not �eye-tee-eye-ell�)

ITIL has had 4 major revisions � Original, Version 2, Version 3, and currently (2014) Version 2011.

ITIL started as a United Kingdom government effort to standardize and document a standard set of operating practices for IT operations. A wide variety of public and private sector IT experts were engaged to assemble a collective set of best practices.

Each revision has been based on the active engagement and feedback of a broad community of consultants and practitioners.

Since V3, ITIL has been narrowed down to 5 �lifecycle� phases. The lifecycle is circular, with 5 highly interrelated phases. Though it�s not linear, the phases are:

Service Strategy � focusing on understanding customer needs, directions, requirements, helping improve IT over time
Service Design � focusing on turning strategies for services into a detailed Service description, not just the technology.
Service Transition � focusing on building, validating, and delivering new and changed services to customers
Service Operations � focusing on the day-to-day care and feeding of services
Continual Service Improvement � focusing on identifying and managing incremental improvements to services
One of the reasons for ITIL�s widespread adoption is the active involvement of a global and diverse community of IT professionals, consultants, trainers, and professional organizations.

lawrence@lawro.com

+1 (201) 448-7948

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