Microsoft launched the BizSpark program last year to assist start up IT services businesses get off the ground. The cost of buying development software, operating systems, applications and hosting services are substantial. Every small business needs to focus it’s time and budget on developing the product and marketing it’s services. Any distractions or drains on budget will reduce the chances of success. A big part of that success is making the right contacts. BizSpark helps there by making it possible to meet the right people and raising your market profile.
The Irish economy is on a downturn. Heck, I’ll say the "R Word", we’re in a recession. We had a Celtic Tiger economy and it was clearly mismanaged and was allowed to inflate by vested interests of a certain industry. Between globalisation, the property bubble bursting and the global banking credit crisis we’re seeing two things happen. Foreign investment is moving east. That’s hammering the supporting businesses in those local economies because their client’s have moved east. We’re seeing massive unemployment in the construction industry. Domestic purchasing is falling and it’s not being helped by an Irish government that’s sucking money out of the economy and sending us up to Northern Ireland where we can make massive savings. The credit crisis has hit the small business worst of all. Between demand being down and not being able to get credit from their banks, small indigenous businesses are having a tough time.
Every time I listen to economic experts talking about Ireland I hear the same thing. We can no longer rely on German or American investment. We need to encourage Irish small businesses. Those who are being made redundant from the likes of Dell will have to look at starting up businesses. College graduates are stuck in a chicken and egg scenario where they need experience to get a job … to get experience. The advice for them is to find something unique that they can sell. But who’s going to give them credit?
Microsoft may not be giving them credit but it is willing to help. If you own a small start-up business then you can enter the BizSpark program through a sponsor. To qualify:
- Your business must be less than 3 years old.
- Must make less than $1,000,000 per year.
- Must be privately owned.
- Is looking to develop an IT product/service, e.g. a game or the next salesforce.com, on a Microsoft platform.
When you enter the program you get access to the following for 3 years and a cost of €100 (yes, one hundred Euros!) at the exit of the program:
- Free MSDN development software including Visual Studio.
- Free support from MS PSS.
- Free publicity and networking via the BizSpark portal.
- Free production software, e.g. MS Windows Server, SQL Server, and more. This list is growing as the MS product teams see the benefits of entry into the program.
- Access to discounted hosting services from MS partners.
That’s quite a lot for €100 … when you exit the program. The cost of a single Windows Server Standard license off the shelf is around €800 plus tax! That’s a huge leg-up for a business that’s either starting up or has recently gotten off the ground.
The last benefit is a critical one. The online presence is the shop window for businesses these days. We all know that IT is changing. If you’re not in Software-as-a-Service very soon then you’ll face the serious prospect of being irrelevant in 10 years time. The folks who have the best chance of deploying a SaaS application are the start-ups because they have no baggage or existing systems to convert. The iron is hot and this is the time to strike it.
That online presence is often misunderstood. There’s a lot of crap on the net about cloud computing and virtual private servers (VPS). Hosting in Ireland is a minefield. Whether it’s people making claims about 100% SLA’s (which their frequent outages obviously bring many things they say in to question), claims being made about tier IV data centres by ISP’s that have awful 9-5 phone support, the quality of their staff (who were responsible for implementing the aforementioned "outage house"), or building and "infrastructure" on a platform of bailing twine and duct tape, you sometimes feel like you’re tap dancing on landmines when talking to their sales people. A quick tip … do you ever get to talk to a techie during pre-sales? If not, do you ever wonder why? Simple answer … salesmen don’t exactly have a problem with "distorting" reality and techies are honest because they’re the ones who have to live up to the promise.
Getting a stable, secure and managed online presence is key to your online business being well regarded. If you’re service uptime is unpredictable then customers will go elsewhere. And here’s something I learned in marketing classes in college (we had to take them in 3rd year to make sure we weren’t 100% geeks). If you have a happy customer they tell 3 people. If you have an unhappy customer they tell 13 people. OK, think about that for a moment. That was before we had the Internet. If I’m unhappy and post it in 13 online forums or review pages, just how many people will read that? Forums tend to score very highly in Google search results. Do you really need that negative SEO? Just search outage and the name of an Irish hosting company and you’ll see what I mean.
I don’t like to do this on my blog because I feel I have to now. If you are interested in BizSpark then contact my employers. Not only are they partners but the run the most professional server hosting service in Ireland. You deal with techies and with hardware, software and services that are legally purchase, installed and supported by the manufacturers with 4 hour response times. Unlike others who make claims, we do have things like an MVP and a CCIE looking after things. With a focus on business challenges and regulatory compliance, we’ve not cut any corners. And BizSpark customers will get a nice welcome.