President’s Welcome

Written by John Cromie

Sunday, 09 August 2009 11:38

Welcome to SMB iT Professionals! For the past six years or so, various organisations around Australia and New Zealand have become the focal point for IT service providers focusing on SMBs. In some places, these formed under the auspices of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) User Groups. In others, they took a different path. Over time, however, we have come to realise that providing IT services to SMBs is a critical specialisation. And more importantly, we have come to realise that we need to have a regional presence and voice in order to best serve the needs of our members.

What are those needs? Well, most IT service providers focusing on SMBs are small companies, from one person operations up to ten or twenty person operations. In addition, we have to cover an incredibly broad range of technologies with this small number of people – networks, servers, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, telephony, web content, hosting… The list is long. In fact, in my own 35-year time in the IT industry I have yet to find a more broadly skilled group!

That said, it leaves us with several needs. Who do we turn to when we need to ask for suggestions? How do we persuade vendors and distributors to give us competitive terms and conditions? And how do we provide our clients with the assurance of our professionalism, that we are different from the ‘bosses cousin’ that seems to pop up and present themselves as skilled?

This is why SMB iT Professionals was formed, initially as state-based organisations in the eastern states of Australia, but now spanning all Australian states and New Zealand in a single regional organisation. We describe ourselves this way: “SMBiT Professionals is the industry association for Information Technology service providers specialising in Small and Medium Business. Our members achieve optimal outcomes for SMB clients by applying best practice in the implementation and management of appropriate Information Technology, and through continuous professional development, strong vendor relations and open information exchange.”

We exist to create three realities.

That SMBs look for Member SMB iT Professionals as a condition of acceptance for any IT service provider;
That every IT vendor needs to positively engage with SMB iT Professionals in order to be successful in the SMB market; and
That IT service providers find membership of SMB iT Professionals of unparalleled value in running a successful business in the SMB space.

We welcome all bona fide IT service providers servicing SMBs to join us and realise this value in creating their own successful business and satisfied clients.

Cheers,

John Cromie
President
SMBiT Professionals Victoria